The Oppenheimer film directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Cillian Murphy, based on the Pulitzer-winning book, American Prometheus. The Triumph and the Tragedy, by J. Robert Oppenhemimer and Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, tells the story of the brilliant American physicist who was at the forefront of the Manhattan Project that led to the invention of the atomic bomb during World War II.
A biographical thriller that has won five Golden Globes in the categories of: best dramatic film, best director, best leading actor, in addition to awards for Robert Downey Jr. for supporting actor, and for best soundtrack, by Ludwig Goransson,
The director wanted to stay faithful to the book so he filmed in the real settings where Oppenheimer lived. For three hours, places such as: Los Alamos, Santa Fe, New Jersey and Berkeley can be recognized in the film. These are the locations of the film to enjoy a historical trip.
In northern New Mexico is the city of Los Alamos, a town that was created from scratch in just two years to house scientists, workers and their families in the 1940s. A place with a semi-desert landscape and strange rock formations and forests, in a place so far from the world that it allowed them to create a laboratory and carry out the Manhattan project.
Among the locations it is still possible to see, from the outside, what was the scientist’s residence at that time. It is a house built in 1929 with the purpose of housing the school’s teachers. It is in the Bathtub Row neighborhood, on this street the houses were among the few that had a bathtub instead of a shower, hence its name. It is a private property so you cannot enter inside, but the house next door, which belonged to the physicist Hans Bethe, is open to the public.
The United Church and the Lamy train station, which was the first stop for the workers upon their arrival in New Mexico, are other real locations that appear in the film, as well as the Fuller Lodge cultural center, built in 1928 and which During the secret project, it was converted into a dining room and a hall for dances, plays and other events.
A five-minute walk from the Manhattan Project National Historical Park visitor center are some of the women’s dormitories that housed civilians and non-military personnel working for the project.
And, despite everything, most of the scenes of this exciting story are behind the fence, on the land of the National Laboratory and the Atomic Energy Agency, which can only be visited on organized tours a few days a year.
On July 16, 1945, the world’s first atomic bomb exploded, approximately 90 km north of White Sands National Park, a desert of white sand dunes located between Jornada del Muerto, the Chupadera plateau. and the Sacramento and San Andreas mountains. Right at the spot where the explosion took place, a lava rock obelisk was built as a reminder.
This is a historic space that can be visited twice a year, when the US Army allows access, which is why Nola used neighboring Santa Fe as a setting to film the Trinity tests.
Before directing the Manhattan Project, Oppenhaimer was a professor, between 1929 and 1943, in the Physics department of the University of California. His office was located on the third floor of LeConte Hall (now Physics North), a 1924 building designed by John Galen How. The best thing is that the university offers guided tours of the campus throughout the year.
After World War II, Oppenheimer was offered the position of director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, where he served from 1947 to 1966, a year before his death. Here he coincided with Albert Einstein.
The buildings are not open to the public nor are there tourist tours. However, the forests and grounds are open and enjoyed by visitors year-round.