Watch Duck and Cover For Free

A Brilliant Conflict

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

I'm sure this purportedly educational film seems foolish and funny from the 21st century viewpoint. Aimed at children, "Duck and Cover" was apropos for its time, when the public was mostly ignorant of the real risks of nuclear warfare, but very afraid of its implications--the way it changed one's view of the world and personal safety, in general.It would be difficult to ascertain if the film accomplished what it set out to do--to give children (and their parents) a sense of security in a more dangerous world. Or did it actually make life seem scarier and more uncertain with its warning about "the bright flash" that might interrupt a beautiful day, without prior alarm, from some unseen, ominous and omnipresent source?Having been a child during that era--and the Cuban missile crisis--I can verify that there was a toll exacted by the constant barrage of warnings about the unspeakable horrors that might befall American citizens at the hands of an evil, godless entity. Thanks, government, for demonizing an entire population and producing such ridiculous garbage as "Duck and Cover".The film clearly has another agenda--one that pervades almost all government-produced films: legitimizing those in authority. The children who view the film are told "We must obey the civil defense worker". And more than once, it tells kids to ask "older people" in the event of an atomic emergency. Images remind the student viewer that teachers are in charge in the classroom, a message I am sure all educators appreciated.This film is an interesting artifact from a "simpler" time--simpler in the sense that the average American citizen rarely questioned authority. I think the average congressman in 1952 knew little more than his constituents about the effects of nuclear weapons. The naivete that pervades the film is authentic.

This review is in response to the faulty information that swirls around this short civil defense/propaganda film, particularly the notion of "its stupid we would all die and the government was just trying to fool people". While I wont try to argue the clear propaganda goals of the film, the question of survivability is a different matter.A simple timeline should do the trick: 1949- The Soviet Union detonates its first atomic bomb.1952- The film "Duck and Cover" was first shown early in the year, but was produced in 1951.1952- November 1st, almost a year after the film was released, the first H-Bomb was detonated by the USA at a test grounds in the Pacific. If you do not know the difference between an A-Bomb and an H-bomb there are many sources on the internet, lets just say its a big difference.1953- The USSR detonated its own H-bomb.1955- The USA had a total of about 350 H-Bombs (small H-bombs, if you can call an H-bomb small), that would be delivered by airplane. The USSR was behind but catching up fast.1957- The first ICBM's were developed by the USSR and the USA.1959- ICBM's began to populate the arsenals of the Cold War powers."Duck and Cover" was aimed at a possible war using a relatively small number of A-Bombs that would have been delivered by airplane. In such an attack the information given was correct and could have saved lives. There were many instances of people surviving the attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima at basically ground zero. Again its the difference between an A-bomb and an H-bomb, in 1952 atomic war did not mean instant or even prolonged death. When H-Bombs and ICBM's started to amass in the arsenals of the superpowers these films started to disappear.

"Duck and Cover" is something of a mystery to me. Looking back now, over fifty years later, the suggestions seem fairly absurd that one could protect themselves from a nuclear blast with a blanket or stop their neck from being burned by putting their hands over the back of their head.Now, some folks will say that bombs in the 1950s aren't what they are today and that the radius of a blast wasn't as far, so if you were on the outskirts of the explosion, these rules and suggestions might actually be useful. (Although, one suspects that if you have to wait for a Civil Defense worker to tell you to get up, you'll be waiting a long time.) But another thing I found interesting is that people seem to get the message backwards on this short -- they think it takes a realistic fear and makes it seem trivial or quaint. But, for me, it seems that it takes something that is rather rare and makes it one more thing to fear. Even during the Cuban Missile Crisis (and Cuba didn't even turn "communist" for another seven years after this film) the risk was small. For those of us in the Midwest, the threat is essentially nil, both then and today. There are many other threats that would be better to warn us about.Whatever the case, this film stands as a piece of history that will remain rather interesting and grow in the coming years, hopefully being beyond "surreal" or "absurd" at the 100-year mark. We live in an atomic age, but should we go about fearing it? There's little need to fear much of anything if we properly assess the risks involved.

Having been in the first grade during the Cuban Missile Crisis the entire elementary school I attended got to watch this film. It of course now is looked upon the same way that a film like "Reefer Madness" is looked upon. It seems to me that the authorities i.e. the government, school administrations, whoever, would have had enough education and just plain common sense to realize that in the event of a nuclear blast hiding under a school desk with your coat over you just wouldn't cut it. The film is the standard public service films that were cranked out during this period. A little light humor is thrown in with a cartoon turtle who crawls into his shell whenever trouble comes his way. Video stores sometimes carry these films and while they are now hilarious and severely outdated they no doubt were taken seriously at the time.