Your thoughts on the movie Oppenheimer (only if you’ve seen it.)

[Dan Griffing]

I saw Oppenheimer for the second time and was even more blown away by it.

By comparison, I cannot think of a movie from the last 30 years that was such an impactful masterpiece.

Bear in mind that I spent the first few years of my career as an engineer at Hanford, Washington where they manage Manhattan Project plutonium byproduct nuclear wastes, so I’ve known a lot about the Manhattan Project for more than 40 years.

The movie was a veritable who’s who of the scientists in the history of the Manhattan Project.

Your thoughts?

 

[OverTheTop]

So many physicists and scientists in it, famous locations, and all done historically correct.

A very intense three hours.

I worked with a descendent of his till he retired last year.

 

[Funkworks]

I got to teach introductory quantum physics in college, which is essentially “physics highlights from about 1900 to 1925”, culminating with Schrödinger’s equation.

This movie was kind of like part 2: from 1925 or so, to 1945 or so. At that time, the best of the best were using Schrödinger’s equation to solve all sorts of long-standing problems. Oppenheimer knew who these people were and hired them for the project.

What struck me the most was recognizing Hans Bethe (Richard Feynman’s boss at the theoretical division, Feynman who can be heard playing the bongo twice in the movie ). I don’t know if it’s the actor or the make-up job, but what a neat surprise that was. Feynman was easily recognizable in the trailer.

Seeing the 20th century physics stars live on screen, those who wrote our book collections (or taught the authors who wrote them) was very special.

 

[Dan Griffing]

I got to teach introductory quantum physics in college, which is essentially “physics highlights from about 1900 to 1925”, culminating with Schrödinger’s equation.

This movie was kind of like part 2: from 1925 or so, to 1945 or so. At that time, the best of the best were using Schrödinger’s equation to solve all sorts of long-standing problems. Oppenheimer knew who these people were and hired them for the project.

What struck me the most was recognizing Hans Bethe (Richard Feynman’s boss at the theoretical division, Feynman who can be heard playing the bongo twice in the movie ). I don’t know if it’s the actor or the make-up job, but what a neat surprise that was. Feynman was easily recognizable in the trailer.

Seeing the 20th century physics stars live on screen, those who wrote our book collections (or taught the authors who wrote them) was very special.

Feynman was also the person in the truck looking through the windshield before the Trinity test who declined to use protective eye shields because he said the glass would block the harmful UV rays. I read about this in one of the biographies about him decades ago.

 

[jderimig]

Feynman was also the person in the truck looking through the windshield before the Trinity test who declined to use protective eye shields because he said the glass would block the harmful UV rays. I read about this in one of the biographies about him decades ago.

Was that true? (about now damaging your eyes). I wondered about that. I know staring at the sun through your windshield is probably not a good idea.

 

[GlenP]

My brother lives nearby where they were filming on location at Los Alamos and was an extra in one of the conference room scenes.

 

[James Duffy]

Feynman who can be heard playing the bongo twice in the movie ). I don’t know if it’s the actor or the make-up job, but what a neat surprise that was. Feynman was easily recognizable in the trailer.

Fun fact: the actor playing Feynman is Jack Quaid, who also portrays Boimler in Star Trek: Lower Decks (and Strange New Worlds!).

 

[PDawg]

Oppenheimer was pretty good , but I just saw Barbie and think it was better. Please don’t kick me out, just being honest.

 

[BABAR]

Oppenheimer was pretty good , but I just saw Barbie and think it was better. Please don’t kick me out, just being honest.

‘Barbie’ On Cusp Of $1B Global; ‘Oppenheimer’ Crosses $500M, ‘Meg 2’ Stalking $120M+ WW Debut – International Box Office​

https://deadline.com/2023/08/barbie...rnational-meg-2-opening-china-1235455131/amp/
Caveat: “more profitable” is not synonymous with “better” (unless you are one of the producers or actors or investors!)

 

[jderimig]

Taste is in the mouth.

 

[stealth6]

Taste is in the mind.

s6

 

[stealth6]

If you put a cat in a box and make it watch both movies, which one would the cat think is better?
(in fact, until you open the box and ask the cat, it kinda likes them both equally).

ssixsixsix

 

[OverTheTop]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08...r-mark-oliphant-and-the-atomic-bomb/102577024

 

[Ez2cDave]

If you put a cat in a box and make it watch both movies, which one would the cat think is better?
(in fact, until you open the box and ask the cat, it kinda likes them both equally).

ssixsixsix

Hmm . . . Can we "nuke" Barbie ?

