Apocalypse '45
Release Date: August 14, 2020
Running Time: 105 min
Rating: NR
Director: Erik Nelson
Producers: Peter Hankoff, Elisabeth M. Hartjens
Editor: Paul Marengo
Synopsis: After the success of Erik Nelson’s previous archival feature The Cold Blue the National Archives opened their vaults and allowed access they had previously denied to over 700 reels of this footage, covering the harrowing expanse of the final months of the War in the Pacific. Very little of this material has ever been screened, and none of it has ever been digitally restored, frame by frame, to 4K. In addition, another treasure was uncovered and restored -- astonishing new footage captured by legendary director John Ford. In essence, a “lost film” by Ford, it depicts the ruins of the Pacific Fleet, and the terrible aftermath of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
Also driving the narrative of Apocalypse ‘45 are recently completed interviews with two dozen men who lived through these nightmarish events. All of these men were in their mid to late 90’s, with the oldest, B-29 pilot Thomas Vaucher, 101 years old at the time of his February 2020 interview. Their illuminating and occasionally anguished, cautionary voices provide the film’s only narration, a true “last call” for the last of the Greatest Generation. Apocalypse ‘45 is being released as America and the world grapples with the meaning and consequences of World War II -- on this most significant of anniversaries.
Apocalypse ‘45 uses the pristine raw, color film footage to tell a chilling narrative of the last months of the War in the Pacific. It documents events from the flag raising at Iwo Jima in February to the harrowing kamikaze attacks and vicious ground combat at Okinawa in April to the first test of the atomic bomb in the remote deserts of New Mexico on July 16th. In addition, we witness the air war over Japan in the summer of 1945, and perhaps most astonishingly, the still burning ruins of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when a U.S Army medical camera crew photographed the devastation to both the city and its inhabitants.