Countdown to Zero
Cinema Nova, 21/02/2011
Movie #14 for 2011
Countdown to Zero is an issue film in that will be co-catalogued under ‘E’ for earnest and ‘T’ for terrifying.
Once upon a time, nuclear weapon proliferation seemed like a good idea. Now, not so much. The technology hasn’t changed since the fifties, so they are getting easier and cheaper to get or build. But they’re still just as devastating.
LUCY WALKER is an incredibly talented documentary film maker, able to pull several layers of story out of a situation - art and poverty in Brazil (Wasteland); or young Amish people emerging into the world (Devil’s Playground). But her approach to Countdown to Zero is quite different - it’s a much more straightforward (and more heavy-handed) issues film with direct-to-camera interviews with important people (Gorbechov, Jimmy Carter, de Klerk), authors and commentators. The commentary is one sidedly anti-nuclear weapons, but the message is loud and clear.
While a more subtle story-telling approach would have made a more interesting, and potentially more effective film, I can’t begrudge Walker’s evident passion for the material, to say nothing of it’s inherent weightiness.
