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Which historical figures were portrayed in The Beginning or the End?
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Norman Taurog
Norman Taurog (right) with Mickey Rooney on the set of Boys Town (1938).
The film The Beginning or the End (1947), directed by Norman Taurog, is a dramatization of the development of the atomic bomb. It features portrayals of several key historical figures involved in the Manhattan Project, including:
- J. Robert Oppenheimer: The physicist who headed the laboratory at Los Alamos.1
- Franklin D. Roosevelt: The U.S. President who authorized the program to study the military use of fission.1
- Enrico Fermi: The physicist who constructed the first nuclear reactor at the University of Chicago.1
The film also depicts other figures such as General Leslie Groves and President Harry S. Truman, reflecting the project's massive scale and the involvement of numerous scientists and political leaders.