Daily Archives: May 7, 2024

The Day After Trinity (1981)

The Day After Trinity
Directed by Jon Else
Written by Jon Else, David Webb Peoples, and Janet Peoples
1981/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube

J. Robert Oppenheimer: [on the proposal for talks to halt the spread of nuclear weapons] It’s twenty years too late. It should have been done the day after Trinity.

We get a much different impression of J. Robert Oppenheimer in this excellent documentary than we did in the latest Best Picture winner Oppenheimer.

This is a biography of the man who oversaw the development of the atomic bomb.  We see him progress from idealistic student to brilliant physicist, to lionized inventor, to disgrace during the McCarthy era.  He is far different from the vain womanizer portrayed by Cillian Murphy.

This is a very well-done documentary with interviews of people who knew the man and I learned a lot.  It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.