The Beginning or the End

The Beginning or the End is a 1947 docudrama about the development of the first atomic bomb. It follows the Manhattan Project from the discovery of nuclear fission through the secret work of scientists and military officers, the construction of production facilities, and the first test detonation in the New Mexico desert. Much of the story is told through the relationship between Major General Leslie R. Groves, who oversees the project, and Colonel Jeff Nixon, the officer assigned to it, alongside the young physicist Matt Cochran and his wife Anne. The film ends with the bombing of Hiroshima, presenting the weapon as a force that has changed the world.

Norman Taurog directed, working from a screenplay by Frank Wead, with Samuel Marx producing for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was Taurog's sixth film in a directing career that had included Boys Town and would later include The Stooge. Brian Donlevy plays Groves, Robert Walker plays Nixon, and Tom Drake and Beverly Tyler appear as the Cochrans, with Hume Cronyn as J. Robert Oppenheimer and Audrey Totter as Jean O'Leary.

On IMDb the film holds a rating of 6.5 out of 10 from 839 votes, and on TMDB it has a rating of 6.4 out of 10 from 13 votes. Those modest scores reflect a mixed but enduring interest in the film, which remains one of the earliest dramatic treatments of the atomic bomb.