Some thoughts

I have read that one of the criticisms of Fat Man & Little Boy is the miscasting of Dwight Schultz and Paul Newman. I can only assume people were looking at their personal political convictions and not their performance in this movie. Going by their performance, both men were perfectly cast. Newman was a liberal in favor of nuclear disarmament, and he did an outstanding job as General Groves, driving Oppenheimer to build a bomb on schedule and refusing to consider alternatives to dropping said bomb on Japan.

Dwight Schultz, the ultra-conservative, was even more compelling as Oppenheimer. It would have been so easy for the makers of this movie to infuse Oppenheimer with all the second-guessing that has gone on since the bombs were dropped, yet they did not do so. They presented a picture of Oppenheimer as the dynamic leader he was during the Manhattan project-a man who had qualms about what he was doing and doubts about where it would lead to, but by and large, a dedicated scientist who was unwilling to let the Germans be the first to develop an atomic bomb.

Paul Newman has star billing, of course, but it is Dwight Schultz’ show all the way and he proves very capable of meeting the challenge of portraying Oppenheimer. His mobile face and expressive eyes serve him well as Oppenheimer gathers scientists and fights military regulations. Every scene that Schultz and Newman have together is electrifying-they continually clash, yet somehow keep moving forward in the same direction.

There are some remarkably poignant moments, such as when Oppenheimer puts his little boy to bed and when he has to say goodbye to his beloved Jean Tatlock. The party the group throws the night Germany surrendered is also wrenching, despite a comic turn when Oppenheimer asks Groves to dance and the general obliges the scientist, because you know the project is going to continue. Japan was still in the war and the shadow of that conflict was still over the project. And John Cusack’s character, a kind-hearted young man who worries about his brother fighting in the Philippines, is especially moving, for he is the one to die a hideous death by radiation poisoning. It’s impossible to see his last scene in the hospital without thinking of the thousands and thousands of Japanese men, women, and children who would soon be dying in a similar fashion. Perhaps the most telling moment of the film is when the Trinity test takes place. We don’t see the bomb explode-we only see the reaction on Dwight Schultz’ face as the wind hits him and the light flames up in his goggles. At that moment, I remembered Oppenheimer’s most famous quote, “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

Fat Man & Little Boy chronicles one of the most disturbing moments in the world’s history-a time when men of good conscience came together to create the greatest weapon of mass destruction the world had ever seen. And they were men of good conscience. They were not monsters who wanted to blow up entire countries and cause years of suffering to millions of people. The military were honestly convinced the only way to end the war was by making a bomb so devastating the enemy would be forced to surrender. The scientists were convinced the technology was well within reach of the Germans and if they didn’t create a bomb, Germany would. And when Germany surrendered, Japan was still in the war, still fighting what they considered the good fight. Should the bomb have been demonstrated first? Should the second bomb have been dropped at all?

These and many other questions continue to plague us as the world moves towards ever more terrible weapons-not only nuclear, but biological and electro-magnetic. Perhaps these are questions that can never be answered to any satisfaction, but Fat Man & Little Boy does manage to preserve an important moment in history-a moment when we moved into the nuclear age with all the good and bad ramifications that nuclear capability brought. It is a record of how this age began, a testament of the hopes and fears of the men and women that began it, and a warning of how far people will go to feel safe when they feel they are backed into a corner.


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