American History, Nuclear Weapons and The Cold War

The Atomic bomb project, also known as the Manhattan Project, was undertaken between 1941 and 1945 and created jobs for 120,00 people.[1] The first test of these Atomic bombs was in New Mexico; once this test had proven successful two bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ultimately ending the Second World War. These Japanese targets were chosen because of their immediate proximity to war depots or other military outposts. It was also determined that the strike on these targets should be done as soon as possible and without warning to create the maximum amount of shock. This action created unease between the American’s and the Soviet Union which then in turn ultimately led to a nuclear arms race and the eventual development and testing of the Hydrogen Bomb.

The reasons for developing the Atomic bomb, under the codename The Manhattan Project’ was to beat the opposing forces of Germany, Italy and Japan into developing their own, as many émigré scientists from these nations had commented on how close each nation had been to making the discoveries that would allow them to do so. Although by 1944, it was discovered that these nations had given up the hunt for such a powerful bomb, the Americans continued to develop the bomb. Once the war in Europe had ended, attentions were directed to the war in the Far East with Japan. The goal of creating the Atomic bomb was to force the Japanese into surrender and thus ending the Second World War.[2] This goal was achieved after dropping the Atomic bombs on the two Japanese cities. The deployment of these bombs and the surrender of the Japanese also halted any Soviet invasion on the Japanese Isles, as they had declared war on Japan in the same month.[3] This stopped the Soviets from claiming and occupying any land in the Far East, which the Americans believed would increase their global presence, it also left the Soviets with some catching up to do in the nuclear arms race. This began the beginning of a long strain on the Soviet-American relations. The soviets began building and testing an Atomic bomb of their own, this lead to the American’s designing the much more powerful Hydrogen Bomb, to assert their dominance over Nuclear Weaponry two events which sparked the beginning of the cold war.

After developing the Atomic Bomb America looked for a way of stalling the development and production of the Atomic Bomb in other nations, namely the Soviet Union, as it wanted to avoid an Arms race and the threat of nuclear war. The United States had an Advisor, Bernard Baruch create a plan which, with the support of President Truman, called for  the creation of an International Atomic board which would have the power to regulate the development of Nuclear Weapons as well as having the power to Inspect and license all Nuclear Activity. The Russians, who saw this as an attempt to stall their progress and open their development plants for inspection and investigation on their progress had Andrei Gromyko, draft a treaty. This treaty called for a total ban on developing, manufacturing and deployment of Atomic Weapons, and all current stockpiles be dismantled and destroyed. However, due to the vast differences in each plan, and the lack of an agreement between Nations both plans failed to be put into action and an eventual Nuclear Arms race took place. [4] The failure of each nation’s plans highlighted the vast differences between the two nations and their approaches to nuclear armament at a time when the Cold War was already straining relations and trust issues between the two nations.

The relation between the nations was further strained after Winston Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech.[5] The former British prime minister criticized the Soviet plan for Eastern Europe, and attacked its communist ideology and how it was expanding across Europe. Stalin then retaliated by claiming that they needed to exert a strong force in order to protect Europe from slipping back into the uneasy state it had been in, appropriately named ‘Soviet Security’, and insisted that there was a strong democratic form of government wherever they were providing this security. While on a diplomatic trip to the Soviet Union in 1947, George Marshall learnt that the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin was certain that the war torn nations of France and Italy were on the verge of economic collapse, leading to his belief that the nation’s communist parties, which were much like his own, would win the respective 1948 elections. [6] In a speech given at Harvard University Marshall told the audience that many countries the confidence in the economy was ruined. He proposed that America should aid with the revival of the economies, to avoid poverty in these war torn nations. The acceptance of this plan, which became known as the Marshall Plan, came easily because of the growing fears of communism. The differences between Stalin’s response to Churchill’s speech and the information learnt by Marshall heightened the unease between the two Nations, as they were simply a year apart. In this year he had gone from firmly insisting that there was a Democratic government to believing that there would be communist rule in the near future.

