Watch Oppenheimer For Free

the audience applauded

Admirable film.

A Disappointing Continuation

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It is a great disservice that the original PBS series, Oppenheimer, is not sold on DVD or rebroadcast. The interpersonal dynamics of the key players of the turning point of American history are captured. It is as if one is really there, watching all this take place. The piano solo, razor sharp writing, and phenomenal acting are burned into my memory forever. American kids need a chance to see this, so that the development of nuclear weaponry is not relegated to a single line in a history textbook in their frame of reference. This series did an excellent job of setting the tone of political tension, immersing the viewer in the period, and projecting the ramifications of not only the bomb, but consequences of the many powerful bureaus behind its development.

I posted on IMDb on this series recently, giving a snail mail address at the commercial arm of the BBD where one would write to appeal release. I wrote to that address, mentioning Sam Waterson and his popularity prominently. I just received the following reply: From: [email protected] Subject: Oppenheimer Date: May 14, 2006 1:44:00 PM MDT To: [email protected] Dear Kate, I work for the BBFC, the British equivalent to the MPAA, and we classify DVDs and videos as well as films in this country. Anyway, I am currently in the process of giving a certificate to the 1980 miniseries 'Oppenheimer.' While researching the work on the IMDb, I noticed your post and thought you might like to know that the work is about to be released (hence the need for a certificate). I don't know which company is distributing it, but keep your eyes peeled! Kind regards, Emily +++++++++++++++++ hooray! I also want to contact Netflix re purchasing this. Kate Killebrew [email protected] I emailed the BBC recently regarding whether their terrific series Oppenheimer had ever been released on video or DVD. I have not been able to find it. I received the following reply. If you do write the BBC, be sure to mention that Sam Waterston is very popular in the US. You can also enter "Oppenheimer (1980)" on amazon.com, and find a box to check to request release by the owner (BBC) and be notified when it's released. Kate Killebrew [email protected]'s the reply from the BBC:Dear KateThank you for your e-mail regarding 'Oppenheimer'.I was interested to read that you would like a copy of this programme which you have enjoyed. I have checked the BBC Shop and on-line retailers and can find no record of it being available. We are unaware of plans at present to release this programme on DVD. However, if you would like to make a suggestion, can I suggest you put it in writing to the commercial arm of the BBC:Commissioning Editor BBC Worldwide Ltd Woodlands 80 Wood Lane London W12 0TTMay I thank you again for taking the time to contact the BBC.RegardsElaine Hunter BBC Information ______________________________________-----Original Message-----{Comments:} i am trying to find a copy of the terrific BBC production "Oppenheimer', a six part series made in 1980 with Sam Waterston from a book/script by Peter Prince. I watched parts of it then on PBS American Playhouse, but can't find it on video anywhere.http://www.bbc.co.uk/

This is the best work i have ever seen on television. The story is compelling--all the more so because it is true. The writers did their homework--the accuracy of events is well documented. The acting is great. This has to be the best role Sam Waterston has ever had. And the black and white cinematography was exceptional. My only regret is that it is not available to buy. A few years ago I contacted someone involved with the production (either with PBS or in England) and was told they had no plans to release it on VHS (at the time). This was a BBC production and ran in the U.S. on American Playhouse. There is such an interest in seeing this--just hard to believe no one can make it available.

Like an earlier commenter, I saw it in 1980 and have never been able to shake the memory of the gripping story and splendid acting. The dramatic score by Carl Davis is majestically bombastic, as befits a story about a bomb, and hard to forget. The film certainly contains some of Sam Waterston's finest work. He and the writers depict Oppenheimer not simply as an unjustly victimized hero -- which he was -- but also as naive, fond of alcohol, given to mixing with the wrong women and the wrong political crowd, and snobbish, a rounded portrait instead of a stereotype.Dozens of scientists are gathered together in the New Mexico desert to work on the first atomic bomb. Oppenheimer runs the brains, but the general in charge of the overall operation -- building the bomb, building the buildings, maintaining security -- is Leslie Groves, the Grand Panjandrum who pronounces Russians as "Roosians". He's an engineer and constantly worried that these commie eggheads are doing too much talking and not enough work. "We've got the finest scientists in the WORLD," he crows, "and they're all OURS." They include immigrants, many of them Jews, from Italy, Hungary, Britain, Germany, and so forth, as Oppenheimer points out. "Yes -- but they all come HERE!", shouts groves, indignant and puzzled.All of the characters are as complex as they would be in real life. We see plenty of Oppenheimer's anguish as he obeys the military. But in many ways, the figure of General Leslie Groves (Manning Redwood) is the most interesting because his complexity is reduced to a point that renders it easy to grasp. We, as adults, can empathize with ambiguity better than we can understand the simple single-mindedness of a child.He's a chauvinist and a moral nihilist. Instead of a dozen scientists cooperating on different parts of the bomb, he wants to seal them off from each other to enhance security, which is anathema to these idealists. One can easily imagine a heroic John Wayne in the role. "It's INTERESTING? I don't want something interesting; I want a BOMB." (Groves is usually shouting.) He seems almost to set out to make a buffoon of himself in the eyes of all these academics. One of his exit lines from an argument is that he doesn't have a Ph.D. like the rest of them but he's spent eleven years in military administration and construction. "Let's see. That's the equivalent of two Ph.D.s, isn't it?" He leaves the eggheads agog as he sweeps through the door because the only thing that matters to them is their brilliance and the usefulness of their contributions to the project.And when the gadget is finally used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and everyone is watching films of the destruction -- both cities laid waste; prisons, schools, hospitals and individuals vanished -- the scientists are thoughtful and silent. Not General Groves. He's jumping for joy. "One bomb did all that -- and it's OURS!" One hundred and fifty four prisoners dead in their cells? "Right on the BUTTON!" Later he chides Oppenheimer for his remorse, assuring him that he'll get over it. But, as adults, we know that it was a terrible instrument of war and it was terrible to use it, whether we had any choice or not. How many of Edward Teller's "superbombs" do we and the rest of the world have in our arsenals now. It must be in the thousands, isn't it?Of course this is a topical biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, not the story of the conception, building, and deployment of the first atomic bombs. If you want the context, an hour-long documentary is available free on YouTube: The Moment in Time: The Manhattan Project. It's interesting in its own right.This was one of the finest miniseries I've ever seen on television, and there wasn't a serial murderer in it, unless they were all serial murderers.