Basic Plot in the Form of a Haiku:

   Which is scarier:
   total nuclear meltdown
   or Michael Douglas?

My Basic Ramblings: Yet another "Movie I Felt I Should Watch" here.  Feel my movie knowledge levels rise.

I am woefully stupid when it comes to nuclear technology.  This wasn't always the case; once upon a time I was a total Math and Science Chick.  I got the highest score in the class on the Physics Regents test (94); I even went to a College Night for MIT.  Then I decided to go the liberal arts route, got accepted early decision to Vassar, and watched my Calculus and Biology grades plummet.   (My fourth-quarter AP Calc average senior year?  63.  Yahoo!)  These days I can't add two or three numbers without a calculator.

Luckily, the movie assumes (correctly) that the average movie goer's knowledge of nuclear technology comes from Simpsons episodes (yes, even though the movie was about twelve years earlier) and explains it in a way that doesn't make you feel like you're being hit over the head with an Exposition hammer.  Jane Fonda, whose hair is more lovely than it should be, is a news reporter doing a "Happy Newstime" report on different forms of energy.  While she and cameraman Michael Douglas are there, they witness an incident/accident/near-disaster that puts them all in a tizzy.

I was in fifth or sixth grade when Chernobyl hit.  My clearest memory of it is watching my mother buy extra gallons of milk at the store, lest she later buy milk from fallout-tainted cows.

It's an interesting sign of the times, I suppose, that there was actually an attempt made by Fonda's TV station (headed up by Fox Mulder's father) to not air the tape because it was gained illegally.  These days, any sort of video is immediately grabbed by the highest bidder and thrown up on the evening news, no matter how it was obtained.  Either that or it's posted to the Internet, ground zero for all things evil, as we know.  (When in doubt, blame the Internet.)

Jack Lemmon is the lone nuclear worker who blows the whistle on the whole affair; he's shot and killed for his efforts.  This, of course, perpetuates the stereotype that Big Business, particularly Big Nuclear Business, is evil.  This may or may not be true; my experience with Big Business is limited.  If you were to do a "All I Needed To Know I Learned From The Movies", you could say "Big corporations are evil" and you'd be right. (You could also say "Any movie that involves a geeky girl will end with her magic transformation into a total babe, the majority of which will be accomplished by taking off her glasses" and you'd also be right.  But I
digress.)

This movie does not have any background music, much like The Blair Witch Project.  However, while a BWP soundtrack has been created by publishing "a mix tape of songs found in Josh's car" [many of which were released after the movie takes place], I wonder how popular a China Syndrome soundtrack would've been if it had taken the same format [songs would include "Killing Lemon", "Oatmeal Guy Freaks", and "Big Business is Evil".]

Shortly after this movie was released, the Three Mile Island incident happened.  The China Syndrome was used as a "training" film for reporters as they did their reports.  I wonder how many of them did their hair like Fonda's.