‘The Strangest Dream’: The Manhattan Project from another perspective
The successful release of Oppenheimer has renewed interest in the intriguing events leading to the development of the atomic bomb, relating to the complex science behind it and the politics surrounding it. Christopher Nolan’s film also touched on the philosophical and ethical issues brought up by the creation of such an overwhelmingly powerful weapon and its potential use in war.
The revived interest in J. Robert Oppenheimer and the secret US programme known as the Manhattan Project leads to a lesser-known film: a 2008 documentary that tells the story of nuclear scientist Joseph Rotblat, the only scientist to voluntarily leave the Manhattan Project due to moral concerns. Neither Rotblat himself, his involvement with the project, nor his later work – which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize as well as a knighthood many years later – are mentioned in Nolan’s monumental work, an interesting omission in a film with such a vast and inclusive cast, in which virtually every scientist connected to the project was given at least a cameo appearance.
Documentarian Eric Bednarski, writer and director of The Strangest Dream, follows Rotblat’s career, paralleled with the progress of atomic weapon development and with a deep dive into the practical and philosophical problems with this new level of technology. Bednarski uses continuous historical footage to illustrate the account, along with recorded interviews with Manhattan Project scientists and clips of an array of historical figures, including Josef Stalin, prominent physicists, the former mayor of Hiroshima, and Rotblat himself. The film continues well past the end of the atomic weapons project, offering a thorough but dynamic account of the post-World War II arms race, the growing dangers of nuclear proliferation and nuclear testing, and Rotblat’s lesser-known but significant activities during this period and for many years afterwards.
Joseph Rotblat was a British physicist, born and educated in Poland and at the University of Liverpool, who moved to the US in 1944 when invited to participate in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, New Mexico. Despite a minimal early education, his natural intelligence allowed him to receive a degree in electrical engineering and later a doctorate in physics and to eventually become director of the Atomic Physics Institute at the University of Poland. Rotblat came to the Manhattan Project along with a team of British scientists led by atomic researcher James Chadwick but left the project within a year, well before a usable atomic bomb was completed. While a brilliant scientist, his name seldom appears along with his famous Los Alamos colleagues – Bohr, Feynman, Fermi, and of course, Oppenheimer.
It was Rotblat’s later activities that made his reputation when he became a leading voice for disarmament, particularly in opposition to the spread of atomic weapons. In collaboration with Bertrand Russell, Rotblat formed an organisation which came to be known as the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, named for their donated headquarters in Pugwash, Nova Scotia. Its existence was announced through the Russell-Einstein Manifesto (the recently deceased Albert Einstein had been an initial collaborator), which called for scientists to appraise the potential dangers of new weaponry that “threatens the continued existence of mankind” and to collaborate in finding ways to prevent disastrous consequences. Scientists from around the world joined the firmly apolitical conferences, and Pugwash became a significant influence, especially on US-USSR relations and nuclear policies.
The Strangest Dream is low-key in its coverage of even the direst material. It opens on a scene of 20th-century tourists visiting the site of the first atomic bomb testing in New Mexico – a place now transformed into a minor outdoor museum. This scene is used to introduce the Manhattan Project, Rotblat himself, and the central subject of the Pugwash Conferences. Footage of past and present events are juxtaposed effectively throughout the film, as when the bombing of Hiroshima segues into modern events at the city’s Peace Museum; or when mention of the atomic weapons race with the Nazis leads to a mention of Rotblat’s late fiancée having been killed by the Nazis in Poland.
Joseph Rotblat’s own thinking on various subjects is made clear through clips of the many interviews he gave over the years. This includes his reasons for abandoning the Manhattan Project. Rotblat had joined the project despite misgivings because he, like many of the scientists participating, believed they were responding to Germany’s work on atomic bomb development. He was disturbed to find the project continuing after confirmation that Germany had abandoned the effort, and even more so when military officials indicated the goal of atomic weapons research was now to subdue enemy nations, particularly the USSR. Rotblat felt compelled to leave the project, resulting in years of government surveillance due to suspicion over his motives. The film goes on to describe the years of medical research that followed – including work on reducing the effects of radiation poisoning – in contrast to the progress of nuclear armaments before finding his ultimate calling.
The events described centre on Joseph Rotblat’s personal philosophy and reasoning and on the real-life events behind them. The real and varied dangers of nuclear weaponry are examined, including the political changes that can increase them and the attitudes and prejudices which can make the danger harder to understand or to subdue. These grim realities are offset by Rotblat’s optimism and faith in the human race, his belief that science is essentially good and can be applied to the benefit of mankind rather than its destruction. His optimism never failed but was always tempered with realism and a willingness to face brutal truths; as he once commented publicly, “I would like everyone to be conscious that they are members of a species with a marvellous history, but whose continued existence can no longer be guaranteed.”
The film covers the surprising effectiveness of the Pugwash Conferences, which gained respect partly because of its insistence on remaining outside of national or political animosities, its remarkable level of influence on weapons treaties and the slow and sporadic movement toward disarmament. A high point in the final act is the reception of the Nobel Peace Prize by Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences, the first time such an award was shared between an individual and an organisation.
The documentary is straightforward and without special effects or efforts to add entertainment value, but it is both informative and enlightening. It not only provides fresh and important perspectives on well-known world events, but it also offers a portrait of an intriguing scientist who, while facing some of the worst the world could inflict, could resist discouragement and find ways to oppose the danger with a clear head. Somehow able to retain his faith in humanity, he famously commented near the end of his life, “I believe, fundamentally, in the goodness of man”.
