DAY ONE


US, 1989, 141 minutes, Colour.
Brian Dennehy, David Strathairn, Michael Tucker, Hume Cronyn, Richard A.Dysart, Hal Holbrook, Barnard Hughes, John Mc Martin, David Ogden Stiers.
Directed by Joseph Sargent.

Day One is a telemovie on the Manhattan project. Already, by 1946/47, MGM had made a film about the Manhattan project and the dropping of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, The Beginning or the End. It reflected both the eagerness for the development of the atomic bomb and reflected on the initial realisation of the consequences.

Documentaries have been made about the Manhattan project and about J. Robert Oppenheimer, especially The Day after Trinity. In the late 80s, a big budget feature film was made with Paul Newman as General Groves and Dwight as Oppenheimer. The film was Fat Man and Little Boy (overseas, The Shadow Makers) and was written by Bruce Robinson (Withnail and I, The Killing Fields) and directed by Roland Joffe (The Killing Fields, The Mission, City of Joy).

This telemovie was made by Joseph Sargent and released the same year as Fat Man and Little Boy. This time Brian Dennehy stars as General Groves. The film portrays the background to the Manhattan project, the atomic scientists from Europe and the U.S. (including Einstein) and their being marshalled into a group to produce the atomic bomb. The films also shows life with the group, their projects, experiments. It also shows the testing of the bombs as well as the dropping. The political background is also filled in with David Ogden Steers present as Roosevelt and Richard Dysart as Truman. There is a strong supporting cast portraying the scientists(including Michael Tucker from L.A.Law) as well as the American political and military hierarchy.

Designed for the television audience, the film offers a great deal of background at ordinary viewers' level. It is not an in-depth study of the Manhattan Project but the quality of the writing and the acting gives a great deal of insight into the people concerned, their changing attitudes, the experience of atomic research, culminating in the dropping of the bomb.

1. Impact of the film? The history of the Manhattan project? The viewpoint of the screenplay? In the light of the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima? The documentaries and feature films made on this subject - in comparison with this film?

2. The film made in the late 80s, the experience of nuclear fears during the early 80s? The consciousness of war, nuclear deterrents, the environment in the late 80s? The conscience, especially in the U.S. of the period?

3. The film as a telemovie, a docudrama? its scope, its style? Its communicating with a wide audience?

4. The title, the culmination of the project in the dropping of the bomb? The preparation for Day One, the act of dropping the bomb, the consequences?

5. The film attention to the period, the re-creation of the period in detail? Germany and England in the 30s? The U.S. in the 40s? Washington, the world of science and research? The Pentagon, the White House? The atmosphere of World War II, the people involved, the soldiers, the researchers? The military officials, politicians?

6. The world of science, of experiments? The mood of the period? The use of contemporary music? The musical score?

7. The European settings, Zillard and his family, the last train for Jews out Germany? Zillard in England, his theories about the splitting of the atom, the reaction of British military? The polite scorn? His transferring to the U.S.? His growing desperation? The community of scientists, their discussions, experiments?

7. Brian Dennehy as General groves? Character, eager for action, the building of the-pentagon? His relationship with superiors? The task, the orders? The attending of meetings? His control? The input from the military and political hierarchy? Ideas and ideals? In himself, his scientific background, war and technology? The interviewing of the various scientists? Visits to Chicago, his reaction to the intellectuals? Burkley, Oppenheimer? His pushing Oppenheimer into taking control? His interest in the work, his seeing the scientists as prima donnas and treating them as such? The need for security? Morale boosting, coping with the difficulties? Reporting to the authorities? His eagerness for the dropping of the bomb? Discussion with the hierarchy, President Truman? The tests? Knowledge of what the bomb could do? His attitude towards the dropping of the bomb, the selection of the cities? His reaction to the achievement?

8. The scientist, the different personalities, types? The range of skills? Working together? Clashes and differences? Ideas, experiments, tests? The difficulties of forming the scientific community?

9. The focus on Oppenheimer, his character, his political background, communist affiliations, his wife and her communist affiliations? His contacts - and his visiting communists contacts, risk for security? his ideas, his work? his accepting the control of the group? His interact ons with the various personal? His guesses and insights? The discussions with Groves - on a scientific level, on a personality level - their walking and talking? The effect of the scientific research, the effect of the war, the planning of the bomb, his, commitment to it? Doubts? The tests, the risk and the actual day one?

10. Scientists and intellectuals, the fears of communist connections? The protests, Security checks?

11. The work itself, the films’ attention to detail, experience, explosions and implosions? The dramatic nature of the tests, the dangers? Success?

12. The focus on the bomb, the preparation, the theory, in practice, the test and the explosion, the repercussions and reactions?

13. The political background: Roosevelt, being informed about the project, backing it? Using political and financial means? Truman, succeeding Roosevelt, his attitudes, his pragmatic, attitudes, discussions, justification? Eisenhower and his attitude, the war in Europe, the war in the Pacific? The range of politicians? The secretary of state and his advice for Truman? Liaising with Groves?

14. The use of documentary footage, the Enola Gay, the flight to Japan, the dropping of the bomb and its aftermath?

15. The consequences of the Manhattan Project, the immediate joy of the successful dropping of the bomb, the ending of the war? Unconditional surrender? The growing doubts? The film incorporating the variety of reactions helping audiences in later decades to understand the approaches of the time, the experience of the bomb, the succeeding decades and changing attitudes?