Excellent
Added 9/17/2009
Great movie, a must for the World Was II History Buffs!!!
Very innovative mixing of Archival footage.
They have covered all the characters and events that played a part in the decision to drop the Atom bomb.
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A GEM~ Great movie based on HISTORIC FACT~ fantastic~
Added 8/28/2009
PLOT: excellent cinetography and acting and plot based on actual historic events of the 3 atomic bombs used on JAPAN during the last days of WW2 what makes this more than a drop the BOMB movie? we see the events from both the Japanese and American sides and ADDED real people who told what they saw~ OUTSTANDING~
USING SPECIAL lens to make the "mellow" look of older film this GEM is well shot and outstanding story of PRESIDENT TRUMAN who takes over the monumental decision of to use the Ultra Secret Atom Bombs. KENNETH WALSH nails Truman down to his voice and movements and we see how the Japanese keep fighting no matter what so the BOMBS become the focus of the film. We see the difference between the Uranium Bomb and the Plutonium Bomb and the political and moral dicisions made by the US along the way we see the Japanese side. And see why the Japanese were motivated by a group of fanatical soldiers and leaders at the time would have put every man woman and child to fight for the honor of Japan. This movie never drags I watched it in one day and will watch it a second time to take in more details. outstanding cinematrography, acting costumes and plot based on historic FACT~ I GIVE IT A SOLID 10 OUT OF 10 FOR HISTORIC DOCUDRAMA BASED ON FACT~
fact: there were three bombs : one was used as a "test" bomb but two were acutally dropped on Japan in late 1945.
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Best One Volume Treatment
Added 5/8/2009
Having read and viewed much material on the momentus decision to use nuclear weapons at the end of WWII, I deem this the best balanced treatment of the subject yet produced on film. The arguments over the use of the bomb on Japan will continue ad infinitum. Whichever side one is on, the elements of this film should provide the basis for any position. It is easy to forget the context of the times when arguing the issue from the views of the early 21st century.
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Must See WW II "Docudrama"
Added 11/23/2008
This is by far the most engaging historical presentation I've seen. All of the acting and filming comes across as very authentic. The film bounces around from several points of view: political, scientific, and military leaders from US and Japan. There are well done segments depicting how the average soldiers viewed this new destructive device. One saying that the first A-Bomb looked like "an egg layed by the devil himself". The blending of actual historical footage with simulated historical footage is masterfully done. It is often difficult to tell which is which. I was particularly interested in the depiction of Japan's political leadership trying to maneuver around an all consuming Japanese military hell-bent on national suicide. These scenes are spoken in Japanese and you will have to be a quick subtitle reader to catch it all.
There never seems to be a dull moment in the movie. I was surprised to read that the film is 180 minutes long-it seems to go by quickly.
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Extraordinary Scholarship
Added 10/15/2008
The history involved in making this movie is so detailed and correct that years after having seen it for the first time, I run across obscure facts that tie directly to scenes. For example, very recent discoveries are beginning to show that the Japanese were quite close to developing an atomic bomb themselves, and that this fact was hidden both by them and the occupation government. At one point in the movie there is a line where Kido informs the Emperor that "the scientist said that he knew it was an atomic bomb when he saw it from the air". Only recently has it been learned that the chief scientist in the Japanese atomic bomb program did indeed fly over Hiroshima and identified the source of the damage due to is intimate knowledge of the subject. This was confirmed by an interview with his assistant several years after this movie was made. The dialogue from Hiroshima on both sides is taken directly from primary source materials, and is transcribed with such accuracy that simply watching the movie can provide insights when doing related research. It is a pleasure to see such exceptional scholarship in a primarily entertainment medium.
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