To End All War: Oppenheimer & the Atomic Bomb

The documentary covers the Manhattan Project and the life of Robert Oppenheimer, from building the bomb to the security hearing. What the scientists at Los Alamos knew, when they understood it and how the decision was made are taken in order. Christopher Cassel directed. It rests on interviews with historians, physicists and biographers who have worked on Oppenheimer, using archive footage and period recordings. Its most interesting section is the security hearing of 1954: the revocation of his clearance is treated as a personal purge and the political climate of the period is given in detail. Its timing was not accidental; it was released alongside the large-scale fiction film on the same subject and promoted accordingly. The telling is in the language of television documentary: sequential, explanatory, with no formal ambition. Who it is for: viewers interested in the history of science and the argument over nuclear weapons. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a cinematic experience; the production concentrates on conveying information.