The China Syndrome Analysis

The 1960s and 1970s were times where the ideals of the Paranoid Style were rampant. During this time some of the things people feared were conspiracy within the government and higher ups, the possibility of being spied on, the rise of the second wave of feminism, and the possibility of accidents within our nuclear power plants. In our history class, we have observed these topics through films made at or around the same time these paranoia incidents were clearly present. Through the film The China Syndrome, we will focus on the paranoia surrounding nuclear power plant corporations during the 1970s. This film is accurate about the conspiracies at that time, showing that corporate greed leads to potential hazards, and that relations between companies …show more content…
This issue could be considered a catalyst of the paranoia during the 1970s due to the fact that the public knew little to nothing about what actually goes on in the nuclear power plants. The film displays this issue through the character Bill Gibson, the human relations representative of the power plant. Throughout the movie Bill is portrayed as the yes man and fall guy of the company, only saying what the higher ups of the company want him to say. This means that not all of the truth about of the power plant never actually gets released to the public. Also, Bill is somewhat a mediator for the company as he is seen in the news station talking to Don Jacovich (one of Kimberly’s superiors) regarding the tapes of the incident that Richard taped, hinting at the overall conspiracy of the film. This again shows corporations trying to hide things from the public. These particular incidents of company/public relations were also evident during the accident of Three Mile Island in March of 1979, a couple of weeks after this film premiered. One of the major controversies surrounding this event was the miscommunications and conflicting reports from the company to the public. An example can be seen through Willam Scraton III in the documentary titled Meltdown at Three Mile Island, the company told Scranton that the radiation was contained inside the plant, leading to Scraton informing the public of this news. Moments later, he was informed that there was an offsite release of radiation, which was the beginning of distrust towards the company. Furthermore, others commented on how nonchalant the company was during initial interviews the day of the incident, creating more distrust towards them. All in all, the film and the Three Mile Incident go hand in hand in trying to convey that in order to fix this trust and paranoia brought towards nuclear power plants, the companies need to