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Author
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Topic: The China Syndrome
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Douglas Meltzer
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Posts: 4554
From: New York, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted November 24, 2010 06:13 PM
Good edit of a complicated film.
One of the final releases to come out of Columbia Pictures 8mm division in 1981, The China Syndrome was put out in a cardboard box with black and white photocopied artwork. I assume the folks at Columbia had no desire to spend any more money than they had to on their remaining digests at this point. That’s a shame since this well edited cutdown deserves better.
James Bridges’ 1979 thriller may be best remembered for arriving in theaters twelve days before an incident at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear power plant echoed a major plot point of the film. After the Columbia logo (the late 70s version that starts with the torch bearer and ends with a stylized sunburst), the digest begins in black. We hear “Playback, please” and television color bars appear. Then we hear a countdown. Reporter Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) is about to go live when she’s told over her earpiece that there’s a change of schedule. She and her crew will leave to do a story at the Ventana nuclear power plant. A shortened version of the original title sequence follows, with the Stephen Bishop song “Somewhere In Between” played over shots of the crew’s vehicle driving to the plant.
An abrupt audio cut to an elevator opening (works stylistically) follows. Kimberly, cameraman Richard Adams (Michael Douglas) and soundman Hector Salas (Daniel
Valdez) are escorted to the observation room at the plant. The room has large soundproof windows that overlook the control room below. Richard puts the 16mm camera (looks like a CP-16 Auricon conversion!) on his shoulder to take a shot but the plant supervisor tells him he can’t film in that direction.
A close up of a water cooler shows bubbles floating to the top. The staff of the control room feels a vibration. “What the hell is that?” asks shift supervisor Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon) as an alarm sounds. He taps a gauge which quickly changes to show the low level of coolant. “We have a serious condition!” Nervous faces watch the meter as it appears the reactor core is going to be exposed. Eventually, the coolant levels returns to normal and there are sighs of relief. Unbeknownst to everyone, Richard has captured the entire incident on film.
In an edit room, Richard is showing the footage on an upright Movieola. A producer says he won’t air the story because of legal reasons.
Leaving the set after a broadcast, Kimberley is told that Richard has stolen the film and she has to get it back. She finds Richard and two others in a screening room. He explains to Kimberly that he took the film and he’s showing it to a physics professor and a nuclear engineer. Watching the incident at the plant, the engineer says that it looks like they might have come close to exposing the core. The professor says if that’s true then we might have come close to the China syndrome. He explains to Kimberly “if the nuclear core is exposed, the fuel heats up and nothing can stop it. It will melt through the bottom of the plant, theoretically to China. As soon as it hits groundwater, it blasts into the atmosphere and sends out clouds of radioactivity. The number of people killed would depend on which way the wind is blowing. This would render an area the size of Pennsylvania uninhabitable. Not to mention the cancer that would show up later.”
Kimberly and Richard go to see Jack Godell at his house. They ask him what happened. He explains that because of the incident he checked the welding x-rays and found that they were falsified. They ask him to go public at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission hearings that are currently being conducted. He offers to get the x-rays if they’ll send someone to meet him later.
Hector gets the incriminating x-rays from Godell and is driving back when a van smashes into the back of his car, running him off the road and over an embankment. The car is crushed.
Kimberley calls Jack to tell him Hector never returned. She asks him to go to the hearings to testify. Jack is driving when he becomes suspicious of a nearby car. He swerves off the freeway and the car follows him. He speeds toward the power plant.
Jack enters the control room. A friend (Wilford Brimley) tells him that they’ll be at full power by midnight. Jack argues vehemently against this saying they can’t risk another SCRAM (emergency shutdown/restart) because there may be a defect in the pump. The friend tells Jack to go home.
Jack pulls the gun from the security guard’s holster and tells everyone to leave. Kimberly and Richard arrive. She is brought to the control room to talk with Jack. She tells him that Hector’s body has been found and the x-rays are missing. Jack tells her that they should do an interview in the control room and he’ll tell the whole story.
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I think there's room for just one more film.....
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Douglas Meltzer
Moderator
Posts: 4554
From: New York, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted November 24, 2010 06:14 PM
A live shot is set up with the TV camera shooting through the glass in the observation room. The interview starts and as Jack begins his statement we see cables being cut. The reactor alarm sounds and Jack realizes that the company has purposely caused a reactor SCRAM to act as a distraction. A SWAT team breaks down the door and shoots Godell.
Suddenly, a vibration starts. It gets stronger and the control room begins to shake. Part of the reactor’s cooling system begins to break away and collapse. People are panicking.
Finally, the vibrations stop. The reactor is under control. Godell is dead.
An emotional Kimberly is doing a live shot outside the plant. She closes her report by saying “I’m convinced that what happened tonight was not the actions of a drunk or a crazy man. Jack Godell was about to present evidence that he believed would show this plant should be shut down. I’m sorry I’m not very objective. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t end here.” We cut to color bars and tone. End credits.
The digest is very effective, surprisingly so since so many of the subplots (Kimberley competing in a man’s world, the NRC hearings about the plant, Jack being pressured by the company to say the plant is safe) have been cut out. It moves at a nice pace, scenes are allowed to breathe and the section where the plant starts vibrating and breaking apart is chilling. The Kodak SP print has held most of its color, however the definition is a bit soft. I’m happy to report the Columbia narrator does not make an appearance here.
Doug
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I think there's room for just one more film.....
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