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Day One |  | Actors: Brian Dennehy, Alan Scarfe, John Pielmeier, Ken Pogue, David Strathairn
Studio: ACORN MEDIA
Category: DVD
List Price: $24.99
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Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 19810
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 140 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: ACRDAMP9810D
UPC: 054961981090
EAN: 0054961981090
ASIN: B000UL60XU
Theatrical Release Date: March 5, 1989
Release Date: November 13, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Studio: Acorn Media Release Date: 11/13/2007 Run time: 140 minutes Rating: Nr
Amazon.com
The history of the atomic bomb--its conception, creation, and deployment--gets an impressively complex yet propulsive treatment in this compelling docudrama. Day One balances human drama, scientific history, and political machinations with uncommon skill and considerable smarts. From the moment that General Groves (Brian Dennehy, Presumed Innocent) is appointed to drive the Manhattan Project, the movie has a driving force; Dennehy presents a brusk and demanding man who never questions whether he is right or wrong. In contrast comes J. Robert Oppenheimer (David Strathairn, Good Night, and Good Luck), a fundamentally decent man whose conflicts about the consequences of the atomic bomb eat at him--Strathairn captures Oppenheimer's qualms even as his will to succeed drives him forward. Day One cunningly juxtaposes political meetings with scientific discussions, subtly comparing different paths of thought. The compressed script distills enormous debates without simplifying them and--even more striking--making the discussions feel like actual conversation, with irrational and expedient factors as significant as the weighty ideas. The story builds to considerable tension as the bomb is tested and, with highly debatable justification, used on a civilian population. Day One presents history at a breakneck pace, using human detail to keep the broad sweep of events grounded, without losing sight of that big picture. Rarely have momentous decisions been so well interlaced with human fallibility. Also featuring Tony Shalhoub (Monk), Michael Tucker (L.A. Law), and a powerhouse supporting cast of old-school character actors like Hume Cronyn, Barnard Hughes, and Hal Holbrook. --Bret Fetzer
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 15
 Excellent TV movie, poor DVD transfer-4 stars for the movie, 2 stars for the transfer, 1 star for extras July 6, 2009
Wayne Klein (My Little Blue Window, USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Imagine changing the world and the balance of power in that world forever. Imagine unleashing the power of God on the world. Imagine you helped create an arms race between two superpowers that could spell the end of civilization as we know it. Imagine you did all these things and you would be imagining that you J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Released the same year as Roland Joffe's "Fat Man and Little Boy" but as a TV movie, "Day One" is the better film that more accurately captures the conflicts, issues and questions of loyalty that drove the team that created the atomic bomb as members of the secret Manhattan Project.
After Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard (Michael Tucker) leaves his Nazi occupied homeland for the United States, he persuades Albert Einstein to write a letter urging FDR to begin research into building a atomic bomb. Szilard realizes that Hitler and the scientists left behind in Europe could easily accomplish this task and it could turn the tide helping the Nazi's to win the war.
FDR (David Ogden Stiers)approves the project and General Leslie Groves (Brian Dennehy) is put in charge of the project with Groves choosing the left-leaning Berkeley physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (David Strathairn)to the project because of his brilliant mind and people skills. Oppenheimer and his team including Edward Teller (Olek Krupa), Enrico Fermi (Tony Shalhoub), Richard Feynman (Patrick Breen) and Laus Fuchs (Lorne Brass) tackle what seems like an almost impossible project.
A better written and far balanced view of the creation of the atomic bomb without introducing large chunks of fiction (as happened with "Fat Man and Little Boy"), "Day One" was released last year on DVD from Acorn Media probably to cash in on David Strathairn's zooming career after years of character roles. Featuring a terrific supporting cast, "Day One" manages to be both dramatic and far more factual and while it may lack the star power of Paul Newman, Brian Dennehy more than makes up for it with a less affected performance that portrays the complexity of Groves. Strathairn plays the conflicted emotions that Oppenheimer had while working on the project, at the prospect of having to betray friends who were affiliated with the Communist Party and his ability to stay true to the project by focusing on the technical aspects while avoiding the fall out of the political and military ramifications of the atomic bomb until after it is build and exploded for the first time.
TV and film director veteran Joseph Sargent does a terrific job with the film the only flaw is that the film could have used more dynamic editing and less conventional visual set ups to give the film a more cinematic quality. The screenplay by Peter Wyden based on the book Day One: Before and After Hiroshima captures the tension that existed as the Manhattan team raced against the clock to find a suitable method to detonate the bomb.
