Atomic Bomb Cinema

Unfathomably merciless and powerful the atomic bomb has left its indelible mark on film. In <em>Atomic Bomb Cinema </em> Jerome F. Shapiro unearths the unspoken legacy of the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima and its complex aftermath in American and Japanese cinema. <p/>According to Shapiro a Bomb film is never simply an exercise in ideology or paranoia. He examines hundreds of films like <em>Godzilla Dr. Strangelove </em> and <em>The</em> <em>Terminator</em> as a body of work held together by ancient narrative and symbolic traditions that extol survival under devastating conditions. Drawing extensively on both English-language and Japanese-language sources Shapiro argues that such films not only grapple with our nuclear anxieties but also offer signs of hope that humanity is capable of repairing a damaged and divided world. <p/>www.atomicbombcinema.com