- Day One (film)
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Day One Directed by Joseph Sargent Written by David W. Rintels (teleplay) Starring Brian Dennehy
David Strathairn
Michael TuckerRelease date(s) 1989 (U.S.) Running time 145 mins. Language English Day One is a made-for-TV documentary-drama movie about The Manhattan Project, the research and development of the atomic bomb during World War II. It is based on the book by Peter Wyden. The movie was written by David W. Rintels and directed by Joseph Sargent. It starred Brian Dennehy as General Leslie Groves, David Strathairn as Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer and Michael Tucker as Dr. Leo Szilard. It premiered in the United States on March 5, 1989 on the CBS network. It won the 1989 Emmy award for Outstanding Drama/Comedy Special.[1] The movie received critical acclaim for its historical accuracy despite being a drama.
Contents
Plot
When Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard leaves Europe he eventually arrives in the United States where, with the help of Albert Einstein, he persuades the Federal government to build an atomic bomb. General Leslie Groves selects physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer to head the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, where the bomb is built. As World War II draws to a close, Szilard (whose idea was responsible for the progress made) has second thoughts about atomic weapons and debates how and when to use the bomb.
The film focuses on the organization and the politics of the whole affair, such as tensions between the scientists and the military, the communist affiliation of many scientists around that time, the (perceived) risks of espionage and the decision whether to use the bomb after Germany is defeated. Concerning the actual scientific work on the bomb, some of it is shown, but not explained, so an understanding of the workings of the bomb is needed to understand what is going on in that respect.
The story starts with Leo Szilard fleeing Germany on the last train out and trying to convince the military that a nuclear bomb can be built and that the Germans are already working on it. In England, his idea is filed and ignored, so he travels to the USA, but there too, he has to wait a year until something is done with it and Project Manhattan is started.
As Germany is being defeated and its scientists interrogated, it is found out that they have not even come close to constructing a nuclear bomb (partly due to bad cooperation by scientists). Despite the fact that no one has the technology now, and the original reason for project Manhattan is gone, work continues. Szilard, who first used Einstein to get his ideas about building a bomb across to the US leaders, now convinces him to join him in writing a letter to the president to do the opposite, namely not to build the bomb, in order to avoid an arms race. 68 scientists sign a petition, but that is held back by the military.
U.S. President Truman is faced with four options: peace talks (which would not have worked because the US did not want the Japanese to keep their emperor), a blockade (which was thought to be cowardly), an invasion (which could cost from 20,000 to a million lives), or dropping the bomb. Another consideration is that the USSR had said they would enter the war against Japan three months after the surrender of Germany and there is a fear that they might not leave. So Truman decides that the best course of action is to drop the bomb on Hiroshima, against the advice of General Eisenhower.
Cast
The following are cast members of Day One (principal members only):
- Brian Dennehy as General Leslie Groves
- David Strathairn as J. Robert Oppenheimer
- Michael Tucker as Leó Szilárd
The other Manhattan Project film
The film premiered on television in the same year that another film about the subject, Fat Man and Little Boy, starring Paul Newman as General Groves, was released to theatres. Of the two films, Day One was by far the more critically successful.
See also
Hiroshima (film), about the political decision making about how and where to use the bomb against Japan, after it was finished, giving an alternative and more in-depth view to the last 45 minutes of the film.
References
External links
- Day One at The Internet Movie Database.
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Made for Television Movie (1980–2000) The Miracle Worker (1980) · Playing for Time (1981) · A Woman Called Golda (1982) · Special Bulletin (1983) · Something About Amelia (1984) · Do You Remember Love (1985) · Love Is Never Silent (1986) · Promise (1987) · Inherit the Wind (1988) · Day One/Roe vs. Wade (1989) · Caroline?/The Incident (1990) · Miss Rose White (1991) · Barbarians at the Gate / Stalin (1993) · And the Band Played On (1994) · Indictment: The McMartin Trial (1995) · Truman (1996) · Miss Evers' Boys (1997) · Don King: Only in America (1998) · A Lesson Before Dying (1999) · Tuesdays with Morrie (2000)
Complete List · (1980–2000) · (2001–present) Films directed by Joseph Sargent 1960s 1970s Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) · Tribes (1970) · Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring (1971) · The Man (1972) · White Lightning (1973) · The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) · Friendly Persuasion (1975) · The Night That Panicked America (1975) · MacArthur (1977) · Goldengirl (1979)1980s Coast to Coast (1980) · Nightmares (1983) · Memorial Day (1983) · Choices of the Heart (1983) · Terrible Joe Moran (1984) · Jaws: The Revenge (1987) · The Karen Carpenter Story (1989) · Day One (1989)1990s The Incident (1990) · Never Forget (1991) · Miss Rose White (1992) · Somebody's Daughter (1992) · Skylark (1993) · Abraham (1993) · World War II: When Lions Roared (1994) · My Antonia (1995) · Mandela and de Klerk (1997) · Miss Evers' Boys (1997) · The Long Island Incident (1998) · Crime and Punishment (1998) · A Lesson Before Dying (1999)2000s For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story (2000) · Bojangles (2001) · Out of the Ashes (2003) · Something the Lord Made (2004) · Warm Springs (2005) · Sybil (2007) · Sweet Nothing in My Ear (2008)Categories:- English-language films
- 1989 television films
- American television films
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