Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb (1980) (TV)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

David Lowell Rich

Writers:

Millard Kaufman (writer)
James Poe (writer)

Release Date:

23 November 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | History | War

Plot:

Well-intentioned history lesson; the decision to drop the atom bomb, the secrecy surrounding the mission, and the men who flew it.

Plot Keywords:

1940s | Hiroshima Japan | Nuclear Weapon | Hiroshima | Japanese Army

Cast

Billy Crystal	...	Lieutenant Jacob 'Jake' Beser
Kim Darby	...	Lucy Tibbets
Patrick Duffy	...	Colonel Paul Tibbets
Gary Frank	...	Major Tom Ferebee
Gregory Harrison	...	Captain Bob Lewis
Stephen Macht	...	Major Wiiliam 'Bud' Uanna
Walter Olkewicz	...	Sergeant Shug Crawford
Robert Pine	...	Captain William 'Deke' Parsons
James Shigeta	...	Field Marshall Abehata
Robert Walden	...	J. Robert Oppenheimer
Richard Venture	...	Alexander Sachs
Richard Herd	...	General Groves
Henry Wilcoxon	...	Secretary of War Stimson
Stephen Roberts	...	President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Michael Tucci	...	Captain Claude Eatherly

Also Known As:

Enola Gay (Australia)

Runtime:

156 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L

Company:

Viacom Productions

Movie Connections:

Edited into Mission of the Shark: The Saga of the U.S.S. Indianapolis (1991) (TV)

Is it a plane? Is it a bird? No it's a turkey

On first viewing I caught just the section of the bomb drop and was surprised at the fumbling and utter flatness of the treatment of what for the world, let alone the crew, was such a momentous event. A extraordinary miscasting was Patrick Duffy, Dallas's Bobby Ewing, as the Enola Gay's pilot - bland and soft showing no evidence of stress or emotion that even the grittiest (and gritty the pilot must have been) would have shown. In real life the recording of the plane intercom picked up the reaction of one of the crew: "My God, what have we done?"

I assumed that I'd seen an unrepresentative section so watched a repeat. In a knockabout comic scene in "the john" a security man disguised as a plumber has been caught by the aircrew listening in to their conversations. The scene exactly resembled that in those many many comic movies set the armed forces - from Operation Petticoat to Sargeant Bilko. How could such a huge, dramatic and sombre story receive such treatment? It was not simply incompetent but given the gravity of the subject matter, distasteful.

I contrasted it with the superb Emmy-awarded "Day One" with Brian Dennehy as General Groves, a military bulldozer whose responsibility it was to drive the immense project forward often in the face of the sophisticated scruples of the brilliant scientists he had no choice but to work with. Day One seemed to give absolute full and accurate measure to the characters and events - the first IMDb review on it is particularly worth reading. David Strathairn excellent as Oppenheimer. Even better was the 1980 mini series "Oppenheimer" with Sam Waterston in the title role.

Given these two superb renderings of the genuinely world shattering story I cannot imagine how "Enola Gay etc" came to be conceived let alone made. Rightly it received not a single award nomination.