"From humble beginnings fraught with persecution in Nazi Germany, to the shores of New York, one small boy in a huddled mass, yearning to breath free. Jon Osterman transcended pain, suffering, and even death itself to create a life the likes of which history has never seen. To some, the immigrant son of a poor clockmaker was the fulfillment of the American dream. To others, the world’s first Superman was a toxic nightmare. Jon Osterman stepped into an intrinsic field chamber to recover his girlfriend's watch, but what emerged was an immortal god, impervious to the passage of time. This victim of an atomic mishap would forever alter the history of humankind by developing miraculous new wonders. And then, Vietnam. Was he the liberating hero who single-handedly ended the war and delivered his country its 51st state? Or was he the cold blue conqueror who decimated an entire way of life?"
—Narrator of Manhattan: An American Life
Manhattan: An American Life is an 1987 American documentary series about Doctor Manhattan's origin story and his impact on the world.
Background
The documentary offers context about the accident at Gila Flats that turned physicist Jon Osterman into Doctor Manhattan, after stepping into the intrinsic field subtractor to retrieve Janey Slater's watch. It also contains a Nova Express "American Cancer" cover from 1985, as well as print ads for items fueled by Manhattan's lithium-powered batteries, such as watches and automobiles, and shows pictures of Jon's father's watchmaker shop, Osterman Fine Watches in Brooklyn, as well as a picture of the two when Jon was a young boy. There's even archive footage of Manhattan during the Vietnam War.[1]