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| Wonders Are Many | 
| Director: Jon Else
Actors: John Adams, Peter Sellars
Studio: Docurama
Category: DVD
Buy New: $26.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 43191
Format: Ntsc
Running Time: 92 minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.6
UPC: 883629612959
EAN: 0883629612959
ASIN: B001GCVK0A
Release Date: September 22, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
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Description
The spectacular opening to Jon Else's critically acclaimed WONDERS ARE MANY--nuclear blast after blast in the desert, under the ocean, high in space--intimates what is to follow: a profound and triumphant fusing of art and science, humanity and technology, destruction and creation.
WONDERS ARE MANY: THE MAKING OF DOCTOR ATOMIC traces a dazzling double-helix trajectory: one thread follows composer John Adams and director Peter Sellars as they work to create Doctor Atomic (2005), the strange and beautiful opera about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the first atomic bomb; the other recounts the actual historical events that underpin the stage drama. Masterfully interwoven with recently declassified footage of nuclear testing in the deserts of the Southwest and the frenetic backstage action of the San Francisco Opera, the film creates an explosive vortex of performers and physicists, past and present, all of which is anchored by the enigmatic figure of Oppenheimer and channeled into high art by the creative power of Adams and Sellars.
A magnificent pastiche of potent elements, WONDERS ARE MANY allows us to see history--and ourselves--in a new light: we learn the humanity in science; the regret in discovery; and, unforgettably, the law that "Matter can be neither created nor destroyed," but only transformed.This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Chilling November 14, 2008
This is a chilling documentary of the making of the opera 'Doctor Atomic'. You follow the drama of the creative work while re-visiting the scientific, historic events that led to the dropping of the Atomic bomb and a glimpse at the men who helped make it happen. Interesting and sad at the same time. I would like to see the on stage Opera. John Adams and Peter Sellars clearly put a lot of thought and work into the dramatic performance that documents a frenetic time in the nation's past.
Chrissy K. McVay - Author
 A Strange Combination Resulting In One Great Film November 11, 2008
Wonders Are Many is an intense movie that manages to shift back and forth between two fascinating documentaries resulting in one greater documentary.
One documentary describes how the opera Doctor Atomic, an opera about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the creation of the first atomic bomb, was created. Viewers get to hear composer John Adams and director Peters Sellers explain how and why this Opera came to be, get to see performers and crew add to the final product (including crew members creating props) and get to watch rehearsals leading up to the final production.
Intertwined with this documentary is another focusing on Oppenheimer and the creation of the atomic bomb which includes interviews made by Oppenheimer and those who knew him, footage of atomic bomb explosions, information World War II leading up to the decision to drop the atom bombs (such as fighting in Okinawa, casualty results etc.) and results of atomic bomb explosions such as radiation remnants and the remains of a government "ghost town" created to see how buildings and even stocks and bonds would hold up during an atomic bomb explosion. The documentary is even handed and should appeal to those who feel the atomic bombs should never have been dropped as well as those who feel America had no choice considering the cost in lives of an invasion.
What makes this movie so good is the way the film combines both documentaries, easily slipping back and forth between both to enable to viewer to see how the events inspired the composer and director and at the same time enabling the viewer to see so clearly how the opera addresses Oppenheimer and the creation of the atomic bomb.
I am forever watching documentaries on history and specifically World War II. The part of the film dealing with World War Two and the atomic bomb was very well done.
More importantly, if this dvd was just about the making of the opera I would not have gotten it because I am not a big fan of opera. This dvd allowed me to understanding and appreciate the creative process leading to the creation of an opera as well as aspects of opera I never imagined. It was very well done.
Combining the documentaries into one film was risky but works very well. The editors of the film did s superb job and created something special.
Wonders Are Many is a worthy addition to any film library.
