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A film by Arthur Mac Caig
Distributed by First Run/Icarus Films, 1995
56 minutes
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Atomic Age
Film
I Am Become Death:
They Made the Bomb
In 1955, ten years after two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, Robert Oppenheimer, the brilliant director of the Manhattan project, spoke these haunting words from Indian scripture: "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." "Oppie," whose work changed the course of WWII and, perhaps, the future of humanity, was, at the time, caught in the anti-communist fervor of the era. A decade before, he had been a hero. I Am Become Death: They Made the Bomb is a chronicle of the Manhattan Project and the scientists who worked on it... Read the complete film description
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Essay
The Atomic Age
The invention of nuclear weapons is the hallmark of a period of enormous significance often called the "atomic age." Around the seventeenth century and the end of the nineteenth century, scientists felt fairly comfortable that they understood the "atom" as the basic building block. Their confidence was shaken, however, with the discovery of radioactivity and the special theory of relativity. Both showed that the atom, thought to be unchangeable, actually decayed from one element into another, and that matter was not permanent. Not lost upon the scientists was the fact that the process of radioactive disintegration emitted large amounts of energy... Read the complete essay
Suggested Reading
Now It Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project. Groves, Leslie R. Da Capo Press. ISBN: 0-306-80189-2. (December 1983). $18.50 Quarks and Sparks: The Story of Nuclear Power. Kidd, J. S.; Kidd, Renee A. 141 pages. Facts On File. ISBN: 0-8160-3587-3. (1999). $19.95 More suggested reading
Recommended Films
Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb. (1995; ref. 1997) 92min. Goldhil Home Video. $24.95
Examines the history of the atomic hydrogen bombs. Narrated by William Shatner. I Am Become Death: They Made the Bomb. (1995; ref. 1996) 55min. First Run/Icarus Films. $390
Interviews with some of the Manhattan Project scientists about the creation of the Trinity bomb and their life at the top secret Los Alamos base.
http://www.frif.com/cat97/f-j/iamdeath.html More Films
Still Picture Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division (NWCS-S), National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001 PHONE: 301-837-3530, FAX: 301-837-3621, EMAIL: stillpix@nara.gov
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