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    'And The World Went Crazy': How Hollywood Changed After Hiroshima

    Nuclear weapons have given Hollywood a host of dramatic plot possibilities, from the threat of nuclear war, to wholesale destruction, to over the top fireworks.
    by Bob Mondello Aug 06, 2020 5 minutes
    On Aug. 6, 1945, the use of the first nuclear weapon to obliterate the Japanese city of Hiroshima reset history, marking the dawn of the Nuclear Age. Over the decades, artists of every stripe have had to reckon with a world forever altered by nuclear weapons — Hollywood included. Above, Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film, <em>Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb</em>.

    On the Beach, the 1959 film version of Nevil Shute's cataclysmic bestseller, kicks into gear with a newscast designed to transport 1950s movie audiences from the nuclear age into a post-nuclear age:

    "Scientists disagree as to when radiation will reach Australia," intones the newscaster. "The atomic war has ended. But the prime minister reports no proof of survival of human life anywhere except here."

    The film then tags along as the world's last submarine crew, captained by Gregory Peck, searches the globe for signs of humanity. The ship's Geiger counter readings are dire even in mid-Pacific.

    Then, in a scene met by hushed silence from '50s audiences, the sub surfaces in the San Francisco Bay to discover an unbombed but irradiated ghost town. Nothing moving, no sign of life. It was the first portrait most movie patrons

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