The Manhattan Project in Oppenheimer with Alice Lovejoy

BASED ON A TRUE STORY (BOATS EP. 383) — Did the Oppenheimer movie get the Manhattan Project right? Today, we'll dig into the film's portrayal of the project. From the Los Alamos we see in the movie to what we don't see in the movie such as Oak Ridge's massive factories, Hanford's plutonium production, and more that you don't ever see in the movie.

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Alice Lovejoy is the author of Tales of Militant Chemistry, film scholar, and a professor at the University of Minnesota. She'll join us today to unravel the true story behind the Manhattan Project in the movie.

Find more of Alice's work

• Army Film and the Avant Garde
• Remapping Cold War Media
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Listen to the other BOATS episode on Oppenheimer

Chapters

00:00 Manhattan Project Overview

04:50 Uranium vs. Plutonium Bombs

09:45 Scale of the Project

15:28 Einstein's Role

20:42 Trinity Test Depiction

25:04 Radiation Concerns

30:51 Project's End & Legacy

33:52 Post-War Impacts

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