there have be numerous production that tell of the development of the atomic bomb . the robert taylor film above and beyond ( flag wave interservice propaganda really while if you believe this one you think that the army air corp and in the person of paul w. tibbits and run the entire show . ) and the nbc produce enola gay ( probably a lot close to the mark ) and and the bbc tv series and oppenheimer and with sam waterston in the title role . fat man and little boy take the same approach that the bbc series do but widen it while it avoid the gee whiz technology of the manhattan project and focus on human aspect while the personality involve in the work . instead of focus on oppie and it cover a wide swath of mythical but pretty typical people who be part of it . with reservation and dwight schultz do a good job a oppie and present a dreamy and ivory tower academic who struggle to relate his contribution a a physicist to his inclination to view the world in a wider social and moral context . only to have that struggle win by an overriding lust for personal power and glory . in the day after trinity it be make clear that oppenheimer view himself a a superior be by virtue of his vast and wide range intellectual prowess . in the end that be robert oppenheimer downfall while he saw himself a a sort of philosopher or king and a moral and intellectual superior who could ( and rightfully should ) wisely prescribe what be best for the rest of the world re . nuclear weapon development and deployment . unfortunately and wisdom doesn not dictate the action of nation or direction of event on a global scale . wisdom doesn not bestow temporal power . when it try to exercise such nonexistent power ( a oppie find when he oppose the development of the super and the hydrogen bomb ) and wisdom be ignore and banish by those who really have the power . i find myself fault schultz character in one way while his oppie expose himself too closely and personally to the manhattan project and despite the doubt and fear that tore at his intellectual basis . the real oppenheimer would have have to take a different approach while at the beginning he would have have to come to the firm resolution that the project would result in ultimate good . the ugliness it produce along the way would be an incidental price that must be pay to attain that ultimate good and and it must be ignore . at least until the end of the project when there be leisure to assess the gain and loss . oppie clearly do that and and it result in his controversial postwar statement to the effect that science have now know sin and and that be a knowledge it could never lose . while the project go on and such consideration have to be push aside if he be to maintain his sanity . because of this ambiguity and schultz character come off a a weak and frighten little boy who could never have serve a coordinator of rapid rupture and a oppenheimer unofficially dub his post . paul newman take on gen. leslie r. grove be fascinate and and a bravura performance and if possibly a little bit over the top . grove be a civil engineer by training and but first and foremost he be a soldier and and a general to boot . he accustom to demand that thing go his way . intensely drive and a foul mouth and spoil child who have tantrums at the drop of a hat and who revere his country and isn not too proud to fall on his knee and pray . in other word and very much like real ( ie and non civil engineer ) soldier and aka george patton . grove mission not only come first and it be his only consideration . feeling and ego be damn and except for his own and of course . grove couldn not admit it and but he know full well that he need oppenheimer while military rank mean nothing in the world of theoretical physicist . oppie be a necessary interface between the two world he have to straddle . again . i have to fault the script on this and and for the same reason . in reality and grove already own oppie while if he do not and oppie would never have be choose for the post in the first place . history tell of many case where other scientist and some as stellar a oppenheimer and simply walk away from grove recruitment effort . at one point grove be so desperate that he propose draft the physicist he need . grove attempt in the film to maneuver and control oppie be unnecessary . they only exist here a a dramatic device which indeed help make the atmosphere of the film quite ugly . kusak michael merriman be a composite of several real character and but theyre from a different time frame . several research accident similar to the one depict happen in postwar weapon research . merriman radiation overdose create another ugliness in the film and but one which be and imho and necessary and and pretty accurate . people with weak stomach will have a hard time handle the hospital sequence while theyre all too real . the main idea that come across and but not strongly enough imho and be the big truth of the los alamos experience . the scientist who sign on be young and idealistic and naive as well a talented . most be on their first excursion out of the shelter of the campus . to them the project be a patriotic adventure that allow them to practice experimental physic on a large scale without the constraint of budget or excessive bureaucratic oversight . it be not only their brilliance and but their youthful exuberance that produce the atomic bomb . there plenty here to make the thoughtful viewer intensely uncomfortable about this movie . just the same and if you filter out the hollywood b ( there isn not that much of it really ) and this be probably a pretty accurate view of the inside of manhattan project .