Oppenheimer: The Real Story | Documentary

The documentary covers Oppenheimer's contribution to nuclear physics as a professor and leader of the Los Alamos Laboratory.

Director: Robin Bextor

0:00 The documentary
2:48 Insights into the privileged and intense upbringing of Robert Oppenheimer, his isolation as a child, and his attempts to distance himself from his Jewish identity.
8:24 Oppenheimer had a privileged childhood but felt trapped, leading him to seek adventure in New Mexico.
16:49 J. Robert Oppenheimer's early life, academic achievements, and political awakening.
23:39 Robert Oppenheimer's involvement with the Communist Party and his role in the Manhattan Project.
31:19 Oppenheimer, a non-Nobel Prize winning physicist, was chosen to lead the Manhattan Project due to his ability to communicate and manage people effectively.
39:44 The social life and atmosphere at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project, Oppenheimer's role as a leader, and the anxiety and tension leading up to the Trinity test.
49:39 The moral and ethical dilemmas faced by Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, during the development and use of the bomb during World War II.
57:14 Oppenheimer tries to convince Truman to establish an international atomic agency, but Truman dismisses him and decides to use the bomb. The Soviet Union's atomic bomb and the arrest of Klaus Fuchs lead to discussions about building a hydrogen bomb.
1:02:55 Oppenheimer's opposition to the hydrogen bomb led to suspicions of him working for the Soviets and a security case against him.
1:09:44 J. Robert Oppenheimer's reputation and career were destroyed due to false accusations of being a security risk and working for the Communist Party during the McCarthy era.
1:20:07 Robert Oppenheimer's reputation is restored through an interview on the Ed Murrow show, where he discusses the Institute for Advanced Study and the moral implications of nuclear weapons.
1:23:57 J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Institute for Advanced Studies, was a complex and enigmatic figure who made significant contributions to science and faced challenges in his personal and professional life.
1:32:32 Oppenheimer represents the development of reason turned irrational and destructive, yet he was also a polymath and tried to contain the bomb.

[babyboomer]

I was a student at UC Berkeley from 1965-1968. I studied between classes at a large study room at LeConte Hall, the Physics building. During breaks in my studies I would go upstairs and check out the different offices. At the time there were five offices on one floor, each a Nobel prize winner in physics. One of them had the name of J. Robert Oppenheimer…even though he was no longer on faculty! That’s how much he was honored.

[Cherrysmith]

My father was a navigator on a B29 bomber that was tasked with dropping a third atomic bomb on Japan. I am so thankful that he never had to be part of a third bomb and so much death and destruction. Upon his discharge from service after the war, my mild mannered Dad, an Iowa boy from a tiny town, finished college in Iowa to become a dentist. Then he moved back to San Antonio, Texas, where he had been stationed in the war, to start his dental practice. He died in 2020 of COVID, at the age of 94.

[janewalton]

Having watched the movie. mostly because of Nolan as Director and its 13 Oscar nominations, I was completely captivated by the complexity of Oppenheimer's character and moral sensitivity.
I was looking for something really substantial by way of a documentary to deepen my understanding. I found it here. Congratulations and thank you to all involved.

[meteorable]

I was just 12 yo when the atomic bombs changed the world. I am now 90 yo and lived through the start of the nuclear age, the cold war, plastics, antibiotics, rockets, computers, DNA tech, now AI ....WOW what a ride!

[IwaoNishida]

As a Japanese, I can’t help thinking that he is in charge of the death of hundreds of thousand people.
However, after watching this, I thought that he is just a good citizen who has loyalty to the US and is a genius scientist who realized nuclear power on earth.
The story of his life was so impressive. I am thankful to the author of this video.

[dls]

Great, well produced and particularly well edited presentation of some very thoughtful people discussing an extremely complicated man.

[parvezmehta]

Outstanding presentation....allows the viewer to actually understand the documentary...perfect speed of speech...

[fatdad]

My GOD... this documentary actually broke my heart & restored my faith in humanity x Great job.

[scientologyismyruin]

Truly one of the best biographical documentaries I’ve had the privilege of watching. Thank you for sharing this. 😊🇨🇦

[irmgardjames]

BRAVO!!! A Masterpiece of Documentary Film Making!!! The Brilliance, Genius, Intellectual Prowess, Journey of a human life's path into ravenous appetite for Academic perfection, Dominance, Expansion...AND the discovery of his own humanity...you successfully portray this. Leaving the viewer to be free to have their experience, without manipulation/corruption!

[nikitaegorov]

Finally, a good documentary with historians and biographers, not movie directors.

[mayuramv.sankaran]

Wow what a presentation. I feel like now I know what Prof Openheimer was like when he lived. And I feel sad for him. He deserved better in life.

[RamasamyArumugam]

It was one of the best documentary films on Professor Oppenheimer that I have ever seen.

[RenataCantore]

Thank you for this exquisitely detailed presentation. It was most enlightening.

[mr.frederickson]

This documentary was well made and presented in a fine manner.

[AZAce]

In the early 90s I lived in Los Alamos and I must say that environment was different from anywhere I have lived and worked since. You had the beauty of the forests, the mountains, streams and so much more but at the same time you had the cutting edge technology, it was a strange balance but it works to this day. Would you believe we didn’t even take the car keys out of the car at the grocery store?

[lasergirlnm]

My parents both worked at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, from July 1944 to October 1945. Daddy was an engine mechanic on engines of all sorts--after his career as a mechanic on B-17s in Memphis. Mother was the only female electrician on the complex, and worked in a room where the electricity would pull bobby pins from her hair. Neither knew what they were doing, were working on or for, but on August 7 when they discovered what had happened, they suddenly knew they had been a big part of the Manhattan Project. For many years they didn't talk about what they had done, only 50 years later did they fully divulge their jobs and their contribution to the project. Pride doesn't begin to describe the feelings I have for my parents at that time in our history.

[suzannestubbins]

Oppenheimer after the release of the two atomic bombs, he immediately recognized the danger the world was in, but was unable to translate this at the time. The world didn't understand nor ready, to recognized this danger, crucified this man for the next fifty years. What a tragedy, imagine what he could have created over time.

[steventroyer]

What a tribute. What heights a man can attain even without faith in God. He had far more conscience and sense of the sacredness of life than some who do believe in God.
Thank you for this amazing work.

[melissamorton]

I was born in Lubbock, TX but moved back to New Mexico before I was a year old. I love NM and will always consider it home. My grandmother brought her husband and children here from her unwillingness to raise her children in Alabama. I had a rare thyroid cancer at age 13 and one of my sons got the same cancer in his early 20s. He was told it was definitely related to the atomic bomb testing that occured in NM