The Beginning or the End

MGM's dramatisation of America's development of the atom bomb is a portentous and turgid, yet absolutely fascinating, relic of the Cold War era. Hume Cronyn plays the scientist, J Robert Oppenheimer, while a cast of dozens play other real-life personages, including Einstein, Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Charting the science and the politics that led to the bomb being dropped on Japan, the movie celebrates Yankee know-how, but also wonders if the invention might herald an apocalyptic dawn and wipe out humanity for good. Thus the romantic subplots seem more inane than usual, and there's a framing device, about a time capsule to be opened in the year 2446, that's simply mind-boggling.