Author Behind Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” on the Scientist’s Legacy | Amanpour and Company

Christopher Nolan’s epic film "Oppenheimer" lands in cinemas on Friday. It tells the story of the 1945 “Trinity test” in New Mexico, where the world’s first nuclear device was successfully detonated. The screenplay is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography "American Prometheus," written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. Bird speaks with Walter Isaacson about the triumph and tragedy of Robert Oppenheimer.

Originally aired on July 20, 2023

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Major support for Amanpour and Company is provided by the Anderson Family Charitable Fund, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim, III, Candace King Weir, Jim Attwood and Leslie Williams, Mark J. Blechner, Bernard and Denise Schwartz, Koo and Patricia Yuen, the Leila and Mickey Straus Family Charitable Trust, Barbara Hope Zuckerberg, Jeffrey Katz and Beth Rogers, the Filomen M. D’Agostino Foundation and Mutual of America.

Watch Amanpour and Company weekdays on PBS (check local listings).

Amanpour and Company features wide-ranging, in-depth conversations with global thought leaders and cultural influencers on the issues and trends impacting the world each day, from politics, business and technology to arts, science and sports. Christiane Amanpour leads the conversation on global and domestic news from London with contributions by prominent journalists Walter Isaacson, Michel Martin, Alicia Menendez and Hari Sreenivasan from the Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center in New York City.

#amanpourpbs

[ssotkow]

Thank you Kai Bird for such a detailed and engaging biography that took decades to complete. It's a shame Martin Sherwin passed just two years ago. He would've been proud. His co-authored biography becoming a best-seller for the first time ever, and the adapted film becoming a critical and box office success.

[behramcooper]

The Americans did to Oppie what the British did to Alan Turing. Instead of thanking him, Truman called him a cry baby scientist. No good deed goes unpunished.

[doodlemecrzy]

Such an apt movie for the right time. 3 hrs flew by in an instant. Kudos to Chris Nolan & the cast! Phenomenal piece of work!

[jaymacpherson]

The point at 8:25, “we don’t seem to have many scientific gurus around, ” which after 9:00 is equated to Oppenheimer’s public humiliation, is a common phenomenon even today. As a scientist, from my perspective the gurus of science are typically ignored out of others’ ignorance, fear, or self enrichment.

Oppenheimer’s experience is simply one of many examples. For instance, environmental scientists have known since well before the middle 1980s, when I learned the physics, about humanity’s impact on climate change. Only recently, with the growing weather-related tragedies around the world, has a significant portion of humanity begun to acknowledge our contribution to this phenomena. The decades of denial wound my heart.

[robvangessel]

Side point, to the question these men asked about whether the Bomb would put an end to the world's ability to conduct wars: they could not anticipate the role of profiteers. What Eisenhower came to address in his 1961 "beware the Military-Industrial Complex" speech. War makes big money for contractors, and conscience has no place where greed exists. No better example in America's history than the Iraq War from 2003 to 2011.

[Ozymandi_as]

When news of the first bomb at Hiroshima reached occupied Singapore, the personnel of the Japanese imperial army who were stationed there took fright and panicked. In the various detention camps scattered across the island, allied prisoners witnessed the extraordinary spectacle of sudden pandemonium in the quarters of their captors of three-and-a-half years, who burst shouting and screaming from every door, and ran straight for the jungle, leaving the compound gates open wide, and their stunned captives free to walk tentatively out of them and wander among the islanders in shared disbelief. Everyone had been aware that the war was going badly for the Japanese, from their dwindling rations of food and water, and the increasingly agitated behaviour of the guards and soldiers, many of whom were psychotic by training. There was a real anxiety that a Japanese withdrawal from the island might be preceded by orders to have them killed - random violence, executions and massacres had always been integral to the warcraft of the Imperial Army, which had a fundamental philosophical contempt for any warrior that surrendered in battle, and generally held the lives of both their military and civilian captives as cheap. Although Japan was a signatory to the Geneva convention, its provisions were routinely flouted by the imperial military establishment, under which countless war crimes were committed. On Singapore, tens of thousands had already died, either from the habitual violence or systemic neglect of the occupiers (and across the Pacific theatre, the fatalities of Japanese aggression were estimated to be in the millions) so the fears were real, and all too well justified. Then all of a sudden, a moment came when the oppressors fled in terror. What of, however, was unclear, as no allied forces appeared on the island until a couple of days later. For all the novel terrors this war of technology and industrial production had produced, no-one living at that time knew or could conceive of a nuclear weapon, let alone be able to imagine the catastrophic destructive power such a device could have. The first reports of it had filled samurai war criminals with existential terror; and after 1200 days of abusive deprivation and coercive fear, their victims were scarcely able believe that their ordeal might be at an end, still less conceive of the cause.

