Orange County Register

Documentaries that do it right

September 3, 1999 - Documentaries are at their best when they achieve just the right blend of information and entertainment.

Too much information and viewers feel bombarded and lose interest. Too much entertainment and they miss the point of the documentary.

Even knowing that, it's never easy for filmmakers to get just the right blend because there is no set formula The ratio of information to entertainment changes with the subject matter. A documentary about the death penalty, for example, will have a different ratio than one about the history of Hollywood. This week we're highlighting three documentaries that do a very good job of getting that ratio right.

Leading off is "Nukes in Space: The Rainbow Bomb" (Goldhil Home Media, 1999; not rated; 52 minutes; $19.95 for tape), filmmaker Peter Kuran's follow-up to "The Atomic Bomb Movie: Trinity and Beyond," which I reviewed positively this year. This time Kuran has set his sight on the development of the ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) and the testing of nuclear weapons in space. The documentary, narrated by William Shatner, is full of fascinating and thought-provoking information about how the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union led both countries to take unprecedented risks by igniting nuclear weapons in space, disrupting radio communications, causing satellites to malfunction and endangering astronauts in orbiting craft. This is a thoughtful and well-made documentary and one that should be seen.