Fat Man and Little Boy (1989)

Director:

Roland Joffé

Writers (WGA):

Bruce Robinson (story)
Bruce Robinson (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

20 October 1989 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | History | War

Tagline:

The story of the extraordinary people who changed our world.

Plot:

This film reenacts the Manhattan Project, the secret wartime project in New Mexico where the first atomic bombs were designed and built.

Plot Keywords:

Atomic Bomb | Manhattan Project | Robert Oppenheimer | Weapons Research | 1940s

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Paul Newman	...	Gen. Leslie R. Groves
Dwight Schultz	...	J. Robert Oppenheimer
Bonnie Bedelia	...	Kitty Oppenheimer
John Cusack	...	Michael Merriman
Laura Dern	...	Kathleen Robinson
Ron Frazier	...	Peter de Silva
John C. McGinley	...	Capt. Richard Schoenfield, MD
Natasha Richardson	...	Jean Tatlock
Ron Vawter	...	Jamie Latrobe
Michael Brockman	...	William 'Deke' Parsons
Del Close	...	Dr. Kenneth Whiteside
John Considine	...	Robert Tuckson
Allan Corduner	...	Franz Goethe (as Alan Corduner)
Joe D'Angerio	...	Seth Neddermeyer (as Joseph D'Angerio)
Jon DeVries	...	Johnny Mount (as Jon De Vries)

Also Known As:

Shadow Makers (UK)

Runtime:

127 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Iceland:L | USA:PG-13 (# 29576) | France:U | Norway:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | Germany:12 | Sweden:11 | UK:PG | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Durango, Mexico

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

John Cusack's character, Michael Merriman, is a fictional composite; based primarily on Louis P. Slotin and (to a lesser degree) Harry K. Daghlian.

Goofs:

Continuity: At the beginning of the movie, when General Groves is slicing the Pentagon cake, there are no flags on it. But in the next scene when his aide is walking with him down the hallway, there is an obvious miniature flag on the piece the aide is carrying.

Quotes:

Richard Schoenfield: Hey Oppenheimer! Oppenheimer! You oughta stop playing God, 'cause you're no good at it, and the position's taken!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Simpsons: Fat Man and Little Boy (#16.5)" (2004)

Soundtrack:

Dance of the reed flutes

The Best Engineering flick in decades, great history and melodrama, too

It's rare for a movie to both encompass the process of problem solving and a fantastically far-reaching moral quandary AND be a fairly accurate historical movie, but Fat Man and Little Boy pulls off this trick.

It's the story of the Manhattan Project -- the World War II effort to build the atom bomb, told as the conflict between the two men who made it happen, Gen. Leslie Groves and Robert Oppenheimer.

The historical figures are a great study in opposites: military vs. civilian, practical vs. idealistic, emotional vs. scientific, brute force vs. consensus-based problem solving, immediacy vs. long-term vision. A fictional character, played by John Cusack, is added as a sort of synthesis of the two historical figures, to show the humanity that oddly escapes the real people (and of course the obligatory love interest, played by Laura Dern). One looking for a straight documentary might criticize the lapses into melodrama (and occasional looseness with the facts, but that's Hollywood for ya), but the purpose of fiction is to synthesize and galvanize events into more universal truths, so I think this can be forgiven.

One of the great visuals in the movie is when Oppenheimer witnesses the first atomic explosion: it's done entirely through his reaction, and considering the awesome visuals inherent in an atomic explosion, it's a brave and entirely effective way of describing in a single moment the ambivalent effect on humans of unleashing such power (the sort of thing lost in the typical Hollywood shoot 'em up version of history.) The use of music is particularly excellent in the last third of the movie.

Fairly accessible and highly recommended as both a historical movie and drama of the highest order.