Word: fonda
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Unfortunately for Douglas, the nuclear industry isn't playing along. General Electric, which manufactures equipment for nuclear plants, withdrew its sponsorship of a Barbara Walters T.V. special because Fonda talked about "The China Syndrome" on it. G.E. said its sponsorship would be "inappropriate" because the film could "cause undue public concern" about nuclear power. Douglas points out that G.E. hasn't seen the film yet and so doesn't know whether the concern is "undue," but G.E.'s worry seems warranted. A nuclear energy trade association has sent out reams of positive material on nuclear energy to film reviewers...
...Fonda, a "Happy news" reporter seeking a more substantial story, goes with cameraman Douglas to film a special at a nuclear power plant outside Los Angeles where Lemmon is the control-room supervisor. While getting the standard tour from the plant's public relations man, buzzers ring, bells clang, the control panel lights up like a Christmas tree gone berserk, and the building shakes. Clearly, something is wrong...
Douglas secretly begins filming the panic unfolding in the room below him, while Fonda rushes back to the station, convinced that she has a story that will catapult her into hard news and out of fluff. But the station manager kills the story, after conferring with the power company's P.R. man. Fonda and Douglas keep trying to get the story out, and Lemmon joins their effort. The accident has alerted him to serious problems in the plant's safety precautions and he finds that inspection documents have been falsified. Lemmon tries, unsuccessfully, to prevent the plant from starting...
...film is starkly realistic (the sets were designed by the man who re-created The Washington Post newsroom for "All the President's Men") moves quickly, and pays off in a shattering climax. With stars like Fonda, Lemmon, and Douglas, and a subject as hot as nuclear power, the film should be a huge success...
...addition to the highly convincing control-room sequences in the power plant, the film's treatment of television news is excellent. Fonda skillfully portrays an ex-commercial actress trying to get away from the trap of cute feature stories. Her professionalism shows as she plants a huge smile on her face on camera, while inwardly seething because her boss killed the nuclear accident story...