Cast:
Interviews and archival footage of various individuals [listed by profession]:
Interview: Haakon Chevalier [writer], Hans Bethe [physicist], Francis Fergusson [writer], Robert Serber [physicist], Robert Wilson [physicist], Frank Oppenheimer [physicist], Isidor Issac Rabi [physicist], Freeman Dyson [physicist], Stirling Colgate [physicist], Stan Ulam [mathematician], Robert Porton [G.I.], Françoise Ulam [writer], Dorothy McKibben [office head], Robert Krohn [physicist], Jane Wilson [writer], Holm Bursom [rancher], Dave MacDonald [rancher], Susan Evans [resident], and Elizabeth Ingram [merchant].
Archive:
J. Robert Oppenheimer, General Leslie Groves, President Harry Truman, Senator Joseph McCarthy, among others. Produced and Directed by Jon H. Else.
Review:
On July 16, 1945, the first detonation of a nuclear weapon occurred in human history. Trinity, if you did not know, was the code name for the detonation of the atomic bomb, one that would be dropped in a desert basin formerly known as "Apache country" but was known by folks as Jornada del Muerto. The following month after the test, two atomic bombs would be dropped in Japan that served as the precursor to end World War II. It was the culmination of years of development that triggered a tremendous effort wrapped in anxiety. This anxiety was wrapped in layers: the fear of trying to develop a bomb in a race against time and also the fear of just what might happen when it would go off. At the time of 1980, it was noted that there had been over a thousand nuclear explosions since that day, with the atomic bomb being not even the second-most destructive force ever done to the earth we walk on. The film, if you did not know, takes its title from a quote stated by J. Robert Oppenheimer, described as "father of the atomic bomb", who when asked about efforts to try and initiate talk in politics to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, said that it should have been done "the day after Trinity". The film is narrated by Paul Frees. The film had writing done by David Peoples, Janet Peoples, and Jon H. Else, with the latter also serving as a both director and interviewer. It is his most known film, although he has maintained a steady career of directing and shooting various productions for nearly five decades. The results of the film (as funded by various sources, one being an association with KTEH, a California TV station) was an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature.
One does become quite fascinated for the need for such plutonium and the need to have as many people possible in Los Alamos, complete with footage to set the canvas. You get a useful sense of who Oppenheimer was when it comes to the type of personality it takes to deal with urgency and curiosity that come with the dawn of being involved in the world more than just science by the 1930s (as one does when becoming involved with certain left-wing outlets); with these links comes being trailed by the FBI. There is a wry humor that comes and goes in the perspectives shown in the film, whether that involves the recollection of bets about how much the impact of the bomb will be in TNT count or if it could incinerate the whole state of New Mexico. You can hear from various noted sources such as Dyson, who at one point mentions a "Faustian bargain" when it comes to the bomb or the depression that kicked you for one scientist when it came to the bombing. Frank Oppenheimer's perspective on his brother is also quite helpful. In the end, one can only agree that the desert really does seem small when it comes to seeing the bomb footage. Such a day brings a fledged horror if you think about it: folks who were there in the preparation of doing something that had never been done before that saw fufillment of their mission...with the immediate next thought being shock and awe. Oppenheimer went from doing a "kind of strut" when the test was done to, well, distress. The last section of the film shows footage of people who suffered the effects of the atomic bomb along with the perspective that comes after the war. Perhaps it is for the best the film doesn't mention Oppenheimer and his encounter with President Truman, in which the latter later called him a "cry baby scientist" when it came to the fallout from the decision to drop the bombs (and therefore achieve surrender). Oppenheimer is featured here in archival footage most prominently, one who obviously felt the best course of action was to unite people together rather than blow them apart in terms of knowledge that contrasts with the growing paranoia of the age, as represented by folks like Joseph McCarthy (a true bastard if there ever was one, although he is only seen briefly). The dealings of the people around Oppenheimer (which included several members of the Communist Party, such as his brother) and the machinations that come with politics and just who gets to say what happens with pressing a button would come to haunt him. This would lead to the hearing involving the Atomic Energy Commission, which was mainly driven by Lewis Strauss. It is the type of documentary that will drive great curiosity and emotion to learn more, even about people such as Strauss or Edward Teller (I would like to point out that Isidor Issac Rabi, interviewed for this film in 1980, is often thought to be the one who popularized the saying that "It would have been a better world without Teller." - food for thought). As a whole, Oppenheimer is presented in the most ideal way possible for a documentary about a dead subject: one that seems alive in the hearts and minds of those who knew him best. It makes the kind of tragedy that could make for a film, perhaps one that would fully show what it means to say about the test, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds"...
Overall, I give it 10 out of 10 stars.
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