- The Day After Trinity
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The Day After Trinity 
Photograph by Philippe Halsman (1958)Directed by Jon H. Else Produced by Jon H. Else
Peter Baker
(executive producer)Written by David Peoples
Janet Peoples
Jon ElseNarrated by Paul Frees Starring Hans Bethe
Robert Serber
Robert Wilson
Frank Oppenheimer
I.I. Rabi
Freeman Dyson
Stanislaw Ulam
J. Robert Oppenheimer (archive footage)Music by Martin Bresnick Cinematography Tom McDonough
David Espar
Stephen LighthillEditing by David Peoples
Ralph WikkeDistributed by Pyramid Films Release date(s) January 20, 1981 Running time 88 minutes Country United States Language English The Day After Trinity (a.k.a. The Day After Trinity: J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb) is a 1980 documentary film directed and produced by Jon H. Else in association with KTEH public television in San Jose, California. The film tells the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967), the theoretical physicist who led the effort to build the first atomic bomb, tested in July 1945 at Trinity site in New Mexico. Featuring candid interviews with several Manhattan Project scientists, as well as newly declassified archival footage, The Day After Trinity was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature of 1980, and received a Peabody Award in 1981.
The film's title comes from an interview seen near the conclusion of the documentary. Robert Oppenheimer is asked for his thoughts on Sen. Robert Kennedy's efforts to urge President Lyndon Johnson to initiate talks to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. "It's 20 years too late," Oppenheimer replies. After a pause he states, "It should have been done the day after Trinity."
Contents
Cast
- in order of first appearance[1]
- Haakon Chevalier — writer, friend of J. Robert Oppenheimer
- Hans Bethe — Los Alamos physicist, Nobel laureate in physics
- Francis Fergusson — writer, friend of J. Robert Oppenheimer
- Robert Serber — physicist, Los Alamos
- Robert Wilson — physicist, Los Alamos
- Frank Oppenheimer — physicist, Los Alamos, brother of Robert Oppenheimer
- I.I. Rabi — Manhattan Project physicist, Nobel laureate
- Freeman Dyson — physicist, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University
- Stirling Colgate — physicist, Los Alamos
- Stan Ulam — mathematician, Los Alamos
- Robert Porton — G.I., at Los Alamos during World War II
- Francoise Ulam — writer, wife of Stanislaw Ulam
- Dorothy McKibben — former head, Manhattan Project office, Santa Fe, New Mexico
- Robert Krohn — physicist, Los Alamos
- Jane Wilson — writer, wife of Robert Wilson
- Jon Else — filmmaker, interviewer
- Holm Bursom — rancher, Socorro, New Mexico
- Dave MacDonald — rancher, Socorro, New Mexico
- Susan Evans — resident, New Mexico
- Elizabeth Ingram — merchant, San Antonio, New Mexico
Appearing on archive film
Quote
You may well ask why people with kind hearts and humanist feelings — why they would go and work on weapons of mass destruction.
— Hans Bethe, at the beginning of The Day After Trinity
Home video releases
The Day After Trinity was released on VHS cassette by Pyramid Home Video, and on Region 1 DVD by Image Entertainment. A CD-ROM that was released in 1995 included interviews, transcripts, annotations, biographies and other information.[2]
References
- ^ Annotations from transcript of The Day After Trinity produced by PTV Publications, associated with the documentary's national broadcast on PBS April 29, 1981
- ^ Nichols, Peter M. Day After Trinity&st=cse, The New York Times, August 18, 1995
External links
- The Day After Trinity at the Internet Movie Database
- The Day After Trinity at AllRovi
Categories:- American films
- English-language films
- 1980 films
- American documentary films
- Manhattan Project
- Documentary films about nuclear war and weapons
- 1980s documentary films
- J. Robert Oppenheimer
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