The China Syndrome (1978)

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Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas play a news reporter and cameraman who try to report on a near-disaster at a nuclear power plant where safety measures aren’t being met. While the plant’s owners and the TV station hold them at bay, they work covertly with a sympathetic plant supervisor (Jack Lemmon) to get all the evidence they need to drop the bombshell story on the public.

Two things struck me the most about The China Syndrome. The first is the tight screenplay by Mike Gray, T.S. Cook, and director James Bridges. The film begins with the initial visit to the power plant, and while Fonda and Douglas are there, the accident happens. Then the movie is a rush to release the story, then a rush to get around the legal hurdles, and once Lemmon’s character is willing to risk his career (and his life) to openly aid them, The China Syndrome kicks into a whole new gear.

The second thing I appreciated most about the movie is the brilliance of Jack Lemmon. I think I’ve always taken Lemmon for granted as an actor. He’s always been good in everything he’s done, but this may be the first time I really fixated on his acting. His character experiences the weight of potentially catastrophic decision-making and delivers impassioned pleas to deaf ears before becoming a nervous martyr of sorts. Throughout this transformation, Lemmon is so incredibly naturalistic, you’d almost swear his scenes were from documentary footage of a real-life event.

Speaking of real-life events, The China Syndrome got a boost in public interest and box office performance twelve days after its release, when the Three Mile Island nuclear facility near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania had a partial meltdown resulting in a radiation leak.

With Wilford Brimley, James Karen, Scott Brady, and Peter Donat.

Oscar Nominations: Best Actor (Lemmon), Actress (Fonda), Original Screenplay, Art Direction