Jon Peters Reviews: “Sputnik Mania”

It has been a fabulous year for documentaries but financially it hasn’t been. There was a story recently on the state of theatrical viewing of documentaries, stated perhaps that fatigue from news coverage of Iraq and other related politics have hurt the majority of war-themed documentaries. But where does that leave stuff like ‘Young@Heart’, a documentary I thoroughly loved and this amazing film, ‘Sputnik Mania’? Documentaries aren’t making money at the box office, no matter what the subject matter. What a shame because people are missing some exceptional films.

‘Sputnik Mania’ is a little, low budget documentary perfectly juggling the hysteria we were in after USSR launched the first satellite into space, the ‘Red Scare’, and the mania the world was in after this event. A surprising aspect of the film is how little it relies on the typical ‘talking heads’ formula most documentaries use. Instead, director David Hoffman uses audio samples, rare archival footage, and newsreels to tell this story. Add on some kitsch songs of the time, with some instructional films, and we got one informative, but fun film.

Despite the fun and some jokes, what Hoffman gets across is vitally important and almost forgot: we were at the brink of a nuclear holocaust. At any crucial point, we could have been in a dreaded Third World War, as during this time the race to create nuclear weapons was running, the new Cold War was about to get hot, and fear spread throughout America. We were testing and dropping nuclear bombs once every three days in Nevada and the Soviets even drop the largest nuclear bomb ever created in testing procedures.

Perhaps the most revealing aspect of this film is through these old newsreels we see the media pressuring President Eisenhower into questions about Sputnik, war, and nuclear annihilation. He remained stoic in his stance, despite media criticism. His actions or lack there of, saved us from what seemed like an inevitable war with USSR. His attitude was a saving grace, now seen 50 years later, but if anything good came out of this so-called ‘Sputnik Mania’ it was our, as in Americans, need to be the Soviets in technology, that lead to the advancement of PCs, laptops, and other devices we use today.

Space nuts and history buffs should eat this film up, but a more casual viewer will appreciate its nostalgic atmosphere as well as its importance. What turned out to be a marvelous step for mankind turned almost into a bitter war between two nations and this documentary is one amazing little film.