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Deadly Deception - General Electric, Nuclear Weapons, and Our Environment
""A meticulous polemic that does to General Electric what Roger & Me did to General Motors...infinitely more frightening than anything in Nightmare on Elm Street""
Desmond Ryan
The Philadephia Inquirer
Full Review:
The Philadephia Inquirer Reviewed by Desmond Ryan, 6/19/92 Deadly Deception, produced and directed by Debra Chasnoff, won a well-merited Oscar as best documentary...It is a meticulous polemic that does to General Electric what Roger & Me did to General Motors. The giant company's "We Bring Good Things to Life: slogan and its fuzzy, feel-good commercials are starkly and effectively contrasted with interviews that speak of cancer deaths, birth defects and other calamities. These stories come from the families who lived -- and sometimes died near the GE nuclear weapons factory in Hanford, Washington. The camera moves on to heartbreaking tales of workers at the GE Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in upstate New York who have died of asbestos and radiation poisoning. Those who have spoken up have found themselves abruptly on the street. Deadly Deception also reports on the increasingly successful boycott of GE products organized by anti-nuclear activists. The publicity garnered by the Oscar served to increase the effectiveness of the boycott... [This documentary is] in an all too sense, [a] horror film -- and infinitely more frightening than anything in Nightmare on Elm Street.
"You'll never again be able to calmly view a GE commercial after watching this compelling video....a sickening and powerful story of 45 years of lies and corporate crime."
Utne Reader
"Chilling...enlightening...sharp...succinct."
Betsy Sherman
The Boston Globe
"Investigative reporting at its highest level."
American Film & Video Association
""It's ludicrous [for G.E.] to say that after this film won an Academy Award that this had nothing to do with the [company's] decision to leave the business three months later," says social investment analyst Amy Domini. "To say it was coincidence stretches the imagination.""
Steven Perlstein
Business Ethics
