646f9e108c The story of Colonel Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay, the bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Although unaware of the full potential of this new weapon, he knows that it is capable of doing tremendously more damage than any other weapon used before, and that the death toll resulting from it will be enormous. He is reluctant to be the person who will end so many lives, but if using it may bring an end to the war, then not doing so may result in even more lives being lost in continued ground assaultsthe fighting goes on. At the same time, the intense secrecy surrounding this mission leaves him with no one he can express his thoughts and doubts to, not even his wife. As time goes on, the pressure upon him only increase. Col. Paul Tibbetts piloted the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in World War 2. I wouldn&#39;t have bought this movie for myself, but got it for my Dad&#39;s 75th birthday. Dad had fond memories of it from seeing it on the big screen in 1952.<br/><br/>It seems to me that the movie was designed (maybe inadvertently) to appeal to men AND women. The primary emphasis is how Tibbetts&#39; job of getting a squadron ready to drop the first atomic bombs affected his marriage. That looks pretty dumb in print, but it&#39;s true. <br/><br/>Much is made of how long the Tibbetts were separated during the war and how the stress of Paul&#39;s job and the need for secrecy (even where his wife was concerned) almost caused their marriage to fail.<br/><br/>The acting is typical for the era: melodramatic. This aspect of old movies probably turns off more people than black and white does. The characters don&#39;t seem real. I don&#39;t think anyone talked that way even in World War II. <br/><br/>The only actor who seemed the least bit natural was the infant playing the Tibbetts youngest son.<br/><br/>This last bit is minor compared to my major gripes, but no other reviewer mentioned it so here goes:<br/><br/>After the bomb has exploded the crew of the Enola Gay use binoculars in the cockpit to see fires burning on the ground in Hiroshima. This would have been impossiblethe bomber was speeding AWAY from the city. The baloney that dropping the A-bomb saved anyone&#39;s life is still showing up in textbooks, and most of the confusion traces back to this blockbuster. Without recognizing pure Hollywood myth, audiences swallowed hook, line and sinker its careful rewrite of history, so that ultimately it became the American excuse for using nuclear weapons on a country that was already on its knees, had no defenses left, and was actively negotiating terms for surrender. My daughter returned home from school one afternoon recently and described the printed warnings, dropped from American planes by kind-hearted soldiers, that Hiroshima would soon be vaporized and residents had better leave. I remember learning about them myself. That&#39;s a great story, but the fact is, no warnings were ever dropped. Most Americans don&#39;t know that. This film is why. Our firebomb assaults had already fried 85% of Tokyo; Japan&#39;s planes and navy were gone; what would be the strategic advantage of incinerating 100% of two remaining cities other than to test the costly atomic weapons? Even the Manhattan Project scientists expected these bombs to be useda threat – rather than actually be dropped on anyone – and petitioned the President with that message. Rewriting the truth to paint a kind, gentle American everyman pilot, the plot assures viewers we did the right thing. By the time the story&#39;s over, there is no question that dropping bombs this big was the right thing to do, saving countless lives – except that these mitigating things simply never happened. Any red blooded American can look up the facts. I did. For its cock and bull story, this film is a treasure. Read it and weep.
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