Crossroads

This is a very meditative movie by bruce conner about an underwater atom bomb test. probably not everyone's cup of tea.

music by terry riley and patrick gleeson.

The film is based on government footage of the first underwater Atomic-bomb test in July 25, 1946, at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. Recorded at varing speeds -- from normal to super slow motion. The same explosion is seen 27 different times -- from the air, sea and various landbased cameras.

The opening segment centers on the awesome grandeur of the explosion - the destructiveness, as well as the dramatic spectacle and beauty. As the repetition builds, the explosion is gradually removed from the realm of historic phenomena, assuming the dimensions of a universal, cosmic force. In the film's second half this force is brought into a kind of cosmic harmony, part of the lyrically indifferent ebb and flow of life that one sees in a lingering, elegaic view of the ocean.