Only 15 days to go. I have been waiting for this movie since last year. A fascinating period in history. I have a read a little bit about Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project, so I hope this movie doesn't take too many liberties with historical facts.
I have read many books on Oppenheimer and the history of the atomic and
hydrogen bombs and I'm looking forward to the Christopher Nolan movie
as well.
I note in the trailer details like the Szilard/Teller meeting with Einstein and
a visit to Stagg Field at the University of Chicago no doubt en-route to
visit Fermi.
The story of Oppenheimer himself reads like a modern Greek tragedy.
The synergy between Oppenheimer and Leslie Groves is key to the project.
The backstory of Oppenheimer's relationships with Kitty and Jean Tatlock
and his brother Frank are also key in understanding the man.
The friction between he and AEC chairman Lewis Strauss and the
overly-ambitious Teller and the backdrop of Cold-War paranoia
results in his sad fall from favour.
One of the better treatments was the 8-part 8-hour BBC drama, "Oppenheimer"
made in 1980 starring Sam Waterston as Oppenheimer and David Suchet
as Edward Teller.
For a highly detailed historical telling of the development of the
bomb rather than the story of Oppenheimer, the book I recommend the
most to the interested reader is Richard Rhodes Pulitzer Prize winning
"The Making of the Atomic".
It tells a story more fantastic, vast and epic than even any fiction dreamt
up by an incredible imagination of the likes of a Tolkien.
If any of you listen to the very amusing "The Rest is History" podcast, there is a recent episode about Openheimer's career, done in response to the film release.
As the movie Oppenheimer is released, Ben Platts-Mills explores the true story
of the enigmatic Manhattan Project scientist,
and the atomic bomb that made him a "destroyer of worlds".
An excellent read is Ray Monk's "Inside the Centre, The Life of J. Robert Oppenheimer" around 800 pages, took considerably longer to read than watching the 3 hour film. I still think the 1980 BBC mini series was really well done, 7 hours running time from memory.
In the late sixties I read a book by Robert Jungk about the nuclear scientists, titled "Brighter than a thousand suns". It was later translated from German into English and has several articles about Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project in general. A very good read and available for free (I think) on the net.
