Duck and Cover (film)
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The title screen from the film. |
Duck and Cover was a short educational
film produced in
1951 by the
United States federal government's
Civil Defense branch shortly after the
Soviet Union began
nuclear testing. Written by Raymond J. Mauer and directed by
Anthony Rizzo of Archer Productions and made with the help of schoolchildren from
New York City and
Astoria,
New York, it was shown in schools as the cornerstone of the government's "
duck and cover" public awareness campaign. The movie states that
nuclear war could happen at any time without warning, and for
U.S. citizens to keep this constantly in mind and be ever ready.
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A Duck and Cover movie poster |
The film starts with an
animated sequence, showing an
anthropomorphic turtle walking down the road. A
chorus sings the
Duck and Cover theme:
There was a turtle by the name of Bert
and Bert the turtle was very alert;
when danger threatened him he never got hurt
he knew just what to do...
He ducked! [inhalation sound]
And covered!
Ducked! [inhalation sound]
And covered!
While this goes on, Bert is attacked by a
monkey holding a string from which hangs a lighted
firecracker. Bert ducks into his shell in the nick of time, as the firecracker goes off and blows up both the monkey and the tree he is sitting in. Bert, however, is shown perfectly safe, because he has ducked and covered.
The film, which is about 10 minutes long, then switches to
live footage, as a narrator explains what children should do "when you see the flash" of an
atomic bomb. The movie goes on to suggest that by ducking down low in the event of a
nuclear explosion, the children would be safer than they would be standing, and explains some basic survival tactics for nuclear war.
The US government contracted with Archer to produce
Duck and Cover [
1], and the film is now in the
public domain.
After
nuclear weapons were developed, (the first having been developed during the
Manhattan Project during
World War II) it was realized what kind of danger they posed. The United States held a
nuclear monopoly from the end of the
World War II until
1949, when the Soviets detonated their first nuclear device.
This signaled the beginning of the nuclear stage of the
Cold War, and as a result, strategies for survival were thought out.
Fallout shelters, both private and public, were built, but the government still viewed it as necessary to explain to citizens both the danger of the atomic (and later,
hydrogen) bombs, and to give them some sort of training so that they would be prepared to act in the event of a
nuclear strike.
The solution was the duck and cover campaign, of which
Duck and Cover was an integral part. Shelters were built, drills were held in towns and schools, and the film was shown to schoolchildren. According to the United States
Library of Congress (which declared the film "historically significant" and inducted it for preservation into the
National Film Registry in 2004), it "was seen by millions of schoolchildren in the 1950s."
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Contemporary criticism to "Duck and Cover" on the press (1952). |
There is controversy regarding the actual usefulness of the film. Since it has no counterpart in any other country (although
Protect and Survive is somewhat similar), it is sometimes regarded as being a
Red scare political tool, to make children frightened of the
Soviet Union and
communism. Also questioned is the film's
scientific accuracy; whether or not the
tactics shown in the film (such as ducking into a doorway, putting a newspaper over your head* and even just throwing yourself facedown on the ground) would actually work.
Part of the problem in communicating to the public how to deal with atomic weapons was that most civilians had never dealt with anything on the scale of magnitude as an atomic explosion before. Thus, the movie says, "you will see a bright flash, brighter than the
sun, brighter than anything you have ever seen", and that the flash is much, much worse than a
sunburn.
Also, some critics claim that the scene starting at 1:32 and ending at 1:39 is
racist as the control voice says, "We all know that the atomic bomb is very dangerous since it may be used against us we must get ready for it,
just as we are ready for many other dangers that are around us all the time" while the camera is centered on a black student in the class. As the film was made in 1951 the critics' claim is possible as the
civil rights movement was merely just beginning and the pre-civil rights
racialist era and culture was still very much alive.
*Consider this example: although a newspaper would, at least in theory, block alpha radiation, it would do nothing at all for the beta and gamma radiation, not to mention the shockwave, that would accompany an atomic detonation.Although duck-and-cover drills are no longer held in United States schools and most fallout shelters have been closed down or abandoned,
Duck and Cover, which was shown to an entire generation of children, is referenced in television shows and movies, usually for comedic effect. The
Duck and Cover film is considered an example of high
camp.
