Lawrence Bender On Countdown To Zero And The Threat Of Global Nuclear Annihilation

Last week I had a chat with Lawrence Bender, esteemed movie producer and Pulp Fiction‘s Long Haired Hippie Scum. Because we were talking about the possibility of total global nuclear annihilation, some of our conversation got a bit serious. Nonetheless, we tried to talk about the positives.

Bender’s new documentary, Countdown to Zero, is about the very real risks that could see nuclear war, an accident or terrorist attack destroy human civilization. Here are Five Things he told me about it.

1. A Wake Up Call

Just like my movie An Inconvenient Truth, this is the kind of movie to inspire people, maybe to join a movement. It’s a wake up call. The main thing with An Inconvenient Truth was that it showed people what was really going on in the world, and I think it’s the same thing here. There is a nuclear Sword of Damocles, as we say in the movie, hanging over everybody’s head but nobody is thinking about this issue – at least, nobody in the public eye. I think that’s the main thing – to make people aware.

2. Can We Put This Right?

I think it’s necessary for us to get behind the Countdown to Zero. A particular trend or a direction may not be what seems to be likely, but things change. The whole countdown concept was created by conservatives, in a sense. It’s not a liberal idea, it’s not a conservative idea, it’s an idea that’s held by many people. I do think it’s possible. And steps are being taken, not just behind closed doors, now in public. For instance, President Barack Obama presided over the security council and they achieved a consensus to support this idea. People are working on it, there’s no doubt about it. President Obama held a big summit last year in May, amassing more heads of State in DC since the creation of the United Nations, discussing the idea of locking up all of the nuclear materials in a huge, Fort Knox type structure.

There’s another issue. We have materials all over the world that need to be locked up. Without locking up all these materials then you have the possibility for other people, terrorists maybe, to buy them and make a bomb.

Global warming and this issue of nuclear proliferation are the two things I think of as umbrella issues that, if they don’t get solved, all the other issues are going to pale in comparison, if there’s a nuclear catastrophe of some sort or global warming continues.

3. Personal Investment

I’m at the end of the baby boomers, so I remember the duck and cover drills. I remember all of those things, no matter how silly they look now. They were real, but whether they really could help is another story. I lived in New York when the huge rally occurred as part of the Nuclear Freeze movement in the 80s. But, to be perfectly honest, I’d kind of forgotten about the whole issue. I went on with my life during the 90s and started making movies, I got involved in other things. Quite frankly, I started thinking about it again when I was approached by Matt Brown and Bruce Blair, two of the executive producers of the film.

I don’t really think of myself as a documentary filmmaker, but I am an activist. For me, there was a key moment in my life, one of the big ones. We screened Good Will Hunting at Camp David in 1998 and I met President Clinton and Mrs. Clinton and I was very motivated to see how I could go and make a difference. If you look at the movies I make, there’s a lot of them have some kind of social relevance in one way or another.

I try to do my part. I made the movie, we’re having a summit, I try to get people involved, I lobby. The movie came out in the United States during the ratification of the New START Treaty and I believe it made a difference. The issue of nuclear weapons is becoming more and more in the front of people’s minds. I have to do my share and hope that things change.

4. Documentary Filmmaking

The two main concerns in making a documentary are “How well can you present the facts?” and “How well can you tell the story?” That’s what I try to do. For me, it’s all about storytelling whether it’s a documentary or a narrative film.

I don’t really think of myself as a documentary filmmaker, but I am an activist. For me, there was a key moment in my life, one of the big ones. We screened Good Will Hunting at Camp David in 1998 and I met President Clinton and Mrs. Clinton and I was very motivated to see how I could go and make a difference. If you look at the movies I make, there’s a lot of them have some kind of social relevance in one way or another.

When Matt Brown and Bruce Blair approached me, my first impulse was “Wow, that’s great”, second impulse was “How the hell are we going to make a movie about that? What’s the narrative there? What’s the beginning, middle or end?” The three of us spent months thinking about that, then approached Participant Media. There’s an incredible lady there, Diane Wireman, the head of the documentary division, and we worked together for quite some time. And when we’d come up with the story and greenlighted the project, we met with a few possible directors.

This issue is a heady issue, it’s difficult to digest, how do you boil that down? We felt that Lucy Walker could do that. We worked together very closely. Many of the interviews I got myself, or I initiated, Lucy and I did some together, so did some herself. I was in the edit room with her most of the time. It was very hands on and collaborative.

5. Demand Zero

You want to go and demand zero. There’s about 400,000 people signed up now, including 300 leaders, be they presidents, National Security leaders.

The second thing is, you want to get people to see the movie. The more people discuss and become aware of an issue, the more the wind behind politician’s backs becomes stronger. This issue needs to become front and centre, and if it does for the public, it does for the politicians.

And that’s the last thing – you must demand that this is an issue they are going to work on. There’s really no other way to do it. You’re either heading in one direction – towards proliferation, or towards zero. These are expensive, useless weapons and we need to get rid of them. We have to take our heads out of the sand.

What’s that saying again? “Cheer up. It might never happen.” Yeah, personally, I’d rather it wasn’t left to chance…

Countdown to Zero is in UK cinemas from tomorrow, with some special screenings tonight.