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Jane Fonda and Jack Lemmon struggle against Big Business interests in the Nuclear Industry in The China Syndrome |
Director: James Bridges
Cast: Jane Fonda (Kimberly Wells), Jack Lemmon (Jack
Godell), Michael Douglas (Richard Adams), Scott Brady (Herman DeYoung), Wilford
Brimley (Ted Spindler), James Hampton (Bill Gibson), Peter Donat (Dan Jacovich),
Richard Herd (Evan McCormack), Daniel Valdez (Hector Salas)
Do we really trust nuclear power? There is something about
the dangerous possibilities of splitting the atom that alarms people even today.
For all that burning coal wrecks our atmosphere, people would still rather that
than live downwind of a station powered on substances that could obliterate
everything within a five mile radius if something went wrong. The China Syndrome is about exactly
that, an accident at nuclear power plant that could spell disaster for California.
Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) is a roving reporter for a
Californian news channel, who (thanks to her sexist bosses) is constantly
relegated to ludicrous puff pieces (“Today a hot air balloon landed in downtown
LA!”). Sent to a nuclear power plant, she stumbles upon the real news story she
has waited her whole career for when she and camera-man Richard Adams (Michael
Douglas) secretly film a near catastrophic incident. Investigations try to
brush the event under the carpet, but shift supervisor Jack Godell (Jack
Lemmon) knows corner-cutting and cost-saving is putting the whole of LA at risk
– and, much against his inclination, he needs to speak out.
The China Syndrome
comes very much from that burst of 1970s conspiracy thriller films where shady
big-business types are willing to throw almost anything under the bus in order
to make a big bonus. It’s a film that takes a pop not only at the heartless
bastards running a shoddy nuclear power plant (who couldn’t care less if the
reactor is poorly welded together, so long as the money keeps rolling in) but
also the hypocritical cowards running the media. The heads of the news channel
kowtow swiftly to big business and are staggering in their sexism and
race-to-the-bottom news coverage.
This film is as much about this brainless conformism as it
is the dangers of nuclear power. The film is full of people who don’t want to
rock the boat: half the people working at the plant would rather turn a blind
eye to problems than pay the personal price of exposing them – even Jack
Lemmon’s manager is the most reluctant whistleblower you’ll see in the movies.
Fonda’s journalist may not be happy with her role as airhead eye-candy, but she
will play the game in order to get ahead in the industry the role – and many of
her media comrades seem almost totally lacking in any journalistic instincts.
The film is bookended by inane TV coverage and advertising, a condemnation of
an America that doesn’t ask questions and is sleepwalking towards catastrophe.
This catastrophe is, of course, extremely close – the power plant
nearly goes into meltdown because a single dial gets stuck on a high reading,
leading the control room to believe the nuclear rods are about to get flooded
rather than nearly being exposed. Bridges mines a heck of a lot of tension from
this crisis – told entirely from the perspective of the control room – as
workers react with both stressed fear and a practised professionalism to a crisis
that could become a disaster. Its part of a film where regular joes are
generally professional and good at their jobs, but are let down and betrayed by
the culture encouraged by the higher-ups.
Some of these themes, however, get a bit muddied in the
film’s middle third, which gets bogged down way too much in nuclear theory,
committee meetings, slow explanations of different types of weld, and dry
lectures on the functioning of nuclear energy. While it is admirable that the
film has no score, you can’t help but feel that a little music here to add some
drama to Lemmon looking at x-rays or Fonda staring at diagrams could have
helped pump up the tension.
But it all gets paid off by the sudden (and surprising)
shift to action and drama in the film’s final third, kickstarted by a
surprisingly gripping car chase between Jack Lemmon’s quiet station manager and
some shady goons hired by the company. Suddenly the film is powering through a
tense series of set pieces that both feel like a different movie, while still a
natural progression of the stakes.
Bridges directs the film very well. Each scene is calmly and
coolly assembled, and he has a great eye and ear for technology and the noises
and motions of machinery, which dominate the film – even if the film is rather
in love with these background sounds, which risk taking over the soundtrack.
It’s all part of stressing the cold mechanicalism and lack of humanity
throughout both these industries. Sometimes the foot comes off the gas a little
too much – you could probably trim at least 15 minutes – but when it comes to
the moments of tension he directs with sharp snappiness.
The acting is also sublime. Jane Fonda is extremely good as
Kimberly Wells. Initially she seems as light and superficial as the stories she
is forced to cover, but Fonda paints a clever picture of a woman squeezed into
playing a role, but yearning for (and capable of) so much more, who when she
finds her moment shows levels of determination and cunning you would never have
expected. For all her desire to become a 'proper' journalist though, Wells is savvy enough to make sure she is being filmed from her good side... Fonda makes her a careerist who uncovers a sense of moral purpose.
She also manages to bring real emotion to the role, making Kimberly Wells a
character we swiftly connect with.
The movie however is stolen away by Jack Lemmon, brilliantly
low-key and everyday as the shift manager who becomes an overwhelmingly
reluctant whistleblower. Lemmon’s performance is a perfect study in smallness,
of a quiet dignity. He’s got no desire to rock the boat, quietly stating that
the “plant is his whole life” – but when stirred, his professional pride
transforms into determination to do the right thing, even while his lack of
magnetism makes him unpersuasive and hard to take seriously. It’s a terrific
performance of low-key tragedy, with Lemmon building the tension with small
flashes of resentment, fear, determination and disillusionment flashing across
his face. It’s a great reminder of what a marvellous dramatic actor Lemmon was.
Expertly produced by Michael Douglas (who does sterling work
in the third-banana role as the camera man overflowing with conviction), The China Syndrome may at times be dry,
but it makes up for that with its moments of high drama and moral conviction.
By and large it avoids hectoring and lecturing the audience (when not teaching
us about nuclear power), and lets its points be soft-sold rather than banged
home. With some terrific performances, it’s a film that still feels relevant
today, and is a great example of the 1970s conspiracy thriller genre.
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