A COMPASSIONATE SPY Movie – From Oppenheimer’s Team Member To Infamous Soviet Spy
Acclaimed filmmaker Steve James’ A COMPASSIONATE SPY is a gripping real-life espionage thriller about controversial Manhattan Project physicist Ted Hall, who infamously provided nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union, told through the perspective of his loving wife Joan, who protected his secret for decades. Recruited in 1944 as an 18-year-old Harvard undergraduate to help Robert Oppenheimer and his team create a bomb, Hall was the youngest physicist on the Manhattan Project, and didn’t share his colleagues’ elation after the successful detonation of the world’s first atomic bomb. Concerned that a U.S. post-war monopoly on such a powerful weapon could lead to nuclear catastrophe, Hall began passing key information about the bomb’s construction to the Soviet Union. After the war, he met, fell in love with, and married Joan, a fellow student with whom he shared a passion for classical music and socialist causes —and the explosive secret of his espionage. The pair raised a family while living under a cloud of suspicion and years of FBI surveillance and intimidation. Two-time Oscar® nominee Steve James’ nuanced and ever-relevant documentary reveals the twists and turns of this real-life spy story, its profound impact on nuclear history, and the couple’s remarkable love and life together during more than 50 years of marriage.
One of the reasons Ted gives for passing nuclear secrets to the Soviets was his fear that post World War II America could devolve into German-style fascism. “The fact that Ted at the age of 18 or 19 was worrying about that is a pretty radical thought,” observed Director and Producer Steve James. “But what we try to show in the film is that even if the U.S. didn’t fall into fascism, our government seemed fully prepared to leverage the bomb against the Soviet Union and others. He wasn’t out in left field with his worries about the United States.”
“I think any time you can tell the story of someone who — whether you agree with his reasoning or not — took a very courageous step in doing what he did, and did it at such a young age, that’s important,” said James. “I also hope Ted and Joan’s story will be inspiring to young people who see the film, because I feel like their lives speak directly to the lives of young people today.”
DIRECTED BY Steve James
PRODUCED BY Mark Mitten p.g.a., Dave Lindorff, Steve James
Music Supervisor – Dawn Sutter Madell
Assistant Music Supervisor – Pedro Urgiles
Tickets: http://www.magpictures.com/acompassionatespy/screenings
Watch At Home: http://www.magpictures.com/acompassionatespy/watch-at-home