Feature Films (Updated 6/2006)

Above and Beyond (1952).

Hollywood bio-pic of Enola Gay pilot Paul Tibbets focuses on his training and personal life, with his wife very often narrating. Robert Taylor, Eleanor Parker, dir. Melvin Frank. (122 mins.)

Barefoot Gen (1983).

Japanese cartoon version of the bombing. Dir. Mamoru Shinzaki. (80 mins.)

Bataan (1943).

Brutal view of Japanese soldiers in this film about a tragic battle for Americans, one that roused fierce anti-Japanese feelings. Robert Taylor, George Murphy, dir. Tay Garnett. (113 mins.)

Beginning or the End (1947).

First American film to portray the development of the A-Bomb and the bombing of Hiroshima. Brian Donlevy, Robert Walker, dir. Norman Taurog. (112 mins.)

Black Rain [Kuroi ame] (1989).

Radioactive fallout gradually kills a Japanese family that survived the original bomb. "I can't die like this, like a guinea pig," one man says. Japanese film. Yoshiko Tanaka, Kazuo Kitamura, dir. Shohei Imamura. (123 mins.)

By the Dawn's Early Light (1990).

Cold War thriller about the political and military debate as the button is about to be pushed initiating nuclear war: an unidentified missile detonates over a Russian city causing the USSR to launch an attack against the U. S. Made for tv. Powers Boothe, Rebecca de Mornay, dir. Jack Sholder. (100 mins.)

Crossroads (1976).

Avant-garde. Not seen. Commentary by Mike Broderick: "Images of the 1946 Bikini Atoll test are run back-to-back without commentary, repeated over and over, forming their own rhythm. In a manner which draws upon the tremendous kinetic energy of the detonations as they instantly vapourise millions of tons of water and thrust monstrous radioactive waves into the air, turning and flipping the relatively tiny battleships moored around the atoll like toys in a bathtub, the repetition deconstructs the immediate, sublime terror and promotes a reflection of exquisite geometrical beauty of the explosive form, its puncturing of the ocean floor and creation of an implausibly symmetrical, ever-expanding, majestic mushroom cloud." Dir. Bruce Conner.

The Day After (1983).

Chilling after-effects of the catastrophic nuclear bombing of Lawrence, Kansas -- sometimes called the most controversial tv movie of its time. Jason Robards, dir. Nicholas Meyer. (126 mins.) Followed by a panel discussion when orginally broadcast; see documentaries.

Day One (1989).

Manhattan Project, Szilard as conscience. Tension from the urgency to build the bomb and the moral questions involved in doing so. Brian Dennehy, Michael Tucker, dir. Joseph Sargent. (141 mins.)

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).

Cold War black comedy about an insane general making a nuclear attack on Russia. George C. Scott, Peter Sellers, dir. Stanley Kubrick. (93 mins.)

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

The story of Tibbets and the training of the 509th -- the official version of the events. Patrick Duffy, Kim Darby, dir. David Lowell Rich. (156 mins.)

Fail-Safe (1964).

American president and the Soviet premier try to stop a mistakenly launched American nuclear attack. Cold War classic. Henry Fonda, Walter Mathau, dir. Sidney Lumet. (111 mins.)

Fat Man and Little Boy (1989).

Development of the A-Bomb focusing on Manhattan project leader General Groves and scientist Robert Oppenheimer. Paul Newman, John Cusak, dir. Roland Joffe. (127 mins.)

Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1956).

Atomic bomb thaws a pre-historic monster who ravages Tokyo. Japanese film. Raymond Burr, dir. Ishiro Honda. (80 mins.)

Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959).

In Hiroshima to make a peace film, a French actress has an affair with a Japanese man ("Hiroshima is your name"), played out against the backdrop of a long recounting of the horrible devastation caused by the bombing. French film. Dir. Alain Resnais. (91 mins.)

Hiroshima: Out of the Ashes (1990).

The A-bomb as seen by the survivors at ground zero. Max von Sydow, Judd Nelson, dir. Peter Werner. Made for tv. (100 mins.)

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

The Indianapolis was torpedoed after delivering the A-bomb, killing over 800 American sailors. Made for tv. Stacey Keach, Richard Thomas, dir. Robert Iscove. (100 mins.)

On the Beach (1959).

American submarine searches for life after post-World War III radiation. Cold War classic. Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, dir. Stanley Kramer. (134 mins.)

One Night Stand (1984).

In Australia, four teenagers in a Sydney theater are astounded to hear the news that a nuclear war has broken out in Eastern Europe. They try to figure out the best way they can survive the coming conflagration. Tyler Coppin, Cassandra Delaney, dir. John Duigan. (94 mins.)

Pearl Harbor (2001).

Two friends join the army, find themselves at Pearl Harbor during the sneak attack, fight heroically, and then join the Doolittle raid on Tokyo. Graphic carnage in the attack scene is a good point of reference for the point of view critics felt "Crossroads" lacked. Ben Affleck, Kate Beckinsale, dir. Michael Bay. (182 mins.)

Rhapsody in August (1991).

A family's attempt to come to terms with the grandmother's experience of the bomb dropping that killed her husband and continues to affect succeeding generations. Japanese film. Dir. Akira Kurosawa. (98 mins.)

Sands of Iwo Jima (1949).

Classic World War II combat film about one of the high-casualty battles in early 1945 described in unit 1 of "Crossroads," and often used as evidence that invading Japan, rather than dropping the bomb, would have cost enormously more lives. John Wayne, John Agar, dir. Allan Dwann. (109 mins.)

Special Bulletin (1983).

Simulated television newscast about the threatened nuclear destruction of Charleston by a quintet of war protesters who demand the dismantling of America's arsenal of warheads. Made for tv. Dir. Edward Zwick. (103 mins.)

Testament (1983).

Small town contending with nuclear holocaust. Made for tv. Jane Alexander, William Devane, dir. Lynne Littman. (90 mins.)

Thirteen Days (2000).

The world on the brink of nuclear war as America and Russia square off during the Cuban Missile Crisis, which was, no doubt, the major confrontation of the Cold War. Kevin Costner, dir. Roger Donaldson. (145 mins.)

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944).

The Doolittle raids that paid the Japanese back for the sneak attack at Pearl Harbor. Van Johnson, Robert Walker, dir. Mervyn LeRoy. (138 mins.)

Threads (1985).

Effect of nuclear holocaust on working-class town of Sheffield, England. Made for British tv. Karen Meagher, Reece Dinsdale, dir. Mick Jackson.

Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970).

Events leading up to Pearl Harbor attack, from both American and Japanese points of view. Martin Balsam, So Yamamura, dir. Richard Fleischer. (144 mins.)