The Beginning or the End
The Beginning or the End is a 1947 American docudrama film about the development of the atomic bomb in World War II, directed by Norman Taurog, starring Brian Donlevy, Robert Walker, and Tom Drake, and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film dramatizes the creation of the atomic bomb in the Manhattan Project and the bombing of Hiroshima.
Not to be confused with The Beginning of the End.The Beginning or the End
George Boemler
- March 7, 1947
112 minutes
United States
English
$2.6 million
$1.9 million
The film originated in October 1945 as a project of actress Donna Reed and her high school science teacher, Edward R. Tompkins, who was a chemist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Bob Considine wrote the treatment, which was sent to MGM scriptwriters. The title was supplied by President Harry S. Truman. At the time there was a legal requirement that permission be obtained to depict living well-known public figures. Many refused, but others, such as J. Robert Oppenheimer, co-operated. Major General Leslie R. Groves, Jr., the director of the Manhattan Project, was hired as a consultant for $10,000 (equivalent to $156,000 in 2023).
Although the filmmakers put considerable effort into historical accuracy, particularly in details, the film is known for some key distortions of history. An entirely fictional sequence was added in which Truman agonizes over whether to authorize the attack; anti-aircraft shells are shown bursting around the Enola Gay on its bombing run over Hiroshima. The film received generally mixed reviews, and was a box office disappointment.
Plot[edit]
A prelude scene in the form of a Newsreel story suggests that the film is part of a package of information about the development of atomic energy and the atomic bomb being placed in a time capsule in California, to be opened in 2446.
Physicist and atomic scientist Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer (Hume Cronyn) praises the discovery of atomic energy but also warns of its dangers. American scientists such as Matt Cochran (Tom Drake), working under the guidance of Dr. Enrico Fermi (Joseph Calleia) and Dr. Marré (Victor Francen), have split the atom, and essentially beaten the Germans in the race to create an atomic bomb. With the assistance of Albert Einstein (Ludwig Stössel), they inform President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Godfrey Tearle) that a monumental discovery has been made.
In 1941, with the United States at war, Roosevelt authorizes up to two billion dollars for the Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb. In December 1942, at the University of Chicago, under the watchful eyes of observers such as Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Nixon (Robert Walker) and international experts, scientists create the first chain reaction, under a stadium at the campus.
Nixon is assigned to General Leslie Groves (Brian Donlevy), who is placed in charge of the project. Groves has to bring together the scientific, industrial and defense communities to build the atomic bomb. In 1945, following the death of Roosevelt, the new president, Harry S. Truman (Art Baker), continues to support the atomic project, now moved to Los Alamos, New Mexico.
Facing stiff resistance in the Pacific War, Truman orders the use of the atomic bomb against Japan in July 1945.
Cochran and Nixon are assigned to accompany the crew transporting the bomb to Tinian. While assembling the bomb, Cochran comes into contact with radioactive material and dies. The following day, on August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. After the mission, Nixon returns home to break the news of her husband's death to Cochran's wife.
Historical accuracy[edit]
The filmmakers put considerable effort into many details for historical accuracy, such as military uniforms, and the details of the Enola Gay and its crew.[3] Nine of the actors who portrayed the Enola Gay crew were actual veterans of World War II.[2] Guy Williams made his film debut as the bombardier who releases the weapon over Hiroshima. The correct names of the accompanying aircraft are shown, although the photography plane was only named Necessary Evil after the Nagasaki mission.
By comparison, the technical details of atomic processes and the bomb's design are wildly inaccurate by intention. In 1947, these details were highly classified. No mention was made of the rich source of pitchblende supplied from the Congolese Shinkolobwe mine, and all refining of uranium was portrayed as only coming from Canadian mines. Another inaccuracy, independent of necessary military secrecy, is the portrayal of anti-aircraft shells bursting around the aircraft on the bombing run, as the attack on Hiroshima was not opposed.[17][Note 1]
The film twice refers to supposed specific leaflet drops on the target for ten days in advance of the mission warning the citizens of the forthcoming raid. "We've been dropping warning leaflets on them for ten days now", one crew member remarks, "That's ten days more warning than they gave us before Pearl Harbor."[19] However, there was no leaflet specifically warning of an atomic attack.[19] In his review in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, physicist Harrison Brown called this "the most horrible falsification of history".[20] Historians have debated whether any leaflets were dropped at all.[21]
This incident in which "Cochran" receives a fatal dose of radiation while assembling the Hiroshima bomb is a highly fictionalized reference to the deaths of Harry Daghlian and Louis Slotin, members of the Manhattan Project who died after contact with radioactive material on 21 August 1945 and 21 May 1946.[22]
In his award-winning book, The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood—and America—Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,(July 2020), historian and journalist Greg Mitchell explores “the shocking and significant story of how the White House and Pentagon scuttled an epic Hollywood production.”[23]
Release[edit]
Box office[edit]
According to MGM records, The Beginning or the End was made on a budget of $2,632,000 (equivalent to $41,124,000 in 2023), but earned $1,221,000 (equivalent to $19,078,000 in 2023) in the United States and Canada and $721,000 (equivalent to $11,265,000 in 2023) elsewhere, resulting in a loss to the studio of $1,596,000 (equivalent to $24,937,000 in 2023).[24]
Critical reception[edit]
Although The Beginning or the End was the first film to depict the story of the atomic bomb, both critics and the public were confused by the attempt to merge real events in a docudrama form. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times commented that "despite its generally able reenactments, this film is so laced with sentiment of the silliest and most theatrical nature that much of its impressiveness is marred."[25] Variety described the film as a "portentous tale in broad strokes of masterful scripting and production",[26] and a "sum credit of everybody concerned that the documentary values are sufficiently there without becoming static".[26]
Time was less positive, noting that, "even as entertainment ... the picture seldom rises above cheery imbecility."[13] In his Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists review, Harrison Brown considered the movie "poor", with a romantic angle "insipid in the extreme",[20] but was most troubled by way scientific equipment was "over-glamorized" in the film, which he felt gave "a completely false impression of how scientists work."[20]