OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A major new film release this weekend is a World War II-era story with important connections to east Tennessee. In fact, some with ties to the area have grandparents or great-grandparents who worked at the location that changed history.
It's now playing. "Oppenheimer" — a $100 million dollar production and one of the most talked about movies of the year — tells the story of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, often called the father of the atomic bomb.
It's a story also told every day by Oak Ridge city historian Ray Smith at places including the Oak Ridge History Museum.
"This was a rural area selected for the Manhattan Project in 1942," said Smith. "People who were living here, some 3,000 people had to get off their property in a matter of weeks in order to make room for the Manhattan Project. By August 1945, there were 75,000 people living here in the city of Oak Ridge. At one time, they were completing houses every 30 minutes."
Many living and working in this city did not know the core purpose of this place was to produce the uranium for the atomic bomb.
A 20-year-old photographer named Ed Westcott was brought in to tell the Oak Ridge story through pictures.
"Not only did he take pictures of scientific activities, he would take pictures of the community," said Smith. "They selected this area, because it was inland from the sea, and it was a rural area, fairly isolated but close enough to Knoxville. We couldn't complete the paperwork today in the time they took to build the city and all those government facilities."
Oppenheimer himself would sometimes visit the Oak Ridge location.
"There was so much going on in his mind that would have been staggering for any of us to conceive of," said Trent DiGuilio, director of the documentary "Oppenheimer After Trinity." That documentary is now making the rounds in film festivals.
"[Oppenheimer] had to toil with the conflict of what he's about to enter into and the what ifs behind this atomic bomb," DiGuilio said. "This is an unknown."
"People are learning that now, the complexity of Oppenheimer," added Smith.
Since its beginnings in the Manhattan Project, Oak Ridge has grown into the city we know today. At the city's Alexander Inn, originally known as the Guest House, you can still see the place where Oppenheimer posed for a now-famous picture by Westcott.
Whether through a major film, a documentary, famous stills, or just walking crowds through the halls of a museum, many have taken part in sharing this history.
"I tell this story to everyone who comes to Oak Ridge," said Smith.
