April 7 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace
Trinity and Beyond (The Atomic Bomb Movie) is an award winning documentary on the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, focusing principally on the U.S. testing program. It spans the time from the preparations for the Trinity test in 1945 to (roughly) the conclusion of U.S. and Soviet atmospheric testing with the signing of the atmospheric test ban treaty. Its approach is to describe the testing program from the point of view of the weaponeers - what was being tested and why. The only interviewees in the movie are Edward Teller and Frank Shelton, two weapons physicists who are very decidedly non-ambivalent about their weapons related careers.
The movie is very well done. A remarkable collection of test footage has been assembled, much of it truly spectacular, and some of it novel and surprising - even to people already familiar with the U.S. test programs. The technical quality of the production is excellent. Professional computer animation and graphics is used to good effect in illustrating devices and test arrangements. A combination of contemporary narration by William Shatner, and "newsreel" style narration is used to good effect to provide background, establish context, and provide continuity. The original symphonic score, reminiscent of Carmina Burana, is quite effective.
Some of the highlights:
Explore the documentary film "Trinity and Beyond"
Trinity and Beyond (The Atomic Bomb Movie) is an award winning documentary on the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, focusing principally on the U.S. testing program. It spans the time from the preparations for the Trinity test in 1945 to (roughly) the conclusion of U.S. and Soviet atmospheric testing with the signing of the atmospheric test ban treaty. Its approach is to describe the testing program from the point of view of the weaponeers - what was being tested and why. The only interviewees in the movie are Edward Teller and Frank Shelton, two weapons physicists who are very decidedly non-ambivalent about their weapons related careers.
The movie is very well done. A remarkable collection of test footage has been assembled, much of it truly spectacular, and some of it novel and surprising - even to people already familiar with the U.S. test programs. The technical quality of the production is excellent. Professional computer animation and graphics is used to good effect in illustrating devices and test arrangements. A combination of contemporary narration by William Shatner, and "newsreel" style narration is used to good effect to provide background, establish context, and provide continuity. The original symphonic score, reminiscent of Carmina Burana, is quite effective.
Some of the highlights:
- footage of the pre-Trinity 100 ton test (which I had never before seen);
- footage of the atomic weapons being prepared and loaded on the B-29s for their missions against Japan (ditto);
- footage of the Cylinder device, tested in Greenhouse George (this film material is apparently the only concrete information about the device that is available);
- footage of the various thermonuclear tests (I had only seen stills before);
- interior shots of a Squaw submarine being crushed in a subsurface weapon test;
- Soviet footage of the test of the largest hydrogen bomb ever tested (the 50 Mt Tsar Bomba), including its assembly(!).
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