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Plot

"Fat Man" and "Little Boy" were the nicknames given the atomic bombs that were dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the waning days of World War II. This elaborately assembled film is the story of the events leading up to the dawn of the atomic age. Paul Newman plays General Leslie Groves, a hard-nosed career soldier who in 1942 finds himself the reluctant "nursemaid" to a group of idealistic scientists in Los Alamos, New Mexico. As the military head of the top-secret Manhattan Project, Groves intends to have the operation run by the book--and failing that, to have things his way at all costs. The film's storyline narrows down to a battle of egos between Groves and atomic scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Dwight Schultz), in his own way as contentious and childishly single-purposed as the general.
MPAA Rating:
Genre(s):
Drama,Epic and Historical
Run Time:
130min.
Theatrical Release Date:
10/20/1989
DVD Release Date:
04/27/2004
Distributor(s):
Paramount
Director(s):
Roland Joffé
Starring:
Paul Newman , Dwight Schultz , Bonnie Bedelia , John Cusack , Laura Dern
Themes:
Life on the Homefront
Tone:
Cerebral,Deliberate,Earnest,Matter-of-Fact,Sweeping
Keywords:
General,US-Presidents,bomb,nuclear-research,nuclear-testing,nuclear-weapon,scientist,world-war
Country of Origin:
USA (10-20-1989)