Movie Reviews for The Day After Trinity

The Day After Trinity

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Movie Reviews of The Day After Trinity

Movie Review: .....very gently used...
Summary: 5 Stars

Excellent documentary....Fascinating!!!!!!!

Got from above seller....Great service!!!!!

A must have for your Documentary Library!!!!!!

Movie Review: Movie"The Day After Trinity"
Summary: 5 Stars

My husband received this for Fathers Day from the Kids and I. Our 9 yrs old son and his Father really enjoyed this movie.

Movie Review: Why Doesn't Edward Teller Appear In This Film?
Summary: 4 Stars

I viewed this film after I watched the BBC series "Oppenheimer" and I must say that I didn't really learn much from it that I didn't get from the BBC series. It was interesting to see what the characters we saw in the series really look like, and I must say, the BBC series worked very hard to get actors who looked like the people they were portraying, especially Hughes, Hans Bethe and Frank Oppenheimer.
Unfortunately, unlike the BBC series, this film does not go into the various technical problems the development of the A-Bomb encountered. Those involved in the project all pointed out how Oppenheimer was able to understand the various disciplines involved in building the bomb (physics, pyrotechnics, electronics, communications, shock waves, etc) and thus he was able to focus in on the best way to solve the various technical problems encountered.
One thing I found interesting is the fact that the film left in Haakon Chevalier's devastating critique of Oppenheimer where he says Oppenheimer was lying when he said the Chevalier had approached him with George Eltenton's proposal to transfer information on the Bomb to the Soviets. Chevalier emphatically denied that he supported this idea, saying only the national leaders could make such a decision, whereas the BBC series simply shows us a meeting in Oppenheimer's kitchen where the matter was discussed, but we are not told what was really said. The fact is that Oppenheimer maintained his friendship with Chevalier and he even visited him in Europe during the 1950's when the accusations against Oppenheimer were being loudly proclaimed.
It would have been very interesting to see Edward Teller, who in the hearings convened to determine whether Oppenheimer's security clearance should be revoked said he did not doubt Oppenheimer's loyalty but he did question his judgment, although it is reported that Teller spoke more harshly against him in early, closed meetings on the matter. It is too bad we don't see him in this film to hear how he perceived things 30 years later.

Finally, there is the famous question about whether it was necessary or moral to use the Bomb on the Japanese. Hughes says he is still troubled by the matter and that after Germany was defeated they should have stopped working on the bomb. Freeman Dyson says it was only used out of "bureaucratic inertia". Apparently these men forgot that a bloody war was being fought in the Pacific and that, contrary to the myths of the time this film was being made, they were NOT on the verge of surrender. Even if the US had not carried out an invasion of the Japanese Home Islands and had been willing to carry out a tight blockade for several months, far more Japanese would have died of hunger, disease and possible civil disorder. In addition, 100,000 Chinese were dying every month, so those who express concern for the Japanese civilians killed by the bomb (which is understandable) seem to forget the other Japanese civilians who would have starved to death or the civilians of the countries under Japanse occupation who were dying also, in addition to the Allied Prisoners-of-War (See Richard Frank's book "Downfall" for a full discussion of the matter).

Movie Review: A series of talking heads, doesn't add much to the history of the atomic bomb
Summary: 3 Stars

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.