Pantex is undoubtedly a staple in Amarillo's economy, providing thousands of jobs to its residents. Inside its walls, Pantex serves as one of the United States' primary nuclear assembly and disassembly sites. Being a plant of it's nature, controversy surrounded it a handful of times throughout the 1900s. One of these controversies became the subject of a 1994 indie documentary, "Plutonium Circus". This documentary created a small cult following, and some pretty low reviews from our own staff and IMBD. But the interviewees is what makes it at least worth checking out.

Although  the documentary's primary focus is around Pantex's contamination of the surrounding environment as determined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the interviewees take the spotlight of the documentary. The host of the documentary interviews the residents of Amarillo, getting many perspectives and insights on the issues and complications surrounding Pantex. At first the interviewees seem like your regular Amarillo citizens, Pantex workers, local journalists, farmers

But not too far into the documentary you begin to hear from the more eccentric residents of Amarillo. A grandson of Pantex's original directors who collects many strange objects, a camp of peace protesters camping outside of Pantex, and even the infamous Stanley Marsh. As the documentary continues, and we see more of these individuals, they become more interesting than the focus of the documentary itself. We get to see more of the grandson's collection which includes repurposed nuclear sculptures, a Christmas tree angel with a shrunken head attached to it, a head visor made of a jawbone, and even a necklace made of knucklebones. (No I'm not kidding.") Not only do get that, but we get to hear some interesting perspectives from Stanley Marsh as he goes on rants, ranging from "the anarchy of Amarillo" to his own public art.

If are looking for a interesting watch, Plutonium Circus will take you on a fever dream of a ride through a portion of Amarillo History.

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