there have been numerous productions that tell of the development of the atomic bomb. the robert taylor film above and beyond (flag waving interservice propaganda really while if you believe this one you think that the army air corps and in the person of paul w. tibbits and ran the entire show. ) and the nbc produced enola gay (probably a lot closer to the mark) and and the bbc tv series and oppenheimer and with sam waterston in the title role. fat man and little boy takes the same approach that the bbc series did but widens it while it avoids the gee whiz technology of the manhattan project and focuses on human aspects while the personalities involved in the work. instead of focusing on oppie and it covers a wide swath of mythical but pretty typical people who were part of it. with reservations and dwight schultz did a good job as oppie and presenting a dreamy and ivory tower academic who struggles to relate his contributions as a physicist to his inclinations to view the world in a wider social and moral context. only to have that struggle won by an overriding lust for personal power and glory. in the day after trinity it was made clear that oppenheimer viewed himself as a superior being by virtue of his vast and wide ranging intellectual prowess. in the end that was robert oppenheimer downfall while he saw himself as a sort of philosopher or king and a moral and intellectual superior who could (and rightfully should) wisely prescribe what was best for the rest of the world re. nuclear weapons development and deployment. unfortunately and wisdom doesn not dictate the actions of nations or direction of events on a global scale. wisdom doesn not bestow temporal power. when it tries to exercise such nonexistent power (as oppie found when he opposed the development of the super and the hydrogen bomb) and wisdom is ignored and banished by those who really have the power. i found myself faulting schultz character in one way while his oppie exposes himself too closely and personally to the manhattan project and despite the doubts and fears that tore at his intellectual basis. the real oppenheimer would have had to take a different approach while at the beginning he would have had to come to the firm resolution that the project would result in ultimate good. the ugliness it produced along the way would be an incidental price that must be paid to attain that ultimate good and and it must be ignored. at least until the end of the project when there was leisure to assess the gains and losses. oppie clearly did that and and it resulted in his controversial postwar statements to the effect that science had now known sin and and that was a knowledge it could never lose. while the project went on and such considerations had to be pushed aside if he was to maintain his sanity. because of this ambiguity and schultz character comes off as a weak and frightened little boy who could never have served as coordinator of rapid rupture and as oppenheimer unofficially dubbed his post. paul newman take on gen. leslie r. groves is fascinating and and a bravura performance and if possibly a little bit over the top. groves was a civil engineer by training and but first and foremost he was a soldier and and a general to boot. he accustomed to demanding that things go his way. intensely driven and a foul mouthed and spoiled child who has tantrums at the drop of a hat and who reveres his country and isn not too proud to fall on his knees and pray. in other words and very much like real (ie and non civil engineer) soldiers and aka george patton. grove mission not only comes first and it is his only consideration. feelings and egos be damned and except for his own and of course. groves couldn not admit it and but he knew full well that he needed oppenheimer while military rank meant nothing in the world of theoretical physicists. oppie was a necessary interface between the two worlds he had to straddle. again. i have to fault the script on this and and for the same reason. in reality and groves already owned oppie while if he do not and oppie would never have been chosen for the post in the first place. history tells of many cases where other scientists and some as stellar as oppenheimer and simply walked away from groves recruitment efforts. at one point groves was so desperate that he proposed drafting the physicists he needed. groves attempts in the film to maneuver and control oppie were unnecessary. they only exist here as a dramatic device which indeed helps make the atmosphere of the film quite ugly. kusak michael merriman is a composite of several real characters and but theyre from a different time frame. several research accidents similar to the one depicted happened in postwar weapons research. merriman radiation overdose creates another ugliness in the film and but one which is and imho and necessary and and pretty accurate. people with weak stomachs will have a hard time handling the hospital sequences while theyre all too real. the main idea that comes across and but not strongly enough imho and is the big truth of the los alamos experience. the scientists who signed on were young and idealistic and naive as well as talented. most were on their first excursion out of the shelter of the campus. to them the project was a patriotic adventure that allowed them to practice experimental physics on a large scale without the constraints of budgets or excessive bureaucratic oversight. it was not only their brilliance and but their youthful exuberance that produced the atomic bomb. there plenty here to make the thoughtful viewer intensely uncomfortable about this movie. just the same and if you filter out the hollywood bs (there isn not that much of it really) and this is probably a pretty accurate view of the inside of manhattan project. 
