#33 - Day After Trinity: Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb

Uh oh. It's gonna get all educational in here. Thats right. We got us here a documentary about the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer. This is a PBS documentary from the early 80's, and has all the fun and excitement of a PBS documentary from the early 80's. Honestly, it's hard to find something to write about it. It's informative, well researched, and thouroughly presented. It's just kind of boring.

To be honest, I did get interested at certain points. There was a lot of information that I didn't know about. For instance, I didn't know that the atomic bomb went from development, through initial testing, and into actual usage in about two years. That absolutely blows my mind. And the fact that the people working on the project were so unbelievably diligent to the point that they really didn't think ahead towards what it was they were making it for. It just seems bizarre to me to think that there was this undertaking that the people involved had great pride in, but the consequences weren't completely considered. I'm not passing judgement on the scientists working on the Manhattan Project, it's just an amazing thing to try and wrap my head around.

The thing that struck me the most was the response of the scientists and the United States after the bomb was actually used. Most of the scientists were completely shocked when they heard that the bomb was used. There was genuine guilt after the entirety of what the result of their work was finally hit them. The most unfortunate thing was that Oppenheimer became a bit of a celebrity as he went around the country promoting proper testing and regulations, but during the red scare was accused of being a Communist and was eventually disgraced. What kind of of crap is that? Here is a man who devoted his whole being into developing a weapon of tremendous signifcance that eventually led to the end of the war, and he is treated like a traitor. Shameful. Led to his early death. Kind of sad when you think about it.

So, the story that is told in this documentary is quite interesting. Lots of information I didnt know presented in a dry, boring format. I'm sure there is some movie out there that could tell this story in a more intersting way, but then you get the bending of the truth for dramatic purposes and that's not always the best. I guess I would say that if you are really interested in this topic, watch this documentary. If you are only sort of interested, get a book or something. If you arent interested at all, you just wasted two minutes of your time reading this and I am openly mocking you for that. Nice work...sucker.