On The Air/On The Line: Parallel Structure and Contemporary History in The China Syndrome

ON THE AIR/ON THE LINE: PARALLEL STRUCTURE AND CONTEMPORARY HISTORY IN THE CHINA SYNDROME by Robert F. Will son, Jr. Two strikingly similar settings establish the dramatic structure of The China Syndrome. The TV station control room and that of the nuclear power plant are centers of action and symbolic worlds whose boundaries are heroically tested by reporter Jane Fonda and supervisor Jack Lemmon. By alternating between these two centers, director James Bridges enforces a parallel that illustrates the film's main themes of deception and coverup . We are left with a final impression that attempts to give the public the truth about accidents such as those in the film and on Three Mile Island are bound to fail because of the collusive actions of what might be called the media-energy industry complex. Although the film's title describes the consequences of a fuel meltdown, it also connotes the pattern of inscrutability and complicity that typify the workings of these interrelated industries. Bridges demonstrates through carefully selected 'imagery how the TV station (fittingly named "KLAX") depends intimately and naturally on the power station for its lifeblood. The station manager and the chairman of the power company's board share one driving concern: to make money by increasing revenues. Jane Fonda is told by the station manager that she is valuable not because of her journalistic talents but because she adds points to the station's ratings. Her assignments are trivial --interviews with singing telegram performers, tiger birthday parties at the zoo--and they reflect the station's cosmetic approach to the news. The same sort of behavior is demanded from the employees of the power plant; they are expected to be "professionals" performing limited but useful tasks for the good of the operation. Both control rooms must launder Robert F. Wlllson, Jn., Is Pnofaesson and Chairman ofa English at the University ofa Missouri-Kansas City. He teaches and wnltes about Shakespeare, fallm, and literary criticism. Recent articles and poems on failm have appeared In Ltterature/ Film Quarterly, Shakespeare on Film Hewsletten, and Take One. 49 what goes out on the air or over the line, and accidents are not tolerated . Should some mishap occur, both directors are clearly willing to go to any lengths to keep the incident "in house" until the proper "story" can be created. In order to depict this theme, Bridges requires his audience to view much of the action through monitors in the TV station's control room. The two monitors are marked "Preview" and "On Air." The Preview monitor gives the studio director a chance to "identify" a particular shot before it goes out live: he has time to focus it, to change the position of the subjects, etc. The importance of these two versions of reality is established in the film's opening. A frantic scene can be observed on the Preview monitor as Fonda, a recent addition to the news team staff, nervously tries to set up her on-location shot while her cameraman is off "taking a leak." She begs for more time because she has planned a staged performance by singing telegram artists, and this little drama cannot be choreographed before a static camera. As the time for her segment approaches, she swiftly moves the performers into place and directs the refreshed cameraman to his. When the On Air monitor switches on, Fonda's smiling and radiant face dominates the screen, which comes alive with the show she has carefully rehearsed. The technicians in the control room are impressed with the reporter's clever spot and with her coolness under fire. This opening sequence builds a framework for subsequent action. We in the audience are invited to judge what is On Air quality and what might be called Preview disorder. But in making this judgment we are also led to believe that the On Air monitor gives us what is carefully rehearsed and polished, while the Preview screen reflects a more accurate picture of the truth. As the plot commences, for instance, Fonda and Douglas, a freelance cameraman and not a regular from the station's crew, travel to the nuclear plant to shoot a special on the energy...