Review of The China Syndrome (1979) by David U — 09 Mar 2005

Made with the kind of razor sharp precision that is rarely seen out of filmmakers today, [i]The China Syndrome [/i]is one of the greatest movies ever made. James Bridges directs and a young Michael Douglas produces this quietly disturbing masterpiece that deals with the terrifying subject of the questionable safety of nuclear power plants. The events in the film are based on real "accidents" from various power plants and the careless activities of some of the employees.

Jane Fonda plays Kimberly Wells, a rising newscaster that is extremely popular for her little entertainment bits on Channel 3. She wants more, she wants to deliver the "real" news as she calls it, but she is denied from the higher power and never speaks her mind beyond that point. She is a slave to being where she has gotten herself and would bow down to any of the executives in any situation without any complaints. Michael Douglas plays Richard, a cameraman who is not exactly tied to any news station, he just shifts from one place to the next independently. Fonda and Douglas's characters are the complete opposite in every way, yet they work together well as she chooses to take him on most of her jobs. They are on their way to what seems to be another dull story at a big power plant that delivers 10% of the areas energy. When they enter the containment room they are forced to stop filming for security reasons, but the cameraman begins to secretly roll. Jack Lemmon plays the shift supervisor in charge of the controls in the room. He is a lonely man with nothing to hold onto in life except for his job. They recover from the incident quickly and most easily forget about it and consider it a minor problem, except Jack who knows in the back of his mind that something was odd about it, so he begins to dig deeper. The only people who will listen to anything he has to say are Kimberly and Richard, and together they will try to prevent a gigantic disaster from happening.

Everything in this film is perfection in every way. Fonda's performance is one of her most underrated as she piles layer upon layer of emotion. Douglas is electrifying in his role and does well alongside Fonda, and Lemmon, who created outstanding character after outstanding character in his lifetime is undeniably masterful yet again. What elevates the film from simply one of the great ones into an essential masterwork is the tension Bridges constructed as director. The movie is right at 2 hours in length, and well over 3/4 of it is extremely quiet and calm, making the film more effective as a thriller as the story chugs along at a classic pace. As color bars show we are plunged into the story, and by the time the color bars come back we're in a speechless state. Then the dead silence takes over as the credits begin to roll. This is a work of pure genius.