Fat Man and Little Boy

Synopsis: In real life, Robert Oppenheimer was the scientific head of the Manhattan Project, the secret wartime project in New Mexico where the first atomic bombs were designed and built. General Leslie Groves was in overall command of it. This film reenacts the project with an emphasis on their relationship.
Director(s): Roland Joffé
Production: Paramount Home Video
  2 nominations.
 
IMDB:
6.5
Rotten Tomatoes:
50%
PG-13
Year:
1989
127 min
497 Views


At ease.

Move it, move it, move it!

One, two, three.

For he's a jolly good fellow

For he's a jolly good fellow

For he's a jolly good fellow

Which nobody can deny! Hoorah!

Boy, those Japs better watch out

for you, sir. Good luck.

The Corps of Engineers

is gonna miss you, sir.

- Thank you, gentlemen. Bronson.

- Sir.

I built this place,

so I'll be glad to eat it.

Well done, sir.

You're a lucky man.

Give those Japs hell.

Thank you, Thomas.

Indeed, I will.

Sir!

I'm losing my chance

to get out from behind a desk

- and lead men in combat!

- Colonel Groves, forget it. This has...

Even Bronson

wants to head for the front.

Forget about the front.

You're an engineer.

You're gonna fight your war here.

Is this what you're assigning me to,

this boondoggle? Dead end?

This dead end, Groves, has the

personal backing of the president.

This is not what I was promised,

not what I expected.

Then bone up on it.

Head to Chicago, talk to the scientist.

If it looks possible, run with it.

Take whoever you want. Have

whatever you need. Just make it work.

Who knows, you might just win

this war on your own.

Pick up a star on the way.

...fighting for, and they are reported

to be giving the Germans hell.

Though these losses represent the

most serious setbacks for the Allies

in this war

against the Nazi enemy.

Bad news, too,

from the war in the Pacific.

We have just had confirmation of

the sinking of three US cruisers.

Names are being withheld.

The casualties are high.

Come in!

Reports of an early-morning raid

by Japanese dive-bombers...

In here.

In here!

- Szard?

- Szilard.

General Groves, I was expecting you.

Come in! Come in!

Forgive me.

Sometimes I get stuck in here.

Metaphorically.

I've read this.

- Is it possible?

- You couldn't put a little more hot in,

could you?

And I'm not very good at fairy tales,

so just give me the happy ending.

What I wrote is possible,

probably inevitable.

Separate uranium 235,

then arrange for two portions

of the element to be brought together

suddenly, so that the resulting mass,

no bigger than this, general,

undergoes a spontaneous

self-generating reaction.

And if this was the epicenter

of that explosion...

...all of Chicago you could see

from here would disintegrate.

Hallelujah.

At the moment, all we have

are theories, concepts, inspirations,

- inconclusive results...

- Now, if we can make this device,

- so can the Krauts.

- Yes.

Germany has the scientific capability.

And, general,

we need leadership here.

- I can help!

- Thank you.

You need an ally, general!

- So tell us about this general.

- Why?

Because it's so mysterious.

''Meet me in the middle

of God-knows-where.

''Be there no earlier than 4:20,

no later than 4:
29.''

Well, word has it

he's a provincial windbag

who's spent most of his life

digging holes in Latin America.

- Graves for the natives, no doubt.

- Oh, Frank.

Seriously, Kitty, after all,

Robert's a scientist.

If the Army wants him,

they'll want all of him.

All of him?

Why not take all of him?

Look, I have to at least hear

what he has to offer.

- Robert, must we go so fast?

- Yes!

- It's crazy.

- Yes! Yes!

This way, Dr. Oppenheimer.

Doctor!

Up here!

Groves, Leslie. Friends call me Dick.

Sit down.

Ingenuity.

I love it.

Created out of nothing but up here.

Clear!

The old man likes his privacy,

doesn't he?

Guess what.

- The egghead wants a carrot juice.

- Get him what he wants, Bronson!

Get used to it.

What an eight ball this guy is.

Seems this Oppenheimer's

a hot number.

Says here, he's got more damn brains

than are decent.

He knows it too. Temperamental. He

ain't gonna be an easy horse to corral.

Oh, I think the general

knows what he's doing.

Oppenheimer ain't one of us.

The general picks that guy,

he'll be making a mistake.

It needs to get pulled together.

So I think you're the man for the job.

And I got a weakness for good men.

The Krauts are working on this,

full bore.

If they get it before we do,

I don't have to spell it out.

Where would you start?

Focus.

You have great minds,

but all dancing to a different tune.

You bring them together in one place,

isolate them, no distractions.

You create an atmosphere

of creative stress.

Everyone competing

to solve one problem.

And you have one ringmaster.

Right now, it's all over the place.

You centralize everything.

There is a hitch.

There are people out there

don't like the color of your politics.

My politics...

...are an open book.

Well, I hope so.

You could win a war

and the Nobel Prize, God willing.

Sir, Major de Silva

wanted me to remind you

you've got a train to catch

at 1800 hours.

No rest for the wicked.

Oh, doctor.

If you take this on,

I say this in all humility, intellect...

...don't outrank that.

This general is a meatball,

a cipher.

He'd be eating out of the palm

of my hand in a week.

So will you accept?

There are questions.

There are a kaleidoscope of questions.

I see.

Well, I'm a star

at breakfast small talk.

You'll have to save some for evenings if

you're gonna be wife of the big cheese.

Would this mean moving?

Oh, you have to say yes.

You're too brilliant for Berkeley.

Michelangelo's The Creation

of Adam. Origin and destiny.

Origins and destiny.

The struggle to unearth the one

and to discover the other.

That is science!

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Bruce Robinson

Bruce Robinson (born 2 May 1946) is an English director, screenwriter, novelist and actor. He is arguably most famous for writing and directing the cult classic Withnail and I (1987), a film with comic and tragic elements set in London in the 1960s, which drew on his experiences as "a chronic alcoholic and resting actor, living in squalor" in Camden Town. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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