Dark Circle (1982) User Reviews

Worthwhile documentary, not at all dated.

[Kansas-5 · 10/10 · 5 August 2007]

Excellent documentary that's powerful 25 years after it was first released. Great use of archival footage. A needed stimulant to give the public reason to consider the questions of both nuclear war and power. This was very much an almost unsupported effort to produce a cogent critique of the dangers of reliance on nuclear power, production and its use in war. It was investigative reporting atypical of its era.

I particularly appreciated the use footage of an Army chaplain's assuring troops who were deliberately exposed to a nuclear explosion that it was a spiritual and uplifting experience. It was a prophetic statement about the current warmongering emanating from the "Christian" right against a quarter of the world's population.

This film is from the producer/director/editor of the very well received "Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" that appeared more than two decades later.

Disturbing view of the nuclear industry

[Barnaby-2 · 16 February 1999]

A frightening film which connects the soft-on-safety practices of early nuclear tests with the lapses in safety that have been found in the Rocky Flats nuclear facility. Poisoned animals, bad water, and lethally radiated workers are all on display in this disturbing documentary.

Disturbingly close at hand

[hart-8 · 9/10 · 14 December 1999]

I grew up a few miles downwind of Rocky Flats, the subject this film is primarily concerned with. It is especially riveting to see friends and neighbors, some ill from radioactive exposure, discuss their feelings on the topic. While definitely coming from a liberal perspective, the filmmakers are not afraid to embrace contradictions in this sobering, sensitive offering.

A Moving Documentary

[breakdownthatfilm-blogspot-com · 10/10 · 15 December 2011]

Atomic bombs, sure we know they're deadly, but how devastating can they really be? We've been introduced to photographs and a variety of texts but have we ever seen stock footage of an actual bomb going off, probably not. Dark Circle reveals all this and much more. Maybe a little too much, but that's what makes it so powerful. Dark Circle is so up close with its information it is scarier than an Alfred Hitchcock flick. Why - because its real.

Judy Irving who directs and narrates this film does a great job with this film. Even the way she speaks will set the tone for the rest of film. The documentary mainly focuses on a town called Rocky Flats at which a nuclear plant operated. Much of this film is shocking visually. She interviews people who are affected the plant and the viewer will literally see the physical affects. She even films a Japanese native who was affected by the bombs in World War II.

Irving also adds in some other exposing materials. Archive footage is shown from bomb testing on fake villages and various other footage will give the viewer a good time to let these images sick in. Some of it can be truly menacing. To experience the magnitude of an atomic bomb going off will "blow" you away. I am surprised that this movie does not have any critics talking about it. I know it's an old movie but it teaches a valuable lesson. I feel that this movie should be put back in theatres and introduced to a new generation. Just because one generation knows about it does not mean the next already knows. That's just pure stubbornness.

Judy Irving's documentary about the atomic bomb is not only moving but also very serious in its nature. With interviews and archive footage to back up its argument, Dark Circle is one documentary that will make a deep impact on any viewer.

No nukes, if you please

[lor_ · 21 January 2023]

My review was written in October 1982 after a New York Film Festival screening.

"Dark Circle" is an effective though diffuse documentary presenting the case against nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants. Filmmakers Judy Irving, Chris Beaver and Ruth Landy have enough factual material and emotional appeals to satisfy partisan audiences, indicating good prospects for playoff, especially in the non-theatrical market.

Launching point is the dangers of weapons production (and use), particularized in the problems of residents near Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Facility in Colorado. While not offering irrefutable proof, the interviews with workers, residents and activists illustrate cancer hazards arising from the massive quantities of plutonium on-site. Fire hazards and water supply contamination are also covered.

Using rather vivid (and at times shocking) archive and government footage, filmmakers trace the mishandling of nuclear technology in a manner similar to, though less satirical than, the compilation treatment of the recent docu "The Atomic Cafe". Government tests of nuclear blasts' effects on animals and later, soldiers are particularly horrifying. For added emotional force, new footage on Nagasaki and Hiroshima victims is also included. Extremely effective is a sequence showing corporate logos of companies (ranging from Bendix to General Electric) involved in nuclear weapons production and technology, with the corporate ad slogans flashed on-screen taking on ghoulish connotations. Rockwell International, which operates Rocky Flats, is singled out on the list and a Rockwell trade commercial for its "Hellfire" weapons system is a scary extension of the film's argument to nonnuclear armaments proliferation.

With plutonium dangers as the link, filmmakers digress to include coverage of the Diablo Nuclear Power Plant episode in California, where spokesperson Raye Fleming of Mothers for Peace helped delay the 1980 licensing of the facility. License was ultimately revoked when blueprints belatedly showed innumerable faults in the plant's construction. Picture's all-inclusive anti-nuke stance is obvious, with organizer Pam Solo articulating the message on screen, but its coverage of both bomb dangers and power plant dangers is unbalanced.

Biggest defect in the film is its failure to present the establishment's position clearly and credibly so as to have something to definitively attack rather than just another straw man. Pro-nuclear government spokesmen chosen (and edited) for inclusion appear ridiculous, especially a nuclear weapons designer Stirling Colgate who comes off as a pathetic crackpot. Overtly partisan docus (among them the classic "Harlan County, U. S. A.") always face the problem of gaining cooperation from the the other side, but this does not excuser the comic relief nature of "Dark Circle"'s pro-nuclear speakers.

Voice-over narration delivered by Judy Irving is not forceful or concise enough to match the film's visual evidence. Picture was funded by many foundations as well as the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Film Institute.