America believed that the threat alone, of having nuclear weapons would be enough to deter the threat of war against them.[7] However, once it learnt that Britain, France, India, Pakistan and the more importantly the Soviet Union all being at different stages of development of their own atomic bombs,[8] The Hydrogen bomb’s development was given greater urgency, by President Truman. It had discovered the Russians had gained some success of their own in developing a form of Atomic bomb with a successful detonation in 1949.[9] The threat of nuclear war during the Cold War, with both the Americans and Soviets having access to Atomic and then Hydrogen bombs, led to a race to see which Nation had the most powerful and the largest stockpile of these weapons, as to impose a dominance.[10] The NSC-68 report estimated that the Soviet Union had approximately 200 Atomic bombs by 1954 with the capability of using aircraft to deploy them on United States Soil. It also pondered the implications of an attack on British Soil and other Western powers in Europe rendering it useless as a base in Europe for American forces. This document also recommended an increase in defense spending, as well as strengthening the Allegiance with other nations and it also embarked on a large propaganda campaign against the cold war. The Soviet Union also attempted to distill fear in America by installing Medium and Long range missiles in Cuba.[11] This was a response to the nuclear warheads that America had placed in Turkey previously. This armament race, placing of weapons and stockpiling was to attempt to instill fear and to gain the upper hand in the Cold War.

The use of Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki signaled the beginning of American nuclear dominance, and left other nations, such as the Soviets playing catch up. The actions also lead to a strain on the relations between the nations that ultimately led to the cold war and the threat of nuclear war. A threat that spawned documents like the American NSC-68, which called for the Americans to build a bigger defense, The Marshall Plan which aimed to stop the flow of Communism in war torn Europe and the American Baruch and Soviet Gromyko plans to stem the development and manufacturing of Atomic and Hydrogen weapons. The bombing of Japan signaled the end of World War two, but also signaled the start of the Cold War, which bought with it the impending threat of constant nuclear war, distrust and the deterioration of Soviet-American relations.

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[1] James W. Davidson and Mark Hamilton Lytle, ‘The decision to Drop the Bomb’, After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection, New York, 2005, pp.317-45.

[2] Richard Rhodes, Dark Sun: The Making of the H-Bomb, 1995, New York, Simon and Schuster.

[3] Edward H. Judge and John W. Langdon (eds.), Cold War Documents, The Cold War: A History through Documents, New Jersey, 1999, pp.10-12. The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima, August 1945

[4] Edward H. Judge and John W. Langdon (eds.), Cold War Documents, The Cold War: A History through Documents, New Jersey, 1999, pp. 20-22 The baruch and Gromyko Pans for Control of Atmic Weapons, 1946.

[5] Edward H. Judge and John W. Langdon (eds.), Cold War Documents, The Cold War: A History through Documents, New Jersey, 1999, pp. 14-17. Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech, March 1946.

[6] Edward H. Judge and John W. Langdon (eds.), Cold War Documents, The Cold War: A History through Documents, New Jersey, 1999, pp. 26-28. The Marshall Plan, 1947.

[7] Johnson, N, M. Interview held during a meeting with William T, Golden.  Washington, D.C. 1989.

[8] McKinzie, R, D. Interview held during a meeting with Major General Kenner F. Hertford. Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1974.

[9] Rear Admiral Lewis L. Strauss, Handwritten letter. 1949, Florence, Italy.

[10] NSC 68; United States objectives and programs for national Security’ (Sections); Available from http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/nsc-hst/index.html; accessed 21^st September 2001.

[11] Charles S. Maier, ‘Frontiers and forces in the Cold War’, Among Empires: American ascendary and its predessors, Cambridge, 2006, pp.155-190, 325-32.

Film101 - Assignment #2 - Back To The Future

Back To The Future Clip.

