The Day After Trinity (1981)

The Day After Trinity is a haunting journey through the dawn of the nuclear age, an incisive history of humanity's most dubious achievement and the man behind it--J. Robert Oppenheimer, the principal architect of the atomic bomb. Featuring archival footage and commentary from scientists and soldiers directly involved with the Manhattan Project, this gripping film is a fascinating look at the scope and power of the Nuclear Age.

weak

i concur completely with darthrad. if you are completely ignorant, you will love this film. June 18, 2008

You also might want to get the great miniseries, "Oppenheimer"...

The BBC released the great mini-series "Oppenheimer" on Region Two DVD format last year.

This great mini-series is still felt to be the best re-creation on film of the people and events leading up to the explosions of the atomic bombs in August 1945. A young SAM WATERSTON plays Oppenheimer brilliantly.

It took years for the BBC to decide to release the series in DVD format, and then it was only in Region Two (PAL), the format used in the UK.

You'd think that they'd release it on Region One (US format), given the fact thatit starts Sam Waterson. However, it has not yet been released in the US.

The three-disc series, which also stars a brilliant David Suchet as Edward Teller, is available thru Amazon in the UK (www.amazon.co.uk) and on eBay in the UK (www.ebay.co.uk) for about $22.00 plus shipping.

Multi-format players are available in the US. It is my understanding that they have to be hacked to play other formats than Region 1,? due to licensing restrictions. I purchased an inexpensive player on eBay (US), which with shipping cost $50.00. The supplier provided the easy instructions to adapt it to Region Two format.

It is worth going to all of this effort to view again this great mini-series, which was virtually ignored in the US when it was shown here, but which remains unrivaled for both its acting and its accurate re-creation of the events surrounding Oppenheimer, his downfall, and the creation of the atomic age.
September 9, 2007

Quality

The Day After Trinity is an excellent documentary about Robert Oppenheimer and the development of the atom bomb. The interviews of famous scientists who worked at Los Alamos are remarkable in themselves. The film poses questions about the ethics of nuclear armaments, and the relationship between science and politics in weapons development and deployment. Every American should see it. September 2, 2007

War criminals?

Nice piece on fervor that surrounded the Manhattan Project. Interesting human interest story of how thousands of people worked for years designing the most powerful weapon ever, but didn't realize the consequences on dropping one in a city full of people, until they see it go off in the desert. June 27, 2007

A series of talking heads, doesn't add much to the history of the atomic bomb

I got this DVD after having read Richard Rhodes's "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" and "Dark Sun". Plus, I had grown up from childhood reading a lot of other books about the making of the atomic bomb.

I had even seen that famous clip of Robert Oppenheimer before, in grade school, a long, long time ago, in an educational movie about the making of the atomic bomb, where he says:

"....We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." I suppose we all thought that one way or another...."

And so I got this DVD, hoping to learn more, about that interview, about Robert J. Oppenheimer, etc.

But NOOOOO.....This DVD turns out to be mostly a series of talking head interviews of a number of the more junior (at the time) physicists involved in the Manhatten Project. Several of them, especially Robert Wilson, speak of their horror and their early opposition to further development and use of the atomic bomb. Almost all of them speak of Robert Oppenheimer, and reminisce about the many conflicts and contradictions of Oppenheimer.

But that's all there is to this DVD. It does not fully explain the contradictions in the life of Robert Oppenheimer, nor how the course of events post-WWII played out that led to Oppenheimer losing his security clearance. It doesn't even explain the setting of that famous Oppenheimer interview quote. A video clip of that famous quote, by the way, can be found online if you search for it.

The DVD only has a couple of other clips of Oppenheimer in action.

All in all, this is a mediocre DVD that does not add much more information if you already know much of the history of the making of the atomic bomb, and Oppenheimer's role in it.

However, if you don't know ANYTHING about this history, probably you'll find this DVD to be fascinating.

April 11, 2007

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