The China Syndrome

James Bridges, USA, 1979, 122 minutes

During the 1970s Jane Fonda starred in many excellent "serious" films, but The China Syndrome is most definitely the best of these. Fonda produced the film with co-star Michael Douglas and plays a TV reporter investigating an attempted cover-up of an accident at a Californian nuclear plant.

That the film uses no music (all too frequently required to gloss over bad editing and induce emotions that the script and performances fail to create) is a testament to its excellence. Instead, The China Syndrome relies on the tightly-written script (by Mike Gray, T. S. Cook, and the director James Bridges), and the compelling performances of its three stars - with Jack Lemmon proving the most astonishing as a dedicated plant executive - to thrust the story to its shattering climax.

Jane Fonda's aim to make "responsible films" was commercially justified when shortly after The China Syndrome opened there was grave danger at a Pennsylvanian nuclear energy factory. However, you don't have to have been recently threatened by an explosion at a nuclear plant to fully appreciate this film. It is a gripping piece of drama which also manages to successfully examine the machinations of television news reporting - another potentially dangerous phenomenon of the 20th Century.

Review by Kathryn Parkerson
Taken from EUFS Programme 1992-93