*
The Criterion Collection's
laserdisc of
Dr. Strangelove has the Duck and Cover
short as part of the supplements, which also have other Civil Defense media to give the film historical perspective.
*In an episode of Quantum Leap titled Nuclear Family, the children watch Duck and Cover
and Sam comments on the method's futility.
*In The Atomic Cafe, Duck and Cover
footage is used.
*In The Iron Giant, Hogarth Hughes and his classmates in the year 1957 watch a film clearly inspired by Duck and Cover
; it features chipmunks (or possibly groundhogs) who, like Bert the Turtle, are wearing Civil Defense helmets. Later on in the film, when a nuclear missile is headed for the town, Mansley suggests "We can duck and cover!" (to which General Rogard responds, "There's no way to survive this, you idiot!").
*In an Atom Ant music video on Cartoon Network, some audio clips from Duck and Cover
, such as "We must all get ready, now" are used.
*In the episode Volcano of the television show South Park, a volcano erupts and the townspeople are shown a Duck and Cover,
in which they are instructed to duck and cover, allowing lava to pass "safely" over them.
*In the English translation of Issue No. 66 of the Love Hina manga (which is in Volume 8), Keitaro Urashima and Naru Narusegawa are on Pararakelse, island of a lost turtle-worshiping civilization. After a freak rocket attack (which they survive), Keitaro says: "Sheesh! It's a good thing we remembered to duck and cover!" The same volume also contains references to South Park, James Bond and Shaft; it is unlikely any of these appeared in the Japanese version.
*After Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge announced his plan for national security based on duct tape and plastic sheeting, a Flash movie entitled Duct Tape and Cover was made, spoofing the whole idea. The monkey in this movie is Osama bin Laden.
*In Army Men II: Sarge's Heroes, if the 'armageddon' cheat is used, the area the user's screen is over is carpet-bombed. As this happens, the message "Duck and cover!" scrolls across the top of the screen. |
Bert the Turtle |
*There is a movie called Tuck and Cover.
*The Disaster Labs comedy site has a parody of the film using the original audio and sprites from the Super Nintendo Entertainment System game EarthBound.
*In Snow Dogs, at one point the dentist, trying to remember what commands to give the sled dogs to turn, tries "duck and cover".
*In Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, the introductory movie to the first mission of the Soviet campaign shows (the fictional) Premier Romanov referring to a children's film about a tortoise that "ducks and covers" when he sees Russian missiles. Romanov declares that the purpose of the film is to teach American children to fear the Soviet Union.
*In "Weird Al" Yankovic's music video for Christmas At Ground Zero, there is a short clip of Bert the Turtle retreating into his shell. The video also culls material from various nuclear safety films as well. The song itself uses the line "I'll duck and cover with my Yuletide lover".
*In The Simpsons episode "Homer Defined," Homer's inattentiveness results in a near-meltdown at the plant, resulting in an emergency throughout Springfield. At school, the students are huddled beneath their desks while Principal Skinner comments, "They called me old-fashioned for teaching the duck-and-cover method, but who's laughing now!"
*In one episode of Michael Moore's show The Awful Truth, around the time period when India and Pakistan intended to develop Nuclear weapons and become nuclear powers, Michael performs a Satire of the "Duck and Cover" video in which he shows it to the Indian and Pakistani ambassadors to teach them about the "Duck and Cover" technique.
In something of a special case, a Duck and Cover
clip also appears in the final episode of the 2005 season of the Canadian
television show ZeD''.
*
Duck and cover, for further discussion of this method of self-defense.
Protect and Survive, a British information film on the same topic.
*
Duck and Cover. Prod. Archer Productions, Inc. Dist.
United States Federal Civil Defense Administration. 1951.
*"
Librarian of Congress Adds 25 Films to National Film Registry". United States
Library of Congress, 28 December 2004.
*
Program Details for Duck and Cover, available for download from the
Prelinger Archive at
archive.org.
*
CONELRAD's massive article detailing the full production history and initial respone to this film*
Watch the film on Google Video
