Duck & Cover (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. Made with the help of Archer Productions and 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.

Summary

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 bought the rights to Duck and Cover from Archer [1], and the film is now in the public domain.

Purpose

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, it "was seen by millions of schoolchildren in the 1950s."

Controversy

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.

In contemporary United States culture

• 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 different version of Duck and Cover, featuring chipmunks (or possibly groundhogs) who, like Bert the Turtle, are also wearing Civil Defense helmets.
• 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 one episode 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.
• 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 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.
• 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.
• 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.

See also