How does a real traumatic event work its way into popular culture, and become eventually digested, not just as fact, but as myth, symbol, and archetypical reference point?
We’ve seen how that works for say, WWII and the holocaust (turn on the history channel any night, or watch “Saving Private Ryan”,”Schindler’s List” and “Captain America” back to back), Vietnam (“The Deer Hunter”/”Apocalypse Now”/”Rambo: First Blood”).
For nuclear weapons and the nuclear age, you might try “Them”/”Godzilla”/”The Day the Earth Stood Still” (the original, please).
Anyway, the above is an example of the mythification by way of sci-fi of the worst nuclear accident of the age(I know. There’s another one still climbing the charts..).
Kind of reminds me of the “Afghan war meets Blair Witch” effort of a few years ago, called “The Objective”.
see below –
For what it’s worth, my favorite Vietnam move is “Platoon” with Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe and Charlie Sheen
You forgot to mention the Sum of All Fears where terrorists detonate an actual nuclear bomb. Fun movie to watch though.
I hoped the Chernobyl Diaries was a documentary when it popped up in my feeds, severely disappointed me.
This looks a bit annoying. Prypyat is actually quite a beautiful place, if this movie is a big hit the radiation zone will be crawling with tourists and souvenir hunters.
http://pripyat.com/en/gallery/city-pripyat.html
Apparently Pripyat is so safe nowadays that you can send a film crew in there for weeks with no ill effects.
BOYCOTTING Warner Brother’s Chernobyl Diaries http://www.redbubble.com/people/yago/writing/8653589-boycotting-warner-brothers-chernobyl-diaries NO MORE PROFITS OVER HUMAN TRAGEDY