Garwin

Richard Garwin is, arguably, one of the most influential and least recognizable figures operating in Washington during the post-World War II era. A physicist whose career was launched working with Edward Teller on the design of the hydrogen bomb, Garwin served as a science adviser to every president from Eisenhower through Obama. Filmmakers Richard Breyer and Anand Kamalakar's documentary follows octogenarian Garwin on visits to the White House, the atomic museum at Los Alamos in New Mexico, his childhood home in Cleveland, and to a European security conference. Clearly, Garwin was in an extraordinary position during some of the most tumultuous stretches of American history, yet he is entirely too low-key and nondescript to carry this documentary. Despite some impressive editing techniques designed to enliven the film—involving a swirl of vintage footage and photographs tracing Garwin's twin pursuits of science and policymaking—Garwin is simply an uninvolving portrait of an admittedly impressive figure. An optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)