Deep in the redwood forest of California, a time capsule is being buried to be opened in the year 2446. Three nations are represented, the U.S., Canada and Great Britain. Among the prestigious participants are J. Robert Oppenheimer (Hume Cronyn) and Dr. Enrico Fermi (Joseph Calleia). One of the items in the time capsule is a film called “The Beginning or the End”.
In 1941, many of the powers of the world are involved in the Second World War. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Godfrey Tearle), at the behest of Dr. Albert Einstein (Ludwig Stossel), earmarks two billion dollars for creating the most powerful weapon in the world, the atomic bomb. The project is labeled The Manhattan Project.
Major General Leslie R. Groves (Brian Donlevy) is assigned to bring the project to fruition. Under his supervision Lt. Colonel Jeff Nixon (Robert Walker) and Matt Cochran (Tom Drake) are charged with assisting a crew of scientists and engineers in developing and overseeing construction of the bomb. Eventually construction and testing were transferred to Los Alamos, Texas. To facilitate the project, an entire city was constructed in the desert.
Although the development of the bomb started under Roosevelt’s watch, his death in April 1945 resulted in the project being transferred under President Harry S. Truman’s (Art Baker) command. It was Truman who was in charge of whether or not to use it. Hitler, seeing the end of his dictatorship, committed suicide in April 1945. Although Hitler had been defeated, the United States was still in a battle in the Pacific with the Japanese. In July 1945, the Enola Gay, a Boeing B-29 bomber, was tasked with dropping the first of two atomic bombs on Japan.
“The Beginning or the End” was released in 1947 and was directed by Norman Taurog. It is an American documentary drama and propaganda film. The film did not do well at the box office, most likely due to people being weary of war.
The filmmakers skim over a lot of stuff. The movie covers the period from 1941 through 1945. Other than the fact that the U.S. did build the bomb, and use it, a fair amount of the film is poetic license. For example, the character Matt Cochran is fictional. Some things are added for dramatic effect, and some are only lightly touched on since almost five years of dramatic events are compressed into one 112-minute film.
Nine countries in the world possess nuclear weapons, Russia, United States, China, France, United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea. Russia has the most weapons, followed by the United States. These two countries alone own 90% of all nuclear weapons. Some countries “host” nuclear weapons that are owned by other countries. Nuclear weapons being produced now are more powerful than the one that was dropped on Hiroshima.
On August 9, 1945, a second bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. The bombings of these two cities killed between 150,000 to 246,000 people, most of them civilians. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the only two times where nuclear weapons were used. The United States was, so far, the only country to use them.