| Atomic Power | |
|---|---|
 Advertisement inLife, August 12, 1946 | |
| Directed by | Jack Glenn |
| Produced by | Richard de Rochemont |
| Starring | Dean Acheson Vannevar Bush Arthur Compton James Conant Albert Einstein Enrico Fermi Leslie Groves Ernest Lawrence David Lilienthal Lise Meitner J. Robert Oppenheimer George Pegram I. I. Rabi Leó Szilárd Merle Tuve Harold Urey |
| Narrated by | Westbrook Van Voorhis |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
|
Running time | 18 minutes[2] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Atomic Power is an Americanshortdocumentary film produced byThe March of Time and released to theaters August 9, 1946, one year after the end ofWorld War II. It was nominated for anAcademy Award forBest Documentary Short.
Raymond Fielding, chronicler ofThe March of Time, citesAtomic Power as the only one of the series' postwar films to emerge as a classic. "It tells of the making of theatomic bomb, and is a quite remarkable example of film making in theMarch of Time tradition," Fielding wrote.[3]
Nearly every person involved in the invention of the atomic bomb performs as an actor in the film, recreating the events and conversations that led up to theTrinity test, which is also reenacted and intercut with government footage of the blast. Jack Glenn directed.[3]: 291–296
TheNational Board of Review calledAtomic Power "a vivid short … a good condensation of masses of material into simple, clear exposition".[4]Atomic Power was nominated for anAcademy Award forBest Documentary Short.[5]