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      Copenhagen

      2002 1h 30m History Drama List
      Reviews 66% 500+ Ratings Audience Score In 1941, physicists Niels Bohr (Stephen Rea) and Werner Heisenberg (Daniel Craig) meet to discuss atomic energy and the Nazis. Read More Read Less

      Audience Reviews

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      Dennis C Based on a play, it's all dialogue, but there is something haunting about this movie. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/24/24 Full Review Audience Member It's not as smart as it's leads or as it thinks itself to be Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/18/23 Full Review Jonathan J Good cast but the script failed at translating an intellectual book into a movie w any life of its own. You'd have to care about the historical figures before watching. You won't from the film. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 12/04/21 Full Review Audience Member It is not an action movie, but does carry a brooding intensity throughout. About choices the characters have made and are going to make, the results weave amoungst the fascist drive to dominate the world. This gave weight to Daniel Craig's selection as James Bond later in his career. I'd also like to point out that WW2 started in 1939, so the 'official' RT description of the characters meeting on 'the brink' of war is very inaccurate. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member The odd plot implementation is somewhat passable as a foundation for exploring the issues facing the research leadership during WWII. It could be redone to include more of the characters within the film to provide some broader perspective and more naturual suspense (Openheimer, Albert Spear etc.) Overall it was just cool to see Danial Craig attempt to help visualize some of the technical aspects of quantum mechanics and the gap between the Bohr and Heizenberg models. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member Copenhagen is a challenging and powerful film that requires close attention. It builds up in rapid layers and, though it only has three characters, they each are articulate and extremely significant figures in their own right. The rise of Nazi Germany from 1933 on casts its shadow over events and the dynamic discussions and attempts at communication occurring. The audience is privy to both what people say, and their thoughts about what they are saying. It is based on the drama by Michael Frayn. Denmark is an occupied country. Hitler's forces have invaded and control most of Europe (Sweden, Switzerland and Portugal are neutral). Director Howard Davies also wrote the script for the film with Michael Frayn who wrote the original theatre play. Frayn is present in a detailed prologue and epilogue to the body of the TV movie that provides a detailed description of the context of the play, and some historical background. In the essential question of why Werner Heisenberg went to see Niels Bohr in 1941 is re-assessed. There are also interviews with living relatives of the two greats that reveal that it is possible Heisenberg wanted Bohr to know that he was in charge of the German work on a nuclear weapon and could delay its achievement (in the end he claims they were two weeks away from success, while Bohr queries his neglect of the consequent radiation from an explosion that would kill them-another example of the human error that bedevils the practical use of nuclear energy). IN his final years Bohr penned many drafts of a letter to Heisenberg, that was never posted, and his family guaranteed for 50 years. Bohr's "confessions" were not available to Frayn when he wrote the play. Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976) and Niels Bohr (1885-1962) first met in Gottingen, Germany, when Heisenberg was 20 and challenged Bohr's mathematical calculations at a public talk. Heisenberg would spend six years in Copenhagen working under Bohr. Bohr had first developed a theory of the structure of an atom that became known as Quantum Mechanics (not nuclear physics), for which he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1927. Their interactions stimulated Heisenberg to further develop Quantum Mechanics and the theoretical concept of the Uncertainty Principle in 1927 when he was 26 years old, for which he won a Nobel Prize in 1932 (not 1933 as said in the film, and an award which included recognition of his discovery of allotropic hydrogen). Sheridan Griswold Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Copenhagen

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis In 1941, physicists Niels Bohr (Stephen Rea) and Werner Heisenberg (Daniel Craig) meet to discuss atomic energy and the Nazis.
      Director
      Howard Davies
      Screenwriter
      Howard Davies
      Production Co
      BBC
      Genre
      History, Drama
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Jan 25, 2017
      Runtime
      1h 30m