Milestone Film & Video: “This April, we say NO to wars past & present”
Posted on April 1, 2022
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The online article accompanying Stu Levitan’s 2020 interview with author and filmmaker Gregg Mitchell describes his fascinating book about the making — and unmaking — of a postwar anti-nuclear Hollywood feature film:
“The Beginning or the End was a B movie about the A bomb, released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in February, 1947. It promised to disclose what it called ‘the biggest, best-kept secret in the history of the world – the men, the magic, the machines behind the world’s strongest force – the atom bomb.’ The movie was, the studio declared in all caps with exclamation points ‘FACTUAL! AUTHENTIC!’
Well, not quite. Because a movie set in motion by scientists wanting the world to know the truth was taken over by the military and the White House needing the world to believe a lie. How that happened is the business that occupies Greg Mitchell in The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood – and America – Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. It’s not just a great yarn with some surprising participants, it’s also an urgent warning about secrecy, manipulation and suppression.”
Courtesy Milestone Film & Video
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