there have been numerous productions that tell of the development of the atomic bomb. the robert taylor film above and beyond (flag waving interservice propaganda really while if you believe this one you think that the army air corps and in the person of paul w. tibbits and ran the entire show. ) and the nbc produced enola gay (probably a lot closer to the mark) and and the bbc tv series and oppenheimer and with sam waterston in the title role. fat man and little boy takes the same approach that the bbc series did but widens it while it avoids the gee whiz technology of the manhattan project and focuses on human aspects while the personalities involved in the work. instead of focusing on oppie and it covers a wide swath of mythical but pretty typical people who were part of it. with reservations and dwight schultz did a good job as oppie and presenting a dreamy and ivory tower academic who struggles to relate his contributions as a physicist to his inclinations to view the world in a wider social and moral context. only to have that struggle won by an overriding lust for personal power and glory. in the day after trinity it was made clear that oppenheimer viewed himself as a superior being by virtue of his vast and wide ranging intellectual prowess. in the end that was robert oppenheimer downfall while he saw himself as a sort of philosopher or king and a moral and intellectual superior who could (and rightfully should) wisely prescribe what was best for the rest of the world re. nuclear weapons development and deployment. unfortunately and wisdom doesn not dictate the actions of nations or direction of events on a global scale. wisdom doesn not bestow temporal power. when it tries to exercise such nonexistent power (as oppie found when he opposed the development of the super and the hydrogen bomb) and wisdom is ignored and banished by those who really have the power. i found myself faulting schultz character in one way while his oppie exposes himself too closely and personally to the manhattan project and despite the doubts and fears that tore at his intellectual basis. the real oppenheimer would have had to take a different approach while at the beginning he would have had to come to the firm resolution that the project would result in ultimate good. the ugliness it produced along the way would be an incidental price that must be paid to attain that ultimate good and and it must be ignored. at least until the end of the project when there was leisure to assess the gains and losses. oppie clearly did that and and it resulted in his controversial postwar statements to the effect that science had now known sin and and that was a knowledge it could never lose. while the project went on and such considerations had to be pushed aside if he was to maintain his sanity. because of this ambiguity and schultz character comes off as a weak and frightened little boy who could never have served as coordinator of rapid rupture and as oppenheimer unofficially dubbed his post. paul newman take on gen. leslie r. groves is fascinating and and a bravura performance and if possibly a little bit over the top. groves was a civil engineer by training and but first and foremost he was a soldier and and a general to boot. he accustomed to demanding that things go his way. intensely driven and a foul mouthed and spoiled child who has tantrums at the drop of a hat and who reveres his country and isn not too proud to fall on his knees and pray. in other words and very much like real (ie and non civil engineer) soldiers and aka george patton. grove mission not only comes first and it is his only consideration. feelings and egos be damned and except for his own and of course. groves couldn not admit it and but he knew full well that he needed oppenheimer while military rank meant nothing in the world of theoretical physicists. oppie was a necessary interface between the two worlds he had to straddle. again. i have to fault the script on this and and for the same reason. in reality and groves already owned oppie while if he do not and oppie would never have been chosen for the post in the first place. history tells of many cases where other scientists and some as stellar as oppenheimer and simply walked away from groves recruitment efforts. at one point groves was so desperate that he proposed drafting the physicists he needed. groves attempts in the film to maneuver and control oppie were unnecessary. they only exist here as a dramatic device which indeed helps make the atmosphere of the film quite ugly. kusak michael merriman is a composite of several real characters and but theyre from a different time frame. several research accidents similar to the one depicted happened in postwar weapons research. merriman radiation overdose creates another ugliness in the film and but one which is and imho and necessary and and pretty accurate. people with weak stomachs will have a hard time handling the hospital sequences while theyre all too real. the main idea that comes across and but not strongly enough imho and is the big truth of the los alamos experience. the scientists who signed on were young and idealistic and naive as well as talented. most were on their first excursion out of the shelter of the campus. to them the project was a patriotic adventure that allowed them to practice experimental physics on a large scale without the constraints of budgets or excessive bureaucratic oversight. it was not only their brilliance and but their youthful exuberance that produced the atomic bomb. there plenty here to make the thoughtful viewer intensely uncomfortable about this movie. just the same and if you filter out the hollywood bs (there isn not that much of it really) and this is probably a pretty accurate view of the inside of manhattan project. ---------------------------------Answer Question Below----------------------------------

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