Through this two minute clip of Robert Zemeckis, Back to the Future there are many filmic elements used to keep them watching. The Mise-en-Scene elements of setting, staging, sound, colour and the use of the space mixed with cinematography, editing all add to the Audience expectations and build the suspense of the scene.

During this 2 minute sequence there are many Mise-en-Scene elements for example setting, which is implied as a car park outside a convenience store of some nature, later on in the clip the audience are shown “J C Penny” (Back in Time Scene - Back to the Future Movie (1985) – HD, 2011) and are thus to confirm this suspicion they are also able to tell that it is a car park by the white lines that are very recognizable on many other car parks.  The Costume is also very clear in this scene; the persons in the van are dressed in terrorist costume identifying them in the mind of the viewer as potential people of evil and entice them to side with the other character that is depicted in the scene. The use of this type of character and costume is playing on the stereotyping tendencies of the audience. The costume of the other character depicted here is a boiler suit of some sort, maybe suggesting that he is working with a hazardous material, but due the length of the clip, it is never shown to the audience directly.

When ‘Marty’ First encounters the terrorists he is fearful for his life, which is shown by the image of him standing in the light with his eyes shut, almost willing for luck to be on his side, the music in the background is also building up hinting that something important is about to happen. He also looks back the motionless figure in on the ground and moves to assist them; however when both he and the audience hear the engine of the fan roar into life, he closes the door and makes to move drive off. What this does is builds up the suspense and gets the audience asking themselves questions, what has happened to the motionless figure or can ‘Marty’ escape.

Another aspect of sound that in the clip is the sound of bullets, the audience continually hear the sounds of a gun being fired, reminding them of the situation. During this time ‘Marty’ is also willing the car on, pushing it to try to reach the goal of 88 miles per hour. He finally manages to achieve this after the terrorist pulls out what appears to be a Rocket. ‘Marty’ urging of the car, entices the audience to also will the car on as he is the protagonist of the film.

With the scene taking place during the night, the vehicles being driven both have their headlights on, at the beginning of the clip, the lights from the terrorists van are used to illuminate the character ‘Marty’ to add to the suspense of the scene. While Marty is driving, his face is light up by the reflection of a light shining into the wing mirror. What this shows us is the sweat, from the stress of the position he is in, this is shown even more after the terrorists are shown as aiming an RPG at his car. While there is the use of Street lamps and headlights, natural light is not enough to illuminate as much of the scene area as needed, so the use of spotlights may have been used to illuminate this area for the director with the help of the available lighting.

The staging and movement in this scene includes a lot of driving. Although it begins with the character of Marty running then jumping into the car, the primary movement in this scene is based around driving, this is shown to us by the use of many different camera angles and edits, these camera angles and edits add to the suspense of the scene. For example, the cuts in the editing when Marty is starting the car shows the keys being turned, the gear being selected, then the accelerator pedal being applied, and with the addition of the tyres screeching into life at the end of this sequence the audience is able to tell that the car has been started and is ready to aid in the escape. The cuts in this scene are straight cuts, which are all done to achieve continuity editing. It cuts from one aspect of the scene into another aspect in the same scene.

The Editing in this scene is done to create the illusion of ‘real time’ where the filming may have taken place over many hours. This condensing of film is achieved by using the many different cuts that are in the clip.  The effect of this is to build the suspense, the cuts between the Terrorists and ‘Marty’ adds to their conflict and builds the audience expectations. As the pace of the edits get faster the audience is drawn in by the increasing music up until ‘Marty’ finally hits 88 Miles per hour and travels back in time when the music reaches its climax and the sounds of its time travel takes over.

