THE MANHATTAN PROJECT
US, 1986, 117 minutes, Colour.
John Lithgow, Christopher Collett, Cynthia Nixon, Jill Eikenberry, John Mahoney, Robert Sean Leonard.
Directed by Marshall Brickman.
The Manhattan Project was written and directed by Marshall Brickman, onetime associate of Woody Allen (Annie Hall, Manhattan Murder Mystery). Brickman also wrote and directed the offbeat science fiction fable, Simon, starring Alan Arkin. Some of the themes of the advancement of technology, exploitation, nuclear issues and deterrents are, in this fable, directed for a family audience.
John Lithgow is the designer of nuclear arms. Jill Eikenberry is the mother of Christopher Collett, the precocious young scientist who causes a nuclear incident. Amongst his friends can be seen Robert Sean Leonard, of Dead Poets Society.
The film plot seems rather far-fetched - however, it moves along at a very fast pace, carrying the audience with it - giving some credibility to the students and their behaviour, yet ultimately showing the dangers of nuclear weapons. It also plays on the idea of nuclear deterrents and raises criticism of governments, scientists and technologists, cover-ups?
1.Science, science fiction? Nuclear technology thriller?
2.The world of scientific technology and developments, lasers, laboratories, bombs? The ordinary American town? Musical score?
3.The credibility of the plot? The laboratories? The secrecy? The skill of the young students in making a bomb?
4.The title, the reference to the past, the development of the atomic bomb? Into the eighties?
5.Jack, genial man, his work, the laboratories? The move, meeting Elizabeth, taking the apartment? The outing with Elizabeth and Paul? Taking Paul through the laboratory, showing him the lasers? The meal, Paul taking his cards? The danger, the investigation of the break-in? The arrival of the military and his reaction, stances? Trying to persuade Paul to give up the bomb? The pursuit, the deal and conditions? The tension in defusing the bomb? Getting Paul to safety? His handling of the crisis, his freedom from secrecy, his future in nuclear technology?
6.Elizabeth and her work, love for Paul, marital situation? Meeting with Jack, attracted, the meal? Discovering what had happened? Concern? The military occupying her house?
7.Paul, his skills, friends in class, the prank with the drawer, his relationship with Jennifer? Meeting Jack, the tour, the lasers? Finding the five-leafed clovers? Suspicions? Taking Jack's cards, his shrewdness with Jennifer in getting in, taking the material? Making the bomb? Wanting to win the prize at the science fair? The truth, his arrest, the escape? His shrewdness, the deal? The tension and danger in defusing the bomb? Jack getting him out of the laboratory? His future?
8.Jennifer, help, the car, in the pursuit?
9.The other kids in the school, listening in to the discussions, the science fair, the pursuit, helping Paul and Jennifer? Responsibility and irresponsibility in this behaviour?
10.The priggish student, the prank, his answering the questions, slurs on Paul in the television interview?
11.The themes of nuclear warheads, the design of bombs, secrecy? Contamination and mutations? The military intervention, the arguments about deterrents, the allegory of deterrents?
12.The picture of the military, the officer? High-handed behaviour? The concern about the bomb? Shooting to kill?
13.A family movie? For adolescents? A fable about nuclear issues?
