Die Schattenmacher (1989)
57KDie Schattenmacher: Directed by Roland Joffé. With Paul Newman, Dwight Schultz, Bonnie Bedelia, John Cusack. This film reenacts the Manhattan Project, the secret wartime project in New Mexico where the first atomic bombs were designed and built.
“Itu0026#39;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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eItu0026#39;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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe 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 thatu0026#39;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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOne of the great visuals in the movie is when Oppenheimer witnesses the first atomic explosion: itu0026#39;s done entirely through his reaction, and considering the awesome visuals inherent in an atomic explosion, itu0026#39;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 u0026#39;em up version of history.) The use of music is particularly excellent in the last third of the movie.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFairly accessible and highly recommended as both a historical movie and drama of the highest order.”