This scene utilizes screen space to keep the audience guessing as to how close the vehicles are from each other at any one point, as well as keeping the audience guessing as to how much room each of the vehicles has to work with for example, when ‘Marty’ first drives off, the Van is unseen apart from the few seconds where we see it finally come to life and begin to move off. However, this is followed by a cut into the car with ‘Marty’. While the audience can guess that the van is heading towards him, we are not directly shown this until ‘Marty’ begins to drive himself. At which point there is another cut and the camera uses a crane shot and pans out so we can see the van approaching with the ‘Terrorists’

There is only a few spoken words in this sequence, at the beginning of the clip the ‘Terrorists’ are clearly identified as foreign by the language used when the gun jams. This helps the audience identify the threat to ‘Marty’ and also amplifies the frustration at the gun jamming therefore allowing ‘Marty’ to escape as they have reverted to using the natural language. During this period the music the audience can hear, Non-diegetic music holds to one single note played continuously which is used in enticing the audience to hold their breath and hope for the best situation for the protagonist.  

Being only a two minute clip, there is slight hints at a motif for the movie. For example, The Car, which plays a pivotal point through the clip, as it is the entity in which ‘Marty’ travels back in time, which is shown by the date board which flashes the date of ‘November 5, 1955”, by showing this the director is giving the audience the clues needed for them to conclude that after the bright lights and arriving in the field, that he has indeed travelled back in time. Once back in time the audience can hear the sounds of a car bumping over grass and no longer the smooth tar Mac, which is another indication that he has travelled back in time, this change is also clearly visible through the windscreen also when shown to us in the long shot later in the clip. The car also hits a scarecrow causing ‘Marty’ to yell and turn the car which then causes him to drive into a barn like building. Through this scene the colour blue, which is another hint at a motif through continued use, is used partly to signify the sadness ‘Marty’ is feeling toward the person who the audience sees laying facedown. Also, it is used when the car hits the target speed and travel back in time it illuminates the whole car. While being a hint at a motif, its continued use before this, in the shading of the shots and the lighting that illuminates the face of ‘Marty’ on occasion, could be an attempt at foreshadowing this moment. The sound of his yelling is muffled as a hazmat suit covers his head after a nasty bump, proving to the audience that what they are hearing and seeing is taking place at the same time, after which the sounds of the car are also muffled when he drives through the doors of the barn.

As the car crashes or comes to a stop in the building, which the audience is able to see as a far shot but never close up, there is a crash and the sounds of wood snapping and breaking, then from what aooears to be a hole in the roof there is dust or smoke emanating. The use of this far shot and the sound leads the audience to imagine that the car has been crashed and wonder if after all the trouble of getting away, that it might have all been in vain. The use of the far shot here keeps the audience guessing as to what actually happened in the barn.

The first camera shot of the scene is a pan shot while ‘Marty’ runs across the van, this makes the audience follow his vision. From this shot is cuts into a mid close up of ‘Marty’ then in a shot reverse shot action it switches between him and the ‘terrorist’, what the use of this shot does is shows the emotion that both parties are feeling about the situation they find themselves in before cutting back to the ‘terrorist’ clearly agitated that the gun has jammed. From this it cuts to a shot of ‘Marty’ diving into his car, showing the urgency to which he is trying to get away. It then cuts into another shot reverse shot, between ‘Marty’, the unknown figure laying face down and the ‘terrorist’ with the time between these individual shots speeding up to add to the suspense and increase the heart rates of the audience. During the car chase sequence there is different shot types used, with the first a tracking shot taken in front of the vehicles, switching to the perspective of each person involved to show what they are doing, getting the audience involved. All of these shots follow the 180 degree rule allowing the audience to keep up with the unseen movements, for example, that the van is always on one side of the car during the chase.

The use of the different filmic elements in this scene of Back to the Future, work together to add to the audiences experience of watching the film, this is achieved by using, mise-en-scene, cinematography and editing together to created a scene high in energy and high on emotion. In doing this the Director has created a scene where the audience find themselves willing the protagonist on to his escape and when he finally achieves it they can see their expectations fulfilled and can move onto the next scene of the film and once again build up these expectations from that scene and from the movie as a whole.  

Works Cited

Back in Time Scene - Back to the Future Movie (1985) – HD. YouTube. May 26, 2011 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPeHFDxKUP4&feature=relmfu>