Radio Bikini (1988)

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

This is a superb documentary and a very sombre film perhaps to be expected from the subject matter. With World War II over, the United States now engages in peaceful testing of atomic bombs, and the film documents the first of the post-War tests, on Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific. The tests were probably inevitable. Once the genie had been let out of the bottle with Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it wasn't going to be stuffed back in. After watching this, you do perhaps wish it had been though.You're first disturbed at the uprooting of the inhabitants of Bikini. They have nothing to do with this; they had nothing to do with the recently ended war; they want to be left alone. But the US military forces them off Bikini, because for whatever reason, Bikini is deemed the perfect place to do ongoing atomic testing. You can't help but feel sorry for these people. There are the shots of animals being chained to poles on derelict ships around Bikini Atoll, in preparation for the dropping of the bomb, just to see what will happen to them. I found quite haunting the words of the narrator on a newsreel from the time as the plane carrying the bomb approaches Bikini, "these animals are about to draw their last breaths in the service of humanity." And then there are the American sailors on board the ships that are conducting the testing. They're given no protective clothing. After the second (underwater) test radioactive water is brought into the ships for them to drink and shower in. Was this just ignorance - or were the sailors themselves being used as guinea pigs - as unknowingly as the animals who had just been incinerated? And, of course, there was John Smitherman - a veteran of the tests, who had lost both legs over the years as they had swelled up and eventually burst open, and whose left hand was now swollen and barely recognizable as a hand - a victim of the radiation. Sombre, indeed.As backdrop, there's some of the diplomatic manoeuvring going on, as the United States wants to share this with the world, and the Soviet Union says it has no interest in the bomb. A truly superb documentary. (8/10)

We have a tendency to deal in superlatives today, but this 1988 documentary delivers a most powerful witness to the destructive power of atomic energy. One requires a knowledge of history to realize that the atomic tests on the island of Bikini in the Marshall Islands actually occurred AFTER the end of World War II, brought on by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945. This documentary in large part is presented through the recollections of two individuals present at the time, Chief Kilon Bauno of Bikini Island, and John Smitherman, a 1946 veteran of the nuclear tests conducted on the island.The documentary is presented in relatively straightforward fashion, though anti-war activists will find plenty of fodder here to condemn the use of atomic energy for wartime purposes. In fact, Vice Admiral Blandy who supervised the testing actually called for the atomic bomb to be outlawed by the nations of the world after witnessing it's devastating effects. One of the more interesting aspects of the film offers Albert Einstein in a very brief appearance commenting on the destiny of mankind resting on the use of nuclear energy.As a historical document, the film merits the highest of accolades. I've watched any number of documentary series on the subject of World War II, but this glimpse at the nature of atomic energy offers a compelling argument against it's destructive power, even as rogue nations like Iran and North Korea relentlessly march toward nuclear capability for reasons they no longer maintain a secrecy. Truly mankind's destiny hangs in a precarious balance.

What I found interesting about this documentary is the glimpse it gives us of the state of mind of the United States just after World War II, now sixty years past. We see in the newsreel and other film footage the style and substance of America in the afterglow of our greatest victory. But mostly we see ordinary soldiers and sailors who were stationed on or near the Bikini Atoll in the Marshalls in the South Pacific. We also see some of the islanders whom the United States military displaced so that the capabilities of the atom bomb could be explored.An old uneducated Bikini islander recalls how his people were told that in the interest of "science" (but actually in the interest of weapons development) they would have to leave their home island and be relocated. Then at some point they were told that they would not be able to return to their island since it was "poisoned." Film maker Robert Stone shows us the big media build up orchestrated by the US to justify dropping the bomb on Bikini. (Actually one bomb was dropped. Another was exploded under water in the Bikini lagoon.) Dignitaries and scientists from all over the world were invited to watch. Stone shows them arriving and being greeted by the officer in charge as a voice-over gives their names, country of origin and their titles. I found that interesting. Two from India, a couple from the USSR, some Asians, and many more. Ah, yes, the US was going to make the world safe from nuclear power by experimenting with nuclear power.Or some such argument. I thought the dignitaries were positively drooling. Not drooling were the goats and sheep (sheared so that the scientists could see the effects of the radiation on their bare skin) who were trapped in little stalls aboard strategically placed ships near the island. Also not drooling, but having a good time were the sailors who with dark glasses viewed the blast from some safe distance on their ships. They were happy because it looked like an easy duty, and were told that there was no danger. Radiation was never mentioned, and in those days, the dangers of radiation were only just becoming public knowledge. Stone has footage of an interview with one of the sailors years later, only his head and shoulders shown for most of the documentary until near the end when the camera retreats a little and we can see what grotesque things the radiation poisoning did to him. It's pretty shocking footage, and you won't forget it.We see the blasts and the mushroom clouds and the magnificent glory of the power of the bomb. Unfortunately some observers were down wind and radioactive dust fell upon them. Unfortunately some observers boarded the ships that suffered damage from the blasts (but were far enough away so as not to be destroyed) and got radioactive dust on their clothes and skin. Stone shows the sailors exploring the damage while being scanned by Geiger counters going crazy monitoring the radiation. One is struck by the innocence and playfulness of the sailors as the radiation begins its work on their bodies.In other words this is a snapshot from the dawn of the nuclear age, strangely innocent and diabolical at the same time. I don't think this is a great documentary, but I will say it is effective. For the complete story of what happened at the Bikini Atoll and especially what happened to the islanders who lost their homes and to those exposed to the radiation, the viewer will have to look elsewhere. This is merely an introduction.(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

This documentary is the best of its kind. Stone uses tons (literally) of military and other film footage from the year 1946. He then carefully puts it all together with contemporary (1987) footage of Marshall Islanders, i.e. former residents of Bikina Atoll and a navy veteran/observer of both 1946 atomic bomb tests on Bikini. It all comes together in one of the strangest and most powerful testimonies to military stupidity, especially during those early years of atomic tests. Throughout, we see with profound irony--using the military's own footage of the tests (June/July of that year)--how catastrophically stupid responsible parties (Navy Dept.) were. But, in the end, it was the Marshall Islanders--moved en masse from their native Bikini Atoll--who are the central victims, along with many of the Navy veterans. This latter point is communicated to us, the viewer, in one of the most forceful "pullback" shots in the history of cinema. "Radio Bikini" documents a historic event that should never, never be forgotten. But sadly, it on the main, is.