A Compassionate Spy

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1:51

A Compassionate Spy

2023

1h 41m

Documentary

Biography

History

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

81%

Tomatometer

48 Reviews

71%

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Directed by two-time Oscar® nominated filmmaker Steve James (HOOP DREAMS, LIFE ITSELF), A COMPASSIONATE SPY is a gripping real-life spy 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. A COMPASSIONATE SPY 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.

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Critics Consensus

A Compassionate Spy's personal approach to its real-life story makes the end result mostly compelling despite an uncritical tone that verges on hagiography.

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Claudia Puig

FilmWeek (LAist)

08/17/2023

I found it kind of one-sided... It's hard to know what his motivations were, and I wish James explored that more.

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Tim Cogshell

FilmWeek (LAist)

08/17/2023

Very interesting. Some people -- like myself -- would just call this movie "A Spy." But that's okay!

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Adam Mullins-Khatib

Chicago Reader

08/08/2023

Riding the coattails of Oppenheimer, this documentary suffers from a drift into hagiography.

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John Serba

Decider

12/01/2023

A Compassionate Spy is a love story as much as it is a history lesson or a spurring of political and philosophical debates.

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Damon Wise

Deadline Hollywood Daily

09/19/2023

Hall’s story is extraordinary, then, but sadly the telling of it is not, and although it seems fair not to create action and suspense when there really was none, A Compassionate Spy nevertheless fails to fully engage with the enormity of its subject.

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Lee Zumpe

Tampa Bay Newspapers

08/23/2023

Even though the documentary would have benefitted from a more unbiased approach, the film is worth checking out as a postscript for “Oppenheimer.”

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S M

Oct 31

Excellent, informative documentary. Thank god for intelligent, thoughtful people like Ted Hall whose compassion for human beings doesn’t stop at geographical borders. To see Americans cheering and singing and dancing after the atom bomb was dropped and killed innocent babies is absolutely deplorable. The men who did it should have been made to hold those dead babies with their burned, melted skin, in their evil arms. But they do it from the safe distance of their offices. Never accountable for their actions. I wholeheartedly agree with Ted Hall that sharing this terrible technology with our allies — because Russia was our ally at the time — was the right thing to do. It’s called mutually assured destruction, and it’s the only thing that keeps “boys with their toys” in check. Ted Hall was a hero.

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Greg C

09/11/2024

Horrible account of traitors acting like they are heros. Utterly disgusting.

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Kathy M

03/19/2024

A cringeworthy, selfish, and annoying account from the perspective of the spy and his wife on their betrayal of America. Only redeeming quality is that it could be a casework study on the intellectual, elite class and how they believe they have all the answers but in reality they are destructive and evil. The wife not only bemoaned her role of motherhood- she demanded her husband live a lie and watch others die for his mistake.

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Stephen Jules R

03/14/2024

So glad for y'all who Oppenheimers got yeah new medico yeah better world and dig deeper and find so every much more wow

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S R

@ScottR 12/28/2023

A lot of interesting information, but not supportive of my world view or philosophies. It wasn't that I didn't agree with what they said, more like I didn't agree with their closed mindedness. Saw on delta.

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Jason B

12/15/2023

Bad. Really bad. Difficult to watch. The people involved were portrayed as saints. They're certainly not. And BTW, no one is a physicist at 18 years old. A Compassionate Spy is full of embellishments and misrepresentations. Gross.

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Steve James

Director

Steve James

Screenwriter

Mark Mitten

Producer

David Lindorff

Producer

Steve James

Producer

Jeff Skoll

Executive Producer

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Synopsis

Directed by two-time Oscar® nominated filmmaker Steve James (HOOP DREAMS, LIFE ITSELF), A COMPASSIONATE SPY is a gripping real-life spy 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. A COMPASSIONATE SPY 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.

Director: Steve James
Producer: Mark Mitten, David Lindorff, Steve James
Screenwriter: Steve James
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
Production Co: Kartemquin Films, Participant, Mitten Media
Genre: Documentary, Biography, History
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 4, 2023, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 4, 2023
Box Office (Gross USA): $34.5K
Runtime: 1h 41m

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