The China Syndrome

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Theatrical Trailer(s)	Yes, 1 - 1.33:1, not 16x9 enhanced, Dolby Digital 2.0
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1979	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	117:22 minutes	Other Extras	Filmographies - Cast
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region	2,4	Director	James Bridges
Studio Distributor	Columbia TriStar	Starring	Jane Fonda Jack Lemmon Michael Douglas
RRP	$34.95	Music	-

    So where does fiction end and the truth begin? A nuclear power plant in California suffers an "incident" during the visit of news reporter Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) and cameraman Richard Adams (Michael Douglas) to make a segment on nuclear power for the news. Whilst filming is forbidden in sensitive areas of a nuclear power plant, Adams surreptitiously films the panic in the control room during the "incident" as shift supervisor Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon) fights to contain the problem. Thinking they have the scoop of all scoops Wells and Adams rush to get the film onto the evening news, only to have the station bow to pressure from the plant's owners based upon not really knowing what went on. Adams promptly steals the film from the vault and at the public licensing hearings for a new nuclear plant, has the film reviewed by a couple of experts who confirm that a very serious accident, known as "the China Syndrome", was narrowly averted.

    After a rather short investigation, the plant is passed for restart, but Godell is concerned about a strange vibration he felt during the initial incident. During his own investigation, he discovers that the contractors who built the plant failed to strictly adhere to safety guidelines, thereby creating a possible devastating accident risk. The race is then on to expose the cover up with Wells, Adams and Godell up against the mighty corporate empire, who will stop at nothing (including attempted murder) to get the plant back on line and earning dollars - no matter the consequences (like reducing California to a nuclear wasteland for hundreds of years).

    So where does fiction end and the truth begin? You tell me, but a lot of what went into this film is based upon rumours relating to the licensing and building of many nuclear power plants in North America. These rumours were based on evidence, of an anecdotal nature, gathered by many environmental organizations over the years - and Michael Douglas and Jane Fonda at the time were very active in that area if my memory serves me correctly. Having had the opportunity to visit a nuclear plant under construction in Canada some years ago, I can at least attest to the fact that there are supposedly very stringent safety procedures involved in the design, building and operation of a nuclear plant, which obviously are extremely costly. Therefore it is not unreasonable to expect in the real world that, if there is a way to avoid the costs, the builders and operators of these plants probably would not be too averse to bending the rules a little. Sorry for the pontificating, but this film really still has such a powerful message to send regarding the whole issue of nuclear power.

    This is very much the work of the three main cast members who do a pretty decent job of what is not exactly an easy story to carry off. Clearly driven by Michael Douglas and Jane Fonda, it would be interesting to know exactly how much input the director James Bridges really had into this project.

Video

    The video transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, and it is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is not especially sharp, which is to be expected in a twenty year old film. Definition was not the greatest, and shadow detail left a little to be desired at times, both again a reflection of the age of the film. At times the transfer had a quite grainy look to it, but this was not too distracting once you got used to it.

    Colours are consistently rendered, albeit not especially vibrant; however, in general this was a lot better than I was expecting in this regard. There was no hint of oversaturation that I really feared, even though a times the colours tended towards being a little rich in tone. Colour bleed did not seem to be a problem other than where it was designed to be so (in the television test patterns for instance).

    There were no MPEG artefacts seen and there did not appear to be any significant video artefacts. There was some quite minor film jitter at times, the most noticeable example being at about 29:34: most I would suspect would not be bothered at all by these minor problems. There were quite a few film artefacts present, but they were not as bad as I was expecting and did not distract from the film in any way.

Audio

    There are five soundtracks on the DVD, all Dolby Digital 2.0 (mono) soundtracks: the default English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. I listened to the default English soundtrack.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times.

    There did not seem to be any audio sync problems at all with the transfer.

    There is no music score to the film, other than the opening theme song, and this works well for the film as nothing detracts from the message being conveyed.

    The mono soundtrack is not especially noteworthy, being the usual front and centre sound that we expect from two channel mono. Obviously there was no use made of surround or bass channels during the film.

Menu

Theatrical trailer

Filmographies - cast

• Pan and scan version of the film

    A good quality video transfer.

    An acceptable quality audio transfer.

    A limited collection of extras, although it has to be said that with the soundtrack and subtitle options, it is doubtful that there is much space left on this single layer disc.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ian Morris
12th October 1999