Hiroshima (2005/I) (TV)

Director:

Paul Wilmshurst

Writer:

Paul Wilmshurst (written by)

Release Date:

5 August 2005 (USA)

Genre:

History

Plot:

Documentary with dramatic reenactments with actors to describe what dropping the bomb on Hiroshima was like.

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

John Hurt	...	Narrator (voice)
Naoko Mori	...	Shige Hiratsuka
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Noboru Akima	...	General Anami (as Noburu Akima)
George Anton	...	Parsons
Fred Ashworth	...	Himself - Crewmember of the Enola Gay (as Frederick Ashworth)
Robert Austin	...	Winston Churchill
Daniel Ben Zenou	...	Beser
Ed Bishop	...	Stimson
Katsumi Chô	...	Admiral Yonai
Lee Colley	...	Van Kirk
Garry Cooper	...	Groves
Gus Danowski	...	Jeppson
Tim Davenport	...	Captain Bob Lewis
George Elsey	...	Himself
Michael Fitzpatrick	...	Farrell
Teruko Fujii	...	Herself - Student in Hiroshima
Russell Gackenback	...	Himself - Navigator of the Enola Gay (as Russell Gackenbach)
Dr. Shuntaro Hida	...	Himself - Army doctor in Hiroshima (as Shuntaro Hida)
Hirohito	...	Himself (archive footage)
Kenneth Jay	...	Harry Truman
Morris Jeppson	...	Himself - Crewmember of the Enola Gay (as Morris 'Dick' Jepson)
Sachi Kimura	...	Takakura's friend
Haruka Kuroda	...	Akiko Takakura
Kinuko Laskey	...	Herself - Nurse in Hiroshima
Tim Matthews	...	Major Thomas Ferebee
Martin McDougall	...	Le May
Eric Meyers	...	Fermi
Hirofumi Muraka	...	Dr. Shuntaro Hida
David Nicolle	...	Carron
Junichi Oboshi	...	Soldier Rescuer
Miya Oishi	...	Teruko Fujii
J. Robert Oppenheimer	...	Himself (archive footage)
Toyotaka Ota	...	Morio Ozaki
Hocto Pearson	...	Takashi Tanemori
Shane Rimmer	...	Byrnes
Frederik Ruth	...	Oppenheimer
Minako Seki	...	Nurse Kinuko
Ian Shaw	...	Colonel Paul Tibbetts
Akiko Takakura	...	Herself - Bank employee in Hiroshima
Takashi Tanemori	...	Himself - Pupil in Hiroshima
Shigeru Terasawa	...	Himself - Soldier in Hiroshima
Clive Thompson	...	George Elsey
Paul Tibbets	...	Himself - Pilot of the Enola Gay
Harry S. Truman	...	Himself (archive footage)
Theodore Van Kirk	...	Himself - Navigator of the Enola Gay (as Theodore 'Dutch' Van Kirk)
Kenji Watanabe	...	Shige's Husband
Martin Wimbush	...	General Sir Alan Brooke
Waldemar Zalewski	...	Josef Stalin

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:12

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Trivia:

One of the fireballs/mushroom clouds shown in the detonation sequence is from the Upshot-Knothole Grable nuclear artillery test, conducted by the US in 1953.

Great Style, easy on the Substance

Have just watched the film with an eye to my history class and found it very good dramatically. I was kicking myself for losing another film of the same name that was more of a film and which demanded more from their actors; to see Truman in this version portrayed by a man twice his size with no physical or vocal similarity was a big disappointment whereas the older film's resemblances to him and the other two of the Big Three was uncanny. To compare the lack of concern in this regard to the care the BBC took with its Dunkirk where Churchill and Lord Halifax were lovingly portrayed is further frustrating. The graphics are outstanding as one would expect from the BBC; if you've seen its Auschwitz, Colosseum or Pompeii titles you'll know what high quality to expect. One quibble would be the lack of any mention of Japanese atrocities. Living and working in China with family who suffered from Japanese barbarism, I was dismayed to see Japanese bestiality whitewashed to portray them as the victims. Maybe one day someone will do a BBC-type Rape of Nanking to redress the balance. In the meantime, without bothering to fully explain why the Americans (and the British and Commonwealth who took on the Japanese too, a fact ignored by the British broadcasting Corp.)truly hated the Japanese is disingenuous. No real mention made too of the bomb in the context of the start of the Cold War, or how Nagasaki was probably more a warning to Stalin who had just invaded Japan with an eye to joint-occupation a la Germany makes this a rather one-dimensional analysis. Great value must be placed on the interviews of so many witnesses, particularly Tibbets and the last man to have actually have touched Little Boy.