Scott Kimball
Screenwriter
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Fat Man and Little Boy
Studio: Paramount
Year: 1989
Rated: PG-13
Length: 126 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1
English Subtitles, Closed Captioned
Special Features:None
SRP: $14.99 US
Release Date: April 27, 2004
During the darkest days of World War II, the U.S. Government, under the supervision of Army General Leslie Groves, gathered the world’s most brilliant scientists at Los Alamos, NM. There, the scientists toiled night and day, under oppressive secrecy, with one goal in mind: build the world’s most powerful weapon. This is all true. It was called The Manhattan Project.
Fat Man and Little Boy plays like a cartoon. The characters are thinly drawn. Events are presented as if ripped from the pages of a graphic novel - right down to arguments between military men shown as a silhouette on a frosted glass door, and a top secret meeting taking place in a plane, engines running, inside a hangar...
For all its silliness and shallowness, this is a compelling film about the birth of the atomic bomb. Yes, major historical characters are left out of the film. Yes, the timeline is wrong. Yes, the science is oversimplified. But, you know what? I don’t care. This film is a guilty pleasure of mine, accuracy be damned. Consider it a fictionalized account of the beginning of the atomic age.
General Leslie Groves (Paul Newman) is put in charge of the project to create the ultimate weapon in a time when things aren’t going well for the allies in World War II. He brings brilliant scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Dwight Shultz) in on the project to put together a dream team of physicists and other scientists, in hopes of building an atomic bomb before the Germans do.
The film follows the efforts of hundreds of men in the New Mexico desert as they toil in secrecy to build the most devastating weapon mankind has ever dreamed of. Inescapably, issues of morality arise as the tide begins to turn in the war. Many begin to question whether the benefit of a weapon of such lethality could ever outweigh the human costs.
This is a good movie inspired by real events, and I recommend it. Take off the thinking caps, sit back and enjoy.
The film also stars John Cusack, Laura Dern, Bonnie Bedelia, Natasha Richardson and John C. McGinley.
Fat Man and Little Boy, by the way, refers specifically to the two bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945. If you want to learn more about this subject, I recommend The Day After Trinity, available on DVD.
Paramount has done their usual good job with the transfer for this film. The picture is anamorphically enhanced, 2.35:1, and has a good level of detail. There is good sharpness without any issues of edge enhancement. Contrast is very good, with excellent black levels and shadow detail. Colors are well saturated. The palette is primarily made up of browns, tans and greens, giving a warm effect to the film - which is as I recall the theatrical exhibition. The print is free of distracting dust or scratches, and the compression delivers no distracting artifacts. I have no complaints with the video, whatsoever.
The disc contains a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track. It delivers adequately for this film. The soundtrack is spacious across the front soundstage, with solid use of rear channels. Frequency response is excellent, with solid highs and good use of low frequency effects. The musical score by Ennio Morricone is well represented. This is an excellent surround mix for a 1989 title.
This is a bare-bones release. There are no special features.
Final Thoughts
This is quite an enjoyable catalog title from Paramount, and they’ve done the transfer right. It may be lacking in bonus features, but it’s a steal with a suggested retail price of $14.99 US.
Recommended.
