Review of The China Syndrome (1979) by Richard W — 06 Feb 2015

Co-written and directed by James Bridges (September 30, 1955 (1977) and Urban Cowboy (1980)), this tense thriller just goes to show how far people will go to cover up incidents from the public. It's still socially relevant now, as companies seem to strive on cover-ups and corruption these days.

The incident at the centre of the film is very common, maybe a lot more common than you'd like. In Los Angeles, Television news reporter Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) and her maverick cameraman Richard Adams (Michael Douglas) drive out to the Ventana nuclear power to do a news report.

While observing the workers in the control room, they feel a tremor, which causes a panic in the control room, and Shift Supervisor Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon) feels a slight tremor, but after bringing the main reactor back under control, Godell finds the main reactor is damaged, but the bosses want to have the plant up and running again.

Meanwhile, Wells finds the plant has denied anything happened, but Adams filmed the incident, and then he steals the footage. It's a very suspenseful film, and it is more socially relevant now, especially after Fukushima.

But, the last act is among the most gripping sequences seen on film, and it does show how ruthless companies can be, more interested in money than safety. But, if cover-ups like this were revealed, the world would descend into anarchy.