The Half-Life of Genius Physicist Raemer Schreiber

This cerebral and technical documentary will make you use your brain cells, and probably could have used better editing as it runs nearly 2 hours in length. It focuses on the very important contributions of physicist Raemer Schreiber, who played a vital role in the building of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos, New Mexico, and went on to also contribute greatly to scientific projects post WW II, such as nuclear rockets and the hydrogen bomb.

Schreiber was one of the few physicists in the world who had the wherewithal to actually construct an atomic bomb piece by piece. In WW II, as America raced against the Nazis to build the bomb, Schreiber was entrusted to accompany the Plutonium core of the Fat Man bomb to Tinian Island, in the Marianas, which would eventually be the second atomic bomb dropped, this one on Nagasaki, Japan.

Rather fascinating to watch the film and stills of the social events at Los Alamos, for the workers on the Manhattan Project, to relieve their stress. But also quite interesting to note that with each unit sworn to its own secrecy they couldn't discuss any "day at the office" details among each other.

I particularly liked the contributions in the movie from Pulitzer Prize winning author Richard Rhodes, who not only is an expert on this subject but has a way of transcribing very technical details into language a layman can understand.

Overall, I certainly learned some new info in this doc but it's not for everyone, as I see it. However for those who like to expand their horizons and, as mentioned, use the old cranium there are rewards to be found here.

A very long overdue acknowledgement of a major player in the US nuclear program who isn't Oppie or Teller or Feynman.. providing a balanced story line with a bit of personal insight into this man with close family members and colleagues sharing their memories of him.

Richard Rhodes, as always provides a competent contexturral and general overview considering his long and detailed service having interviewed pretty much 'everyone' involved in the business.

The downsides are that it felt a bit too long with unnecessary "fill" that just made you reach for the remote to ffwd on occasions. The biggest issue for me however, is that the audio-only Schreiber interviews should've been accompanied with sub-titles... there's just too much background noise and worse he mumbles on occasion and I found it very hard to hear what he had said - it is VERY DISTRACTING.

All in all though, it's a refreshing historical record and its in my library now for good. It's a YES from me.

WAY too chronological up front. Boring in the extreme while farming etc. but worth it. Fast forward a few minutes or stick it out. Slightly unusually interesting stuff for the Manhattan project recruiting stuff with many of the familiar faces, then he gets increasingly interesting jobs, which you've often never quite heard about. Good stories, and he also recorded a grainy audio interview, so we get a fair amount of his own voice in them.