Review

An absorbing drama about the birth of the atom bomb. Newman, in an uncharacteristically unsympathetic and cold portrayal, stars as General Leslie Groves, the military leader who oversaw the project headed by the scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer. From this project would come the bombs which would be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The film tries to create a mood of suspense in whether the scientists will succeed, but is far more interesting for the cat-and-mouse psychological games played between Groves and Oppenheimer in their race to develop and ultimately use the bombs.