The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout

Involving, sobering documentary of how the irresponsibility of the US government in safeguarding nuclear testing in the Nevada desert caused untold illness and death for generations of "downwinders". Factoring into all of this is the ultimately tragic decision by Howard Hughes to film the absolutely dreadful epic "The Conqueror" in the area, a move that provided if not the decisive factor certainly a major contributing one to the death from cancer of the entire main cast (John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead and Pedro Armendariz) as well as a huge percentage of the rest of the cast & crew of the film. Horrendous but in a strange way, a stroke of luck for the others affected since the publicity of those famous personage's fate helped lead to some accountability (not enough but some) for the other victims. Remove Ads Comment?

I loved how this documentary discusses one of the worst movies of all time and shifts to one of the least discussed environmental and medical issues of our time. If people doubt the cancer rates among the people of Utah I suggest they speak with them as they don't believe it. This documentary does an exceptional job in making sure their stories are on equal footing with the rich and famous. High recommendation!

The movie is scant on epidemiological data and fails to provide the viewer with nuanced interpretations of the evidence. The Wikipedia entry for The Conqueror describes disagreement among scientists about the impact of the blasts on human health. In fact, the percentage of people affected by cancer in the fallout zone is not considerably higher than the norm, according to some experts. However, that disagreement is not reflected in this film. I would have liked to see some interviews with scientists and public health experts but it doesn't seem like any were consulted.

Insightful documentary