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@GregMitch: Wild story of Truman censoring 1st Hollywood movie on Hiroshima--and getting actor fired-- 67 yrs ago this month.

When Harry Truman Censored 'the Most Important' Hollywood Epic Ever Made
Greg Mitchell on April 26, 2013 - 9:56 AM ET

One of the great tales of Hollywood “censorship” remains little known today, more than sixty-seven years after it transpired. And who was right at the center of it? None other than President Harry S. Truman. He even got rid of the actor playing him in the MGM movie. For good measure, protests by Eleanor Roosevelt led to the firing of the actor portraying her late husband.

The 1947 MGM film The Beginning or the End deserves special review, however, as the film emerged, after many revisions, as a Hollywood version of America’s official nuclear narrative: The bomb was absolutely necessary to end the war and save American lives, and we needed to build new and bigger weapons to protect us from the Soviets. And so the nuclear arms race began.

My fascination with the making and unmaking of the MGM film took me to the Truman Library, where I was the first to consult key documents. The story of the derailing of the movie, Truman and why it was important is told in my new book, just out this week, Hollywood Bomb: Harry S. Truman and the Unmaking of ‘The Most Important Movie’ Ever Made.

Several weeks after the Hiroshima attack, Sam Marx, a producer at MGM, received a call from agent Tony Owen, who said his wife, actress Donna Reed, had received some fascinating letters from her high school chemistry teacher, Dr. Edward Tomkins—who was now at the Oak Ridge nuclear site. Tomkins expressed surprise that Hollywood did not already have an atomic bomb feature in the works, and wondered if the film industry wanted to warn the people of the world about the coming dangers of a nuclear arms race.

Soon, MGM boss Louis B. Mayer gave the film a go, calling it “the most important story” he would ever film. President Truman provided the title himself. Marx and others from MGM met with the atomic scientists at Oak Ridge and elsewhere.

Early scripts, I discovered, raised doubts about the Hiroshima decision and portrayed the effects of the atomic bombing in a way that would have shocked many viewers, with Hiroshima pictured as ghostlike ruins and a baby with a burned face. The overall political message was alarmist and aligned with pro-disarmament scientists: It would have been better to lose half a million American lives “than release atomic energy in the world.”

Then something happened, and the sensibility of The Beginning or the End shifted radically. The decision to use the bomb, in revised scripts, was viewed as justifiable, even admirable. Now, after the bombings, no victims appeared, just a burning landscape observed from the air. Amazingly, General Leslie Groves, the director of the Manhattan Project, had secured the right of script approval—along with a hefty $10,000 fee—and played a vital part in reshaping the film. (See the trailer here.)

MGM hired Norman Taurog to direct the film and Hume Cronyn to star as Robert Oppenheimer. Everyone from famed columnist Bob Considine to author Ayn Rand were involved with early scripts. Nearly all of the scientists impersonated in the film signed releases, even Albert Einstein, but unlike Groves and President Truman, were not given script approval. Oppenheimer visited the set after being assured that his character, the film’s narrator, would display “humility” and “a love of mankind.” The Hollywoodization of the bomb had begun...

After a screening of the completed film for Washington journalists and White House officials in October 1946, famed columnist Walter Lippmann said he still found one scene “shocking.” President Truman felt uncomfortable with it as well. It pictured Truman making the decision to use the bomb, and the president and his aides objected to his deciding, after only a brief reflection, that the United States would use the weapon against Japan because “I think more of our American boys than I do of all our enemies.” This was actually true, of course...

http://www.thenation.com/blog/174057/wh ... -ever-made#

‏@Gawker: Seth Rogen is not pleased with Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday.

MinM » Mon May 26, 2014 10:28 pm wrote:

‏@Gawker: Seth Rogen is not pleased with Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday.

JackRiddler » Wed May 09, 2012 9:45 am wrote:

Hugh Manatee Wins » Wed May 09, 2012 4:20 pm wrote:Now, can you find the military-recruiting-of-females themes in that 'Spy vs Spy' pictogram?
Exactly where on her body is the word "war?"

@TimothyS: Stoners buy into assassination & racism -way to go, idiots."Rogen & Franco's new film on invading North Korea." huff.to/1loNSUz

MinM » Thu Jun 12, 2014 4:36 pm wrote:

@TimothyS: Stoners buy into assassination & racism -way to go, idiots."Rogen & Franco's new film on invading North Korea." huff.to/1loNSUz

https://twitter.com/Variety/status/477154338125541376

RocketMan » Thu Jun 12, 2014 4:13 pm wrote:

MinM » Thu Jun 12, 2014 4:36 pm wrote:

@TimothyS: Stoners buy into assassination & racism -way to go, idiots."Rogen & Franco's new film on invading North Korea." huff.to/1loNSUz

https://twitter.com/Variety/status/477154338125541376

You beat me to the punch, MinM. This just... nauseates me. Never liked Rogen much, but I had a soft spot in my heart for James Franco, oddly enough. American triumphalism dressed up as edgy satire just irritates the fuck out of me. How is it even satire if it regurgitates official American foreign policy? Jesus...

@RT_America: Hollywood execs may blacklist Cruz, Bardem for accusing Israel of 'genocide' http://on.rt.com/ibv548

@MaxBlumenthal: Israeli arms makers expect to cash in after testing new weapons on besieged refugees of Gaza: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.609919 …

smiths » Tue Aug 12, 2014 7:31 am wrote:but, why would Hollywood, as an entity, take exception to Cruz and Bardez making political comments about Israel's brutal and excessive treatment of the Palestinians?

Jewish control of the media is preventing an open discussion of the Holocaust, prominent Hollywood director Oliver Stone told the Sunday Times, adding that the U.S. Jewish lobby was controlling Washington's foreign policy for years.

In the Sunday interview, Stone reportedly said U.S. public opinion was focused on the Holocaust as a result of the "Jewish domination of the media," adding that an upcoming film of him aims to put Adolf Hitler and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin "in context."

"There's a major lobby in the United States," Stone said, adding that "they are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington."

Seth Rogen celebrated the premiere of his upcoming Sony Pictures comedy The Interview by thanking Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal — and he used some colorful language to do it.

"I'd like to thank Amy Pascal for having the balls to make this movie," Rogen said onstage, standing next to his co-director and producing partner Evan Goldberg before the screening at The Theatre at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. A packed house came out for the film as the fallout over a cyberattack on Sony Pictures continues.

smiths » Tue Aug 12, 2014 5:31 am wrote:but, why would Hollywood, as an entity, take exception to Cruz and Bardez making political comments about Israel's brutal and excessive treatment of the Palestinians?