Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard leaves Europe, eventually arriving in the United States. With the help of Einstein, he persuades the government to build an atomic bomb. The project is given to no-nonsense Gen. Leslie Groves who 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 has second thoughts about atomic weapons, and policy makers debate how and when to use the bomb.
Acting
David Strathairn's haunted eyes before haunted eyes were his thing.
Writing
Dialogue that actually explains nuclear physics without insulting you.
Director
Joseph Sargent
Brian Dennehy
Gen. Leslie Groves
David Strathairn
J. Robert Oppenheimer
Michael Tucker
Leo Szilard
Hume Cronyn
James F. Byrnes
Richard Dysart
President Harry S. Truman
Hal Holbrook
Gen. George Marshall
Barnard Hughes
Henry Stimson
John McMartin
Dr. Arthur Compton
David Ogden Stiers
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Anne Twomey
Kitty Oppenheimer
Lawrence Dane
Ron Frazier
Colonel Pash
Olek Krupa
Edward Teller
Bernie McInerney
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made for TV but shot like a prestige feature—CBS spent $6 million in 1989, unheard of for television then.
Szilard's actual petitions were suppressed until after the war; the film's most dramatic moment was buried government history.
US
CA
