Indeed, Oppenheimer managed a Manhattan Project that was teeming with Soviet spies. In their book, Sacred Secrets, Jerrold and Leona Schecter produce a Soviet document sent to Stalin’s secret police henchman Beria that they claim points to Oppenheimer as being a facilitator of espionage — much like FDR’s pro-Soviet Treasury official Harry Dexter White, who let a nest of spies work under his nose. Historians have debated the significance of the document and whether Oppenheimer was a spy. My admittedly cynical view is that many contemporary historians don’t really much care. They see little wrong with the Soviet flirtations of U.S. officials, much less their communist sympathies. Unlike fascists, communists are almost always portrayed as ideological eccentrics driven by naivety or good intentions. Oppenheimer hagiographies almost always double as critiques of American Cold War policy. Writers, for example, love to contrast Oppenheimer’s alleged moral struggles with the stern and uncompromising nature of his great rival Edward Teller, the “father of the hydrogen bomb” and template for Dr. Strangelove and other fictitious warmongers. Though the more accomplished Teller would be proven right about both the Nazi and Soviet threats, no one is ever making a movie celebrating his life. At any rate, when the Manhattan Project was concluding, numerous participants began to argue that the U.S. shouldn’t have a monopoly on nuclear technology. Niels Bohr (not a spy) famously wanted atomic science open-sourced. Klaus Fuchs (definitely a spy) wanted the same, but simply handed the USSR atomic secrets instead. In 1995, when it was learned that another Los Alamos scientist, Ted Hall, had sent secrets to the Soviets in the 1940s, he went on television and explained that he “decided to give atomic secrets to the Russians because it seemed to me that it was important that there should be no monopoly…”
Saw this yesterday and it was really good, I did a little reading beforehand as I didn't really know much about him and glad I did. Solid movie, Downey was really good in it.....a much different character then what I am used to seeing from him. 7/10 So many young girls were dressed up as barbie to see Barbie......super cute, they were so excited, and I could tell the moms were stoked to.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/24/media/india-oppenheimer-backlash-hindu-right-intl-hnk/index.html India’s Information Commissioner, Uday Mahurkar, said the scene was “a direct assault on religious beliefs of a billion tolerant Hindus,” likening it to “waging a war on the Hindu community.” Was the scene necessary? No. Was it tastefully done? Yes. “Oppenheimer is a WWII biopic, an American WWII biopic. Maybe Hindu people watch WWII biopics, we don't know. Frankly, we don't want to know. It's a market we could do without.“ - Christopher Nolan to the Indian government protesting the scene in question.
A Nolan Bond movie would be something... https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/m...rested-directing-james-bond-movie-1235541886/
Absolutely fantastic movie. Very similar to Oliver Stones JFK in some parts. Nolan is an absolute master.
Nobody asked you about your intelligence. But anyway, not the forum for your vaccine opinions, or even if I got a vaccine, but thanks for literally nothing.
As someone who is not a history buff nor had much of any specific knowledge about Oppenheimer or his project to create the A-bomb, I actually found the post-Trinity stuff pretty fascinating. I had no idea there was so much political background to everything (I suppose I SHOULD have known given the subject, but I never really considered it, to be honest). So while I can see the criticisms of focusing on that for the final act of the movie, I really did enjoy it all and I thought it was fantastic how they wrapped it all up in the overall theme of science and war.
There is significant evidence that the cultural pride and nationalistic fervor on both sides would've led to millions more deaths and likely a near-destruction of Japan. So I'm inclined to agree with you and I think many people are who have studied the conflict. The trajectory of Japan since the war tends to indicate that the decision was even prescient (at best) or not catastrophic (at worst), although it will forever be one of the most controversial and regrettable decisions in human history. War is the ultimate expression of human despicableness.
Unironically, I woke up with a sore throat and runny nose this morning and only real exposure to any illness would be the movie theaters.
That's a great perspective actually. And I need to remember that the political intrigue might well hold more universal interest than the engineering and quantum details of bomb design and testing. LOL. Getting my tix now for later in the week!
This was the culture that invented kamikaze and hara-kiri. They had soldiers refusing to surrender as late as the 1970s. The idea that they would have surrendered without getting nuked is absurd.
Is this just our destiny? To spend the rest of our lives reading books and watching documentaries on World War II?
I loved it 9/10. I tend to agree with some of the complaints that the courtroom stuff could have been pared down a little, but I never at all felt myself bored with it. It's really a testament to Nolan's talent as a filmmaker. This movie should have been 100% a snoozefest, but not only did it have my rapt attention for all 3 hours, it's somehow also a summer blockbuster.
Daniel Craig's Bonds are so dark and gritty that it makes Brosnan Bonds look campy in hindsight. I liked the idea but I'd rather have a little more camp as a palette cleanser to what would be a grittier Nolan directed Bond
