Fat Man & Little Boy

Buy This Item Fat Man & Little Boy by Paramount  Available from Amazon  $14.95  on 8-28-2008     Despite the combined star power in front of and behind the camera, <I>Fat Man and Little Boy</I> is a largely tepid retelling of the history of the Manhattan Project, the atomic testing project that led to the U.S. bombing of Japan during World War II (said bombs were dubbed "Fat Man" and "Little Boy"). The Nevada-based project is headed by General Leslie R. Groves (a testy Paul Newman) and scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Dwight Schultz of the TV series <I>The A-Team</I>), who later regretted his cooperation in the project. The problem with the film lies not with the acting, which includes solid performances by Bonnie Bedelia, Laura Dern, John Cusack, and future U.S. Senator Fred Dalton Thompson, but with the script by director Roland Joffé and Bruce Robinson (<I>Withnail and I</I> and Joffé's <I>The Killing Fields</I>). A subject as morally complex as the creation of a supreme weapon requires a strong and thoughtful script, but <I>Fat Man and Little Boy</I> never gets further than establishing that indeed, atomic power is something to reckon with. Joseph Sargent's 1989 made-for-TV film <I>Day One</I>, with Brian Dennehy as Groves and David Straithairn as Oppenheimer, covers the same story with twice the depth and avoids the pitfall of a romantic subplot (Oppenheimer's dalliance with a communist played by Natasha Richardson), which this film stumbles into. Cusack's doomed scientist is actually a combination of two real-life physicists, Harry Daghlian and Louis Slotkin, who died from radiation poisoning, albeit long after V-J Day. <I>--Paul Gaita</I> Reader Reviews The BBC released the great mini-series "Oppenheimer" on Region Two DVD format last year. This great mini-series is still felt to be the best re-creation on film of the people and events leading up to the explosions of the atomic bombs in August 1945. A young SAM WATERSTON plays Oppenheimer brilliantly. It took years for the BBC to decide to release the series in DVD format, and then it was only in Region Two (PAL), the format used in the UK. You'd think that they'd release it on Region One (US format), given the fact thatit starts Sam Waterson. However, it has not yet been released in the US. The three-disc series, which also stars a brilliant David Suchet as Edward Teller, is available thru Amazon in the UK (www.amazon.co.uk) and on eBay in the UK (www.ebay.co.uk) for about $22.00 plus shipping. Multi-format players are available in the US. It is my understanding that they have to be hacked to play other formats than Region 1,? due to licensing restrictions. I purchased an inexpensive player on eBay (US), which with shipping cost $50.00. The supplier provided the easy instructions to adapt it to Region Two format. It is worth going to all of this effort to view again this great mini-series, which was virtually ignored in the US when it was shown here, but which remains unrivaled for both its acting and its accurate re-creation of the events surrounding Oppenheimer, his downfall, and the creation of the atomic age.

Fat Man & Little Boy Available from Amazon Price: $14.95 Updated on 8-28-2008.

SPONSORED LINKS