I was riveted November 8, 2008
I was surprised at how riveting this documentary was. I wasn't familiar with Peter Sellars' work before this, and I was so impressed with his creativity and sensitivity to the nuances of the history and the opera, Dr. Atomic, that seeks to capture its lingering, terrible profundity. (And what an interesting character Sellars is! Even his hair "do" suggests how hair-raising a moment it was when that first bomb went off.)
I couldn't resist thinking that the real Oppenheimer looked like Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka, dreamy and sweet and shocking and scary at the same time; that association cast the whole documentary in an almost trippish light for me; and the whole Los Alamos nuclear experience WAS very much like a "seeing God" acid trip, replete with inspirations and depletions and bizarre too-present flashbacks that persist to this very day. I think Sellars and Adams nailed it: One trip and the human race would never be the same.
I couldn't take my eyes off this brilliant blast of a documentary. Now I MUST have Dr. Atomic for my DVD collection!
 Not A Bomb, Just An Interesting Misfire November 5, 2008
This unusual documentary is actually two documentaries in one. Arguably, the main focus is a "making of" chronicle concerning an opera entitled DOCTOR ATOMIC, the very unlikely subject of which is physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and the development of the atomic bomb. Composer John Adams and director Peter Sellars get the lion's share of the attention here. We also see rehearsals, construction of the huge atomic bomb prop, and comments from some of the cast and behind-the-scenes personnel. What we don't see very much is the actual performance of DOCTOR ATOMIC, which would appear to be very offbeat and artsy, with impressive music. The sum total of this portion of WONDERS ARE MANY reminds one strongly of such supplementary features as are commonly included as Special Features on movie DVDs...fairly interesting, but one is left wanting a bit more.
The second, better portion uses PBS-style documentary techniques to tell the actual historical story upon which DOCTOR ATOMIC is based. Included is "recently declassified" footage from the 1940s, some of which is quite gruesome: one sequence shows farm animals being blown away in a bomb test, and there are shots of incinerated corpses, presumably from the Hiroshima and/or Nagasaki attacks. Beware if you run this with children around. Oppenheimer is seen in interview footage, as are some other participants, but still photos are also used a lot. The Los Alamos story deserves the full treatment, but, again, it's inadequately told here.
These two different documentaries are not separately presented, but intertwined as one; personally, I would rather have seen them separated and expanded upon. To me, that approach would have been more satisfying, but, as is, WONDERS ARE MANY at least attempts something a bit different. As to the actual DVD disc, it is manufactured on demand from DVD-R media rather than conventionally pressed. There is no menu at all. Picture quality is fine, though the full-frame treatment of my review copy renders the names of interviewees unreadable; it is hoped that the genuine article will be in the proper screen ratio.
Bottom Line: WONDERS ARE MANY is certainly not without interest, but it just as certainly could (and should) have been better.
Bombs and The Arts - An unlikely couple? November 4, 2008
Nuclear weapons and opera.....one would probably think this an unlikely marriage and for certain, many people would say "Those two topics don't interest me, so why would I watch a documentary about such an opera?" That's somewhat how I felt, yet this does turn out to be interesting viewing. If you don't like documentaries a la "The History Channel" type DVDs, you probably won't like this movie. The opera, named Doctor Atomic, is about Robert Oppenheimer and the invention of nuclear bombs....the DVD is not the opera itself, but a documentary. There is a decent portion of opera in it, but at heart it is a documentary. The movie runs about an hour and a half. I think the balance was right for me.....any more opera and I might have lost interest, but then I'm not an opera buff.
The opera, hence this documentary, covers the Manhattan Project, focusing on the final days leading up to the detonation of a nuclear bomb in New Mexico in 1945.
I found it enlightening, as it was an interesting and informative story that gives you a "behinds the scenes" look at the making of this opera, but in the end is really much more than that, providing an education on the development of the nuclear bomb.
Not being an opera buff, I cannot comment on the operatic portions other to say they were pleasant and would not deter me from watching the DVD again. All in all, interesting viewing and certainly educational.
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