audible

I remember watching this wonderful series when it first came out and was taken aback by the level of detail and accuracy. There have been many movies and docudramas that have followed or proceeded it including "Day One" and the splendid series "Oppenheimer" starring Sam Waterston in the title roll, but none can compare to "Race for the Bomb". It simply takes its time to cover all aspects of the story, human and historical, and captures the era to perfection. Maury Chaykin is memorable as General Leslie Groves and the rest of the international cast is without fault including Jean-Paul Muel as Leo Szilard and Tom Rack as Oppenheimer.

I'm really surprised that this series is not available in DVD or even VHS, I'm sure the producers could gain some revenue from it and make a new and old audience very happy. I did have a VHS copy that I made when the series was first aired but it's long gone now, more's the pity. If you do happen to see this in a rerun somewhere, don't miss it, unfortunately I don't see that happening.

Maybe someone may resurrect it for its twentieth anniversary. One can only hope. If the Aussies can release an old series ("1915") from the 80's then there may be hope.

I totally agree with Mary on this one. I too was looking forward to seeing this movie and both my wife and I agreed, after seeing it, that any sophistication and comedic value of the 50's/60's comedies this was meant to parody was totally lost on the director. This was more like an in your face TV comedy with a big budget. It wouldn't have surprised me if there would have been a laugh track to tell us where to laugh! We went home and put on our DVD of Pillow Talk (1959) to ease the pain!

Instead of letting the audience in on the joke, the script left it to a 3 minute monologue at the end, leaving us with one (oh, yeh, that's funny) laugh. If the audience new the inside joke from the beginning I believe it would have been funnier throughout the movie as we would know what each character knows but the other doesn't.

The sets where generally great (except as noted below) and David Hyde Pierce was a standout as an actor who understands comedic acting and timing, unfortunately Ms. Zellweger and Mr. McGregor (two actors I admire) don't and must rely on good directing, this is where I place the blame on Mr. Reed. Sophisticated comedy should be played straight and left to the situation and witty repartee to bring out the humor instead of hitting us over our heads with it (did ya get it audience, did ya!). That may be fine for Ace Ventura or Austin Power movies where comedians can pull it off with great aplomb but not in a romantic comedy with actors who are not natural comedians. Given good direction a talented actor can do anything, an example is Rob Marshall's direction of Ms. Zellweger and all others in Chicago. But no amount of acting skills can overcome inept direction.

In general the costuming was excellent with the exception of the initial pink suit worn by Ms. Zellweger; the collar was so big it made her look like a frightened turtle, her head almost disappeared in one scene. Great effort was made to use original footage of New York but when the scene was in an apartment the skyline was very crudely painted mattes (did the budget run out?). It may have been intentional but for me it was too jarring. Tony Randall's character was just plain mean with no redeeming feature, what a waste.

All in all, with the exception of David Hyde Pierce and, to some extent, Sarah Paulson all the parts were caricatures. This movie was a great idea wasted by poor writing and very bad direction.

This and The Winds of War/War and Remembrance are outstanding examples of movies that get to the heart of the topic they portray. By all standards TENKO is actually superior due to the raw, less over produced, values.

I watched the original series by happenchance, just flicking through the channels to see what was on (yes, a very male thing to do) when I came across this series. As a lover of anything to do with this time period I stuck around for a few minutes... a fateful few minutes, because I got stuck into what I now consider to be the best drama television has produced.

I credit the superb cast, standouts all. Unlike most American movies, there are no major names so each actor stands equally in the spotlight and makes you believe the awful events are actually happening. I don't know that I could endure what these ladies went through, I would suspect not. I do have the epilogue movie, TENKO Reunion on tape (lousy copy), so at least I can revisit these characters when I want to, even if only through a lot of video noise.

So why is this series not available on DVD or tape in North America? I can only think that someone somewhere is deciding, even as I write this, that it is high time that a release date is set. Wishful thinking? I hope not!