ABSTRACT
Five years after releasing The Beginning or the End? MGM again chose to produce a film that presented the development of the atomic bomb with Above and Beyond (1952). Rather, the film represents an attempt to appease public concern and government scrutiny into the suspected subversive nature of Hollywood and its products. MGM also chose to frame this new version of the development of the atomic bomb in a standardized dramatic formula, focusing plot development entirely upon the actions of one individual—Colonel Paul Tibbets, whose mission was to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The emphasis upon secrecy conveyed in the narrative of Above and Beyond continued to remain a central characteristic of Hollywood films involving nuclear imagery during the Cold War, when protection from alien ideologies and internal subversion became crucial. This pervasive theme represents part of an elaboration by Hollywood of the Cold War ideology manifesting itself in American culture.
