Einstein and the Bomb

"Einstein and the Bomb" was clearly meant to piggyback on the success of "Oppenheimer". But in terms of journalism and content, it is a failure. Far too much time was spent focusing on Hitler-Germany and Einstein's Jewish background, and far too little time on Einstein's work and personal life. There was also too much focus on his time in England, without a word being spoken about his time in Switzerland, which was far more important. It was in Bern where Einstein wrote his Special Theory of Relativity. There was even a major international event in Bern to mark the 100th anniversary of the Special Theory that drew eminent scientists from all over the world. (I reported on it for Swiss Radio International).

Einstein described his life in the Swiss capital as the happiest and most productive period of his career. His apartment on Kramgasse in Bern's old town near The Bear Pit is a popular museum, visited by people from all over the world. Einstein was also a Swiss citizen. But not one second of the story was devoted to this. There was only a brief pan-shot of Zurich (not Bern) without any label or explanation. Totally out of context. This is bad journalism and inexcusable.

If you are interested in more about Einstein in Bern, you'll find it under that title.

Although I'm very familiar with the history and the physics, I was still excited to see the make a great Netflix documentary and see how they plan to together his only slight relationship with the Manhattan project, and maybe more bio before, and after producing general and specific theories of relativity.

But my largest complaint aside from Netflix, not doing the above is that this piece is completely all over the place, jumping timelines out of order going from one date to the other any linear storytelling and more over, I don't think they knew what they wanted here. What you get are bits and pieces of Einstein's history, bits and pieces of the rise of national socialism and the Nazi movement bits and pieces of where Einstein went and some of what he spoke about but only some; and very much a fractured history lesson on the persecution of Jews on the holocaust. Any of these would've made a fine documentary if they stuck to something and showed at Einstein had something to do with any of it or how he was affected by it, but this was trying to be everything at once and not being many bad mini documentaries. Also, I totally agree with some other comments that it seemed rushed.

There are definitely much better documentaries out there on either Einstein or the bomb, but combining both is really not practical. Einstein's miracle year was in 1905, way before the A-bomb. He wrote his four papers. The first one gave him the Noble Prize and opened the door to Quantum Mechanics (QM). The forth gave us E=MC^2; at the time he had no idea where this would lead to. The problem with the documentary is that there is no Einstein and the Bomb; there's plenty of Einstein and QM (Photoelectric Effect), Einstein and LASER, Einstein and Gravity, Einstein and Differential Geometry. As for the bombs' development and use, there's Oppenheimer and the Bomb or Politicians, Their Decisions and the Bomb. Other than that, it's a good watch if you're a fan of the guy.

Have you seen "Oppenheimer" yet? It helps to have seen it before this docuseries. It's a commitment of time (3 hours), but worth it, with amazing performances all around and a whole bunch of new knowledge learned.

This new docudrama on Netflix is a good complement to the movie, and in a trim 1h15m, dives into more detail about Einstein and his place in the firmament of history with regard to the invention of the atomic bomb. Of course, it's not going to paint the entire picture in a short time, but does add some good color about Einstein's conflicted conscience on what he helped unleash, however small his role may have been.

"Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in producing an atomic bomb, I would not have taken part in opening that Pandora's box." - Albert Einstein Einstein was a vocal advocate for peace. He was a pacifist. But when he received a letter from Leo Szilard ( who not only proposed the idea of chain reaction but also conducted the experiment) alerting Einstein about German scientists working on fission (based on the famous E= mc squared by Einstein) which could result into Hitler having the A-bomb before the allied could develop it. Einstein forwarded that letter to FDR and urging him to hasten the development of an A-bomb by saying " I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two thirds of the people of the earth might be killed, but enough men capable of thinking, and enough books, would be left to start again, and civilization could be restored." Very few would know that U. S. Army Intelligence office denied Einstein the security clearance needed to work on the Manhattan Project!!!!

This documentary is a part essay, part revisiting the chapters of his life. It combines archival footage with dramatizations. The movie starts with his living room in his Princeton home with Mahatma Gandhi's photo on a night stand and ends with his famous quote " the war is won but the peace is not". He was so right. The unleashed power of atom as he said once would change everything in the years to come as the human race would gradually drift towards the unfathomable fears of catastrophe ... when the first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6 1945, Einstein sighed and said "Woe is me." Einstein showed measurement. Measurement is a possibility on which the science depends..but did you know that Heisenberg who gave an uncertainty principle failed at Diffusion equation?i or really? Did he pretend that he failed so that Nazis could not have the bomb!!!!! He as a matter of fact told Otto Hahn, the German nuclear scientist later how the little boy worked after Hiroshima was bombed!!!!

This documentary is not a biopic like Oppenheimer nor a play like Copenhagen. But it does explore one of the greatest scientist's own conflicted emotions..a human's great discovery falls into demonic hands aka of humans!! The movie feels rushed in the second half and fails to capture the depth of Einstein's dilemma. But still a good watch!

"I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." - Einstein.