Playing the pleasant game of alternative history, we can make a couple of reasonable assumptions.
If Stalin had gotten The Bomb first, would he have used it to achieve global domination? Of course.
And Hitler? He would have leveled London without a second thought.
But the jarring plot point in this narrative is that Joan puts the US in the same category as those guys.
The Yanks took out Hiroshima, and Nagasaki - therefore they have no moral compass whatsoever and poor little Russia must have The Bomb to protect itself.
This is the basic problem with the script: when it comes to science Joan is a very smart cookie.
When it comes to other things - politics, people, sex - she doesn't really seem to know her ass from a hole in the ground.
In her concluding speech she makes the argument that she was right - 50 years of peace proving her decisions - but conveniently fails to mention the epically expensive arms race that resulted.
This is a well-done movie, and certainly worth the time, but the main character - as she's written - is not very convincing and it's reasonable to react to her with a strong sense of impatience.
If Stalin had gotten The Bomb first, would he have used it to achieve global domination? Of course.
And Hitler? He would have leveled London without a second thought.
But the jarring plot point in this narrative is that Joan puts the US in the same category as those guys.
The Yanks took out Hiroshima, and Nagasaki - therefore they have no moral compass whatsoever and poor little Russia must have The Bomb to protect itself.
This is the basic problem with the script: when it comes to science Joan is a very smart cookie.
When it comes to other things - politics, people, sex - she doesn't really seem to know her ass from a hole in the ground.
In her concluding speech she makes the argument that she was right - 50 years of peace proving her decisions - but conveniently fails to mention the epically expensive arms race that resulted.
This is a well-done movie, and certainly worth the time, but the main character - as she's written - is not very convincing and it's reasonable to react to her with a strong sense of impatience.