The transfer looks extremely poor but not so poor that you can't watch the movie. It's a pity as it appears to be drawn from an older video source. It's possible like a lot of TV movies from the time that it was edited on video or that all the post-production was done there which would explain the poor video quality. The other option is that Aaron Spelling Productions provided Acord Media with a source without checking to see if there was a better one for the TV movie. Either way, it's a pity because this is a marvelously written, acted and directed movie.
There aren't any extras worth noting (well, OK, it has a filmography)and that's a pity as well because I'd love to hear about the making of the film.
This is a terrific TV movie with a poor looking transfer and poor extras.
Great Docudrama May 8, 2009
Richard Walters (New Mexico)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have most of the popular written and video publications on the advent of our nuclear weapon program. I would rate "Hiroshima" as the number one video docudrama, and this film a close second. It clearly eclipses the more available "Fat Man and Little Boy" in its authenticity. Dennehy's protrayal of Groves is highly credible based on the general's reputation, as is Strathairn's Oppenheimer. Highly recommended for student's of this interesting era of American military history.
Really good historical entertainment. Excellent cast March 23, 2009
Roger J. Buffington (Huntington Beach, CA United States)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
"Day One" is the story of the development of the atomic bomb by the United States. Brian Dennehy is tremendous in his role as General Groves, the military commander of the project. Too often, Hollywood depicts General Groves as a warmongering buffoon, which he was not. Dennehy gets Groves just right, as the can-do, highly intelligent, and determined military commander of the Manhattan Project. Michael Tucker is very good as Leo Szilard. In fact, one of the things that this storyline does very well is to contrast the attitudes of the "Chicago Group" led by Szilard, with the people out in the Alamogordo desert, led by Robert Oppenheimer.
The storyline of this film is quite good, and holds the viewer's interest, even though we all know what the ultimate outcome will be -- the problem with all historical pieces of this genre. The film will make the viewer consider whether dropping the atomic bomb on Japan should have been done or not. This question will never be fully or satisfactorily answered, although the soldiers and sailors in the Pacific who were preparing for the bloody invasion of Japan had few doubts at the time. On the other hand, the weapon mostly harmed Japanese civilians at a time when Japan was already defeated militarily. Did America really wish to be the first country to unleash atomic horror? There are no easy answers. Of one thing I am certain--a 21st Century perspective is not useful in judging decisions made by a people in the mid-20th Century who had been struggling through four long years of a world war and who suddenly saw that they had the means of instantly ending it.
This film is far better than "Fat Man and Little Boy." Those who enjoyed this one will likely also enjoy "Hiroshima" by Wesley Addy, which is an unusually balanced examination of the decision to use the atomic bomb in World War II.
 Spotlight on Leo Szilard and Michael Tucker October 25, 2008
jimFromNewYork
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I also agree with all the insights of the positive reviews to DAY ONE. One point I'd like to emphasize is the point the movie makes of the role of Leo Szilard, played by very well by Michael Tucker.
No other film on the Bomb really captures the whole history, or identifies the significance of the event to the history of science. Szilard represents the need of science to be open and devoted to collaboration. The film shows how vital scientists like Szilard are to real inquiry. And the flim shows how open inquiry is shut down in favor of engineering. And the film thereby shows how much we have changed, as science is privatized or isolated. The film shows how competent Szilard was in other areas as well, such as realizing Jews needed to escape from Germany while there was still time, and realizing how to handle to politics when he devised the way to get President Roosevelt's attention to the threat of a German Bomb. Michael Tucker's protrayal of Leo Szilard demonstrates his authenticity, and demonstrates we did really have alternatives.
And, today, continue to have alternatives in how we conduct science and military policy.
I hope it is not true that the DVD version released in America deleted crucial Szilard scenes I have in my VHS tape.
Excellent, compelling. Outstanding cast. May 30, 2008
Rick Valeriote (Vacaville, CA USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I loved this miniseries when it originally aired. When my daughter had to do a research paper on the topic, I jumped on the opportunity to see it again, and bought it for her to watch as well. There is no better portrayal that tells the story so completely and compellingly. For an amazing book on the subject, definitely read the Pulitzer Prize winning "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes. An incredible book. But for a movie version, you can't beat Day One.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 15
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