The 1956 film “The Conqueror” is famous among moviegoers, both for the casting of John Wayne as the Mongol warlord Genghis Khan and for the suspicious number of deaths that followed downwind filming at a testing site. nuclear. Nearly 70 years later, producers of the documentary “The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout” hope to tell the story of the affected “downwinder” community in St. George, Utah, near where the film was shot, as federal compensation for radiation exposure is in effect. the line.
At the time “The Conqueror” was filmed in the Utah desert just outside the city, St. George was 140 miles downwind of the Nevada Test Site, where the federal government has conducted more than 900 nuclear tests.
The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) insisted for years to local residents that there was no danger, and when farmers’ sheep began mysteriously dying, the federal government blamed the farmers’ negligence.
But after the film was shot, observers noticed the high rate of cancer among those involved in filming: 91 of the 220 crew members developed the disease and 46 died. Director Dick Powell and stars Wayne, Susan Hayward and Agnes Moorehead also died of cancer, while Pedro Armendáriz Sr., a talented Mexican actor and the only non-white member of the film’s main cast, died by suicide when his cancer became terminal.
Local Paiute Native Americans were used as extras in mob and battle scenes, but no records were kept on cancer rates among them.
“The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout” director Will Nunez said in a panel discussion Wednesday that he came up with the idea for the documentary in 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdowns, and that, at the time, he was just aware of the film’s infamy and alleged cancer. connection.
“What started out as a joke about this terrible movie turned into something else as I researched atomic testing and everything, and my goal was to see how I can try to make this in the most entertaining way possible so that the general public can understand. what happened,” he said.
He noted that many of the 1956 film’s more absurd features—such as the flowery, pseudo-Shakespearean dialogue written with Marlon Brando in mind that sounds even more ridiculous in the Duke’s mouth—added some levity to what could otherwise be downright depressing. history.
The film notes that eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, who produced “The Conqueror,” may have exacerbated radiation exposure during filming by delivering 60 tons of irradiated desert sand to the RKO Pictures studio in Hollywood to film interior scenes.
Epidemiologists have warned of the difficulty of definitively identifying a single cause of cancer. Wayne himself was skeptical about the connection between the filming and the illness that struck the cast and crew, noting later in life that he, Powell and Armendáriz were heavy smokers.
But Hayward and Powell died at age 50 — a remarkably young age to develop cancer — and, as the documentary makes clear, the St. George residents who developed cancer during the same period included young children.
Hughes would later say that he felt “guilty as hell” over the making of the film, and as he became increasingly reclusive, he bought every copy of the film and watched it over and over again in his hotel suite.
Ultimately, questions surrounding Wayne’s death that first surfaced in People magazine led Utahns to begin investigating a possible connection to his medical histories. The declassification of internal AEC documents followed, and the downwinders’ strenuous lobbying won former Utah Senator Orrin Hatch (R) to their cause, culminating in the 1990 passage of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), which recently expired.
The documentary incorporates a variety of perspectives on the film and its legacy, from Wayne and Hayward’s sons to conservative radio host Michael Medved, who began his career as a film critic specializing in “so bad they’re good” films. Its most emotive voices, however, are those of the downwinders themselves, many of whom remember the film production that came to town and continue to put pressure on the radiation it helped bring attention to to this day.
In the film, Mary Dickson, a downwinder activist and thyroid cancer survivor, notes that the effects of the fallout from nuclear testing were not considered an emergency until the Department of Defense began to worry that they had, as one puts it. internal document, “John Wayne dead.”
RECA was reauthorized in 2022, but its authorization formally expired earlier this year after lawmakers were unable to reach agreement on a further extension. A bipartisan bill sponsored by Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Ben Ray Luján (DN.M.) that would reauthorize the law and expand it beyond the 20 covered counties as well as to children of downwinders has passed in the Senate with 69 votes in March. However, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has refused to bring it to the House floor until now, citing concerns about the cost and whether it has the votes to pass in the GOP-controlled chamber. .
Nunez’s documentary comes weeks after RECA’s authorization officially expired. Almost exactly a year ago, the expansion bill’s sponsors hoped to capitalize on the buzz surrounding “Oppenheimer,” Christopher Nolan’s biopic about the physicist who helped develop the atomic bomb. Nunez told The Hill that he hopes his film, although much smaller, can help boost the conversation about the plight of downwinders.
“What I hope is that now that RECA has expired and the downwinders want to expand it beyond the 20 counties, that this film will help spread the word,” Nunez said.
Ultimately, though, he credited the dedication of local residents affected by both the original law and any progress toward reauthorization.
Nunez compared the downwinder community to residents of Love Canal, N.Y., who pushed for a federal cleanup after the neighborhood became the scene of an environmental disaster in the 1970s.
“If you notice, it’s all women who raise hell,” he said.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