Liberation could not save the dead, but came just in time for others who were suffering the effects of severe malnutrition and dehydration, tropical diseases that had gone untreated, and the exhaustion of hope. One such prisoner was my father, whose body had wasted to just 90 lbs, and knew from having watched so many of his comrades die that his own death was all but inevitable, until a miracle came just in time to save him. He was very sick, and had to spend three months in a British military hospital in Bombay before he was strong enough for the long sea voyage home.

He did recover, physically at least. PTSD was one of WW II's major innovations, but it would be some years before neuroscience and psychology were able to name, describe or treat it, and social attitudes towards any kind of mental distress, especially in men, were extremely negative. So many returning servicemen, and others who had survived intense encounters with conflict, experienced lasting distress that they were unable to acknowledge even to themselves, let alone seek diagnosis, treatment or support. The PoWs who returned from the far east were welcomed by their families, but there was little interest or understanding for what they had experienced and survived in wider society. Dad was a courageous and determined man in many ways, but he was also damaged, and never really recovered from his experience. He rarely talked about the war, but I know that he strongly believed that he owed his life to the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and the tens of thousands of deaths it caused. So I've long been aware that I too owe my own existence to the bomb, which is a sobering thing to know. Oppenheimer's story, his achievement at Los Alamos, and his sunbsequent struggles, both with his conscience and the US political and military establishment during the early years of the cold war, have been of interest to me for a long time. He was a complicated man who lived a complicated life. He is a fascinating subject for creative artists, and it's a little surprising that Christopher Nolan is the first film maker to take him on.

There was a bbc tv series in the 80s that was pretty good if I remember rightly; and in 2005, American composer John Adam wrote an opera about him (an Op-enheim-era perhaps?) which he titled Doctor Atomic, that I liked so much I saw it three times. I look forward to seeing what Nolan and his cast have made of Oppenheimer's extraordinary life.

[kjam]

Two of my favorite authors. I wish this was a regular segment!! Kai's written many tour de forces but not as much of the recognition...this should change.

[lidarman]

THat interaction about Nobel Prize is one of the best dialogs in the movie!

[grahamfloyd]

There is no public space for intellectuals. The public wants to be lied to. Fortunately there are venues where they can speak and reach an audience that wants them.

[willbee]

Your dads service will never be forgotten by millions. Our families story is not too different from yours.

[gordonwilson]

Oppenheimer wanted to show how destructive atomic weapons are but the US administration wanted to show how powerful they are.

[gordonwilson]

We have let money dictate. “We” meaning the USA with the rest made to follow. President Eisenhower’s warning about the Military-Industrial Complex went unheeded.
Money has bought democracy so ethics and the common good are ignored.
Any mention of social concern in the US is labelled Communist.
This is very difficult for the rest of the World.

[ApolloVIIIYouAreGoForTLI]

Amazing book & definitely still worth reading if you've seen the movie.

Also damn!, Walter Isaacson is doing the interview? I guess he's the right person for the job as he knows a thing or two about Biographies.

[abba]

Politicians will always berate Intellectuals, especially Scientists!!

[robvangessel]

Great discussion. And a vital one to continue. I'm really anxious to see Christopher Nolan's film, and I want to get the Kai Bird-Martin J. Sherwin book.

[kevinjenner]

The first film within Japan to address the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was commissioned by the Japanese Teachers Unions. The film, “Children of Hiroshima” was released in 1952 at the end of the American occupation. A somber and poignant film with an underlying message of hope.

[michaelboguski]

Professor Chomsky has been warning us for decades...
I hope I leave this life before the Weapons are used again.
Thank You Professor Chomsky!

[laneromel]

What shocked me the most about Oppenheimer, was how unbelievably stupid Truman was.

[roseschneier]

Agree with Nigel re: dropping the bomb did save lives in the short term-on both sides. But this "winning the war" has actually been dwarfed by the larger "war" between the forces of peace and the forces of violence, chaos, and authoritarianism that could still use nuclear weapons to destroy our world.

[beckymiller]

The tech geeks who are developing AI and other robotic technologies are NOT 'polymaths'...are probably woefully undereducated in the humanities, and incapable of the thought experiments that could foresee consequences on humanity.