DVDS

Nuclear Savage: The Islands of Secret Project 4.1

by Adam Horowitz
color. 60/87 min. , dist. by Video Project, www.videoproject.com. 2013. DVD $39.95; acad. libs. $295. Public performance; closed-captioned. ENVIRONMENT
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This award-winning feature, broadcast on PBS, tells a sorry tale of U.S. Cold War nuclear testing. Sixty-seven devices were exploded on the remote Marshall Islands. As atolls were pulverized or contaminated, some Marshallese people became refugees. In 1954, the Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb test showered unexpected amounts of fallout, but evacuees were allowed to return to radioactive homes. Project 4.1 was the code name for secret monitoring of the long-term effects on the islanders. The U.S. government did later pay compensation. Today, the U.S. military maintains a ballistic missile testing facility on Kwajalein atoll. Filmmaker Horowitz traveled to the Marshalls to interview radiation refugees and to question U.S. government representatives there.
VERDICT Most viewers will be shocked by the archival film clips displaying a callous and condescending attitude toward the islanders. Unfortunately, that attitude reflects shameful events, the results of which exist to this day.
Reviewed by David R. Conn, formerly with Surrey Libs., BC , Sep 01, 2013
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