PANDORA’S PROMISE – The Review

PANDORA’S PROMISE is the new documentary that asks viewers to take another look at nuclear power. The title refers to the thinking that the splitting of the atom opened the mythical Pandora’s box and unleashed unspeakable evil upon the world, particularly with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that helped end World War II. After  that, the fears of fallout inspired the gigantic monster craze of the 1950’s (THEM, GODZILLA KING OF MONSTERS), later scientists then began to look into a way to make nuclear power into a feasible energy source. Which then begat several more concerns that the media exploited. Surprisingly the film makers include clips from THE CHINA SYNDROME and TV’s “The Simpsons” with eternal boob Homer manning the safety monitors at the Springfield power plant. But PROMISE consists mainly of interviews with former opponents of nuclear power as they explain why they changed their minds. One of the writers actually tours the abandoned plant at Chernobyl and the area surrounding the power plant at Fukishima which was shut down after a recent tsunami. Several other researchers travel the globe with their mini geiger counters presenting the radioactivity readings for the camera (this becomes a shot repeated many times during the film with the little yellow device in the foreground and the exotic locale in the background.

Without having a scientific degree I can’t critique the movie’s authenticity or research methods. This was a problem I had with the vegan doc FORKS OVER KNIVES. So, as with the former film I can only critique the film making techniques. PROMISE is competently made along the lines of a cable TV “special report” (appropriately CNN Films is one of the producers). The film makers try to break up the “talking head” interviews with footage of the main subjects strolling through exotic landscapes and touring different nuclear facilities. And besides the TV and movie clips we get snippets of old newsreels, public safety and industrial films, and the animated graphics of bar charts. The deck is stacked a bit when time is giving to the opposing sides who come of as out-of-touch “hippie” types (lots of shots of wacky-garbed protesters) with an expert who appears to be a wild-eyed zealot. But she can’t really perk up this dry bit of propaganda. PANDORA’S PROMISE raises some interesting questions and may inspire viewers to do some more research, but as a stand-alone work it feels like a very long afternoon sitting next to the old whirring 16 mm projector in science class.

2 Out of 5

PANDORA’S PROMISE screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas