The Bomb (2015)

Directed by

Rushmore DeNooyer

Genre

documentary film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 55m

Rated

PG

Rating

6.8 of 10 from 16 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary traces the development of nuclear weapons from early scientific theories to their use in World War Two and the ongoing global dangers they pose today. It covers key events like the Cold War, the arms race, and political crises using declassified footage.

informativesoberingarchivaleducationalhistoricalseriousneutral-tonedfast-paced

What happens

The Bomb is a 2015 American documentary film about the history of nuclear weapons, from theoretical scientific considerations at the very beginning, to their first use on August 6, 1945, to their global political implications in the present day. The film was written and directed by Rushmore DeNooyer for PBS. The project took a year and a half to complete, since much of the film footage and images were only recently declassified by the United States Department of Defense. According to DeNooyer, “It wouldn’t take very many bombs to really change life on Earth, ... The idea that there are thousands of them sitting around is pretty scary. I don’t think people today realize that. They don’t think about it. I don’t think they are scared. But in a way, they should be.” Mark Dawidziak, of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, summarized the film as follows: "The Bomb moves swiftly to cover Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Cold War, the arms race, the Red Scare, the witch hunt, the Cuban Missile Crisis, test-ban treaties, the "Star Wars" initiative, the anti-nuke movement, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of new nuclear threats." According to historian Richard Rhodes, “The invention [of 'The Bomb'] was a millennial change in human history: for the first time, we were now capable of our own destruction, as a species.” (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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