The Bomb (film)

The Bomb
DVD cover
GenreDocumentary film
Written byRushmore DeNooyer
Directed byRushmore DeNooyer
Narrated byJonathan Adams
Theme music composerTodd Hutchisen (music editor)
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodesOne-episode (about two-hours)
Production
ProducerLone Wolf Media
EditorsDoug Quade
Ryan Shepheard
Running time114:39 minutes
Original release
NetworkPBS
ReleaseJuly 28, 2015 (2015-07-28)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

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,[1][2] to their global political implications in the present day.[3][4][5][6][7][8] 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.[5]

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.”[7] 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."[9] 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.”[3]

  1. ^ Dunlap, David W. (August 6, 2015). "Looking Back - 1945 - Witnessing the A-Bomb, but Forbidden to File". New York Times. Retrieved August 7, 2015.(re William L. Laurence, Pulitzer prize-winning science journalist for the New York Times)
  2. ^ Southard, Susan (August 7, 2015). "Nagasaki, the Forgotten City". New York Times. Retrieved August 8, 2015.
  3. ^ a b Staff (July 28, 2015). "PBS - The Bomb - It Changed The World ... And Continues To Shape Our Lives". PBS. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  4. ^ Rabinowitz, Dorothy (July 23, 2015). "'The Bomb' Review: The Weapon That Ended the War - Seventy years after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a look at the creation of the world's most destructive weapon". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  5. ^ a b Contreras, Russell (July 27, 2015). "PBS special 'The Bomb' seeks to tell story of atomic weapons for 70th anniversary". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  6. ^ Contreras, Russell (July 28, 2015). "Correction: The Bomb Story". ABC News. Archived from the original on August 1, 2015.
  7. ^ a b Nott, Robert (July 27, 2015). "TV documentary explores making of atomic bombs". The Santa Fe New Mexican. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  8. ^ Bianco, Robert (July 28, 2015). "TV tonight: 'The Bomb' on PBS". USA Today. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  9. ^ Dawidziak, Mark (July 25, 2015). "'The Bomb' takes a 70-year run through the nuclear age". Cleveland Plain Dealer. Retrieved August 1, 2015.