Hacker Cinema
Manhattan
2014 · TV series · 43 min episodes · 2 seasons
Created by Sam Shaw
Set against the backdrop of the greatest clandestine race against time in the history of science with the mission to build the world's first atomic bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Flawed scientists and their families attempt to co-exist in a world where secrets and lies infiltrate every aspect of their lives.
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7 comments on Hacker News
I have been fascinated and intrigued by the figure of Oppenheimer ever since I saw him in the TV series Manhattan. It's one of my all-time favourite series, even though it's not very well known.
The author posts as /u/restricteddata on Reddit - often on /r/askhistorians, and always very informed and interesting. Consultant on the “Manhattan” TV series, too - which I enjoyed.
100,000 people die every day of diseases caused by aging. If that isn't an urgent reason, I'm not sure what would be.
http://santafejeeptours.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Santa-Fe-Jeep-Tours-Bonanza-Creek-Manhattan-Gate.jpg (from the TV show "Manhattan")
I was just watching season two of Manhattan, a fictionalization of the US atom bomb project. The writers looked like they borrowed elements of The Prisoner when the federal police are trying to break a potential spy. (I am only part way through)
I just finished watching the TV series Manhattan, about the Manhattan project. It was supposedly written with help from historians and physicists who know their stuff. This reminded me of one of their plot points that seemed realistic - a character suffered a potentially dangerous exposure, and the base doctor, feeling out of his depth, tries to reach out to somebody who knows better. After a few hours of chasing bureaucracy and secrecy, he eventually discovers that the official expert is listed as himself! There really isn't anybody who has any idea how exposure affected people, and they're just pushing ahead anyways because it's wartime.
Though fiction and overly dramatic I can recommend the show Manhattan (as mentioned in the caption). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3231564/
Most of all it reminds of Vikings. Not entirely accurate, but accurate enough that you get a feeling of the circumstances.
Indeed. The new WGN show "Manhattan" [1] was extremely disappointing in that regard. It's highly fictionalized, and having read TMAB and other books and articles about the project, I found most of its depictions of Los Alamos unrecognizable.
Among the scientists, only Oppenheimer is included (and the actor is horribly miscast); no mention of Fermi or Feynman or Teller or any of the others. If you're doing a series on the Manhattan project in Los Alamos, how can you not have Feynman skulking around cracking safes open and disobeying curfew (not to mention the tragedy of his wife's situation), or Teller keeping everyone awake by playing Bach loudly on his vintage Steinway far into the night?
The movie "Fat Man and Little Boy" is interesting, as it's a straight attempt at telling the Los Alamos story, but dramatically it falls pretty flat, and both lead roles are extremely miscast. (The most interesting part of it is a fictionalized version of the Slotin/Daghlian incidents where John Cusack gets radiated.)
The canniest casting of Oppenheimer so far was the 1980 miniseries "Oppenheimer" with Sam Waterston, which is great classic "theater television"; ultimately just a bunch of people talking, in various rooms, with a static camera and many closeups. Waterston looks quite a bit like Oppenheimer, and captures his combination of keen intelligence and boyish enthusiasm.
Edit: Forgot to say, Dark Sun is also interesting. Not as lyrical, but chock full of fascinating history.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_(TV_series)
[2] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078037/