A Compassionate Spy

2022

Biography / Documentary / History

1
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 71% · 48 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 71%
IMDb Rating 6.6/10 10 477 477

espionage atomic bomb fbi world war ii nuclear bomb nuclear weapons

Plot summary

Physicist Ted Hall is recruited to join the Manhattan Project as a teenager and goes to Los Alamos with no idea what he'll be working on. When he learns the true nature of the weapon being designed, he fears the post-war risk of a nuclear holocaust and begins to pass significant information to the Soviet Union.

Director

Steve James Photo
Steve James

Top cast

Joseph Stalin Photo
Joseph Stalin as Self
Ruth London Photo
Ruth London as Self
Boria Sax Photo
Boria Sax as Self
Marcia Kunstel Photo
Marcia Kunstel as Self
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
937.01 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 42 min
Seeds ...
1.88 GB
1920*1080
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 42 min
Seeds ...

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by revchristodd-138-985726 8 / 10

Fascinating and disturbing

This film gives us a very deep look at why people betray their country's secrets. While some do it for money or ego or because they are compromised, it is obvious that Ted Hall did it for ideological reasons. While working on the atomic bomb for the US, Hall becomes convinced that this weapon is too powerful for one nation to have sole possession of. A communist, he shares crucial secrets with the Soviet Union, our ally during WW2. Much later, as the crimes of Stalin come out and the Rosenbergs are convicted for betraying less important secrets, he wavers but, to protect his family, never does confess to the FBI. He goes on to make vital contributions to cancer treatment and other areas of science while his brother designs the US missles that deliver the nuclear weapons intended to be used against Russia in the Cold War. This documentary not only gives us new insights into the Manhattan Project and subsequent nuclear proliferation but also into a man who substantially changed history by accelerating the Soviets' development of atomic weapons. Hall seems mostly unrepentant and his widow exuberantly so. The viewer is left to decide whether what he did was heroic but misguided or whether it was simply blatant treason. Given the current state of the world, the whole question of whether anyone should have developed a weapon no one should ever use leaves the viewer profoundly disquieted.
Reviewed by dross-98639 3 / 10

Ted Hall, and his wife were traitors.

This movie holds your interest. It is well done. I came away from this morning not feeling support for this man and his wife. They are both very old and and she laughs a lot. He doesn't laugh. He is quite serious about what he has done. He claims to have felt that it was dangerous for one country to have these weapons. So he decided to give the weapons as much as he could, to the Soviet Union. At the time he did this, we were still allies of the Soviet Union, and did not know The atrocities that were going on in the Soviet union by Stalin. That did not come out until after the war. However, the documentary mentions nothing at all about money. I am sure, without a doubt, that he was paid handsomely for the work he was doing for the Soviet Union. And he does mention that he lost a lot of pay because after he was recruited, he was forced to do his work as an enlisted soldier, which meant a huge decrease in pay. They were obviously both supporters of the Soviet union, he and his wife that is. It seems that the reason he was never prosecuted, and was actually hidden by the project. Managers was because his brother was very valuable to the project and was a designer of rocket systems and missiles. He and his brother were both investigated many times, but his brother was cleared and so was he. His brother went on to win awards for his work, and be very successful at what he was doing. Apparently they discussed what he had done, and his brother just kept quiet about it after the bomb was dropped.The movie is interesting to see the actual investigation and continued investigation of Ted Hall. Apparently he was checked out for many years afterwards. And apparently, there were many other people who sold secrets to the Soviet union, and who were working on the Manhattan project.I believe the movie came out after they had both passed on. The movie is generally favorable towards the couple, but I came away, not feeling favorable towards them, even though my family were. Progressives. One must look at history to see the reasons that people became communist sympathizers.
Reviewed by rodsullivan-51394 7 / 10

Separate the Film from the People

Theodore Hall was a traitor. He was a U. S. soldier who gave atomic weapons secrets to the USSR. But it's important to separate the film from the people it portrays.The film is a documentary and hence is supposed to be educational. It accomplishes that. If you liked Oppenheimer and want to know more about the creation of the atomic bomb, and your interest in spies, communists and communist sympathisers who worked on The Manhattan Project was piqued. Hall was one of them.Even though he knew of the crimes of Stalin, and the evils of communism in real life, he held to the ideological principles of Karl Marx. He gave the secrets of the atomic bomb to the Soviets because he felt an affinity for them. He wasn't the only one. Klaus Fuchs did too.So if you thought the security precautions taken at Los Alamos were excessive, this movie will give you an appreciation for why they were necessary.
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