 

[tHoagland]

Barbie has very woke, Liberal, political, and strong feminist undertones . . . You couldn't get me to watch it, if you paid my way, and took me out to dinner !

Feminist! Crazy to consider women people. Outrageous!

 

[Dan Griffing]

Barbie has very woke, Liberal, political, and strong feminist undertones . . . You couldn't get me to watch it, if you paid my way, and took me out to dinner !

The right doesn’t like Oppenheimer because the last third of it meticulously shows how Strauss most unfairly used the techniques of McCarthyism to destroy Oppenheimer over a personal vendetta, and they they also don’t like the movie because of Oppenheimer’s later stance on the need to control the nuclear weapons that he helped to create.

The movie is not overly political, and meticulously follows the book “American Prometheus” which is the definitive biography of Robert Oppenheimer. The dialogue of Oppenheimer’s security hearing all came from the biography and none of it written for the movie.

 

[Daddyisabar]

After loosing his clearance I wish they would have shown what level of a job he could get.

A high school physics and math teacher in a small, isolated mountain town in Colorado (before skiing took off.) He could also have the career he really wanted; cattle rancher. Keep the godless communist hoards down! Not soft on communism in Merica! Teller is the Thermonuclear hero!

Nolan could have ended with a countdown to the Tzar Bomba. Now I am hungry for some layer cake!

 

[Dan Griffing]

After loosing his clearance I wish they would have shown what level of a job he could get.

A high school physics and math teacher in a small, isolated mountain town in Colorado (before skiing took off.) He could also have the career he really wanted; cattle rancher. Keep the godless communist hoards down! Not soft on communism in Merica! Teller is the Thermonuclear hero!

Nolan could have ended with a countdown to the Tzar Bomba. Now I am hungry for some layer cake!

Teller was just as “godless”.

Most physicists are atheists because there is no need for the idea of a deity to understand anything about how the universe works.

If you have a religious litmus test for scientists then you don’t have real science.

 

[PDawg]

Barbie has very woke, Liberal, political, and strong feminist undertones . . . You couldn't get me to watch it, if you paid my way, and took me out to dinner !

Surprisingly it wasn't, that's part of the reason I liked it. Girl Power Movies have been around forever, and this one wasn't especially "Woke" or Preachy. Barbie almost felt like it was made back when we still had Freedom of Speech, your assumptions of undertones was incorrect. I won't buy you Dinner or a ticket however, so you'll probably have to miss it.

 

[Ez2cDave]

I won't buy you Dinner or a ticket however, so you'll probably have to miss it.

Sounds good to me . . .

 

[jderimig]

Oppenheimer was "cancelled"

Most physicists are atheists because there is no need for the idea of a deity to understand anything about how the universe works.

But no physicists can explain UAP motion, or at least the ones who can publicly speak about them.

 

[Ez2cDave]

 

[cls]

Barbie has very woke, Liberal, political, and strong feminist undertones . . . You couldn't get me to watch it, if you paid my way, and took me out to dinner !

That's the dumbest thing posted on TRF in recent months.

How do you know it is those things if you won't watch it and never have?

Did someone tell you to think that? And you just do what they said? Sheesh

 

[Ez2cDave]

Did someone tell you to think that? And you just do what they said? Sheesh

It appears that you were similarly influenced and motivated. I read many reviews, by respected individuals . . . Sorry if I didn't come to the same conclusion that you did !

 

[CalebJ]

It appears that you were similarly influenced and motivated. I read many reviews, by respected individuals . . . Sorry if I didn't come to the same conclusion that you did !

You didn't come to any conclusion at all - all you did is proudly repeat someone else's ignorance.

 

[cls]

It appears that you were similarly influenced and motivated. I read many reviews, by respected individuals . . . Sorry if I didn't come to the same conclusion that you did !

You know what they say about assumptions, everybody has one.

My comment was about you having wrong ideas without any direct experience.

I don't know what leap you made to conclude such a thing ("similarly" what?) about me.

I haven't read any reviews, nor seen the movie.

 

[mitchboese]

Teller was just as “godless”.

Most physicists are atheists because there is no need for the idea of a deity to understand anything about how the universe works.

If you have a religious litmus test for scientists then you don’t have real science.

"Religion without science is

Teller was just as “godless”.

Most physicists are atheists because there is no need for the idea of a deity to understand anything about how the universe works.

If you have a religious litmus test for scientists then you don’t have real science.

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
-Albert Einstein

 

[Dan Griffing]

"Religion without science is

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
-Albert Einstein

On the multiple occasions when Einstein was asked whether he believed in God, and he replied he believe in the God of Spinoza.

From a Christian perspective however, “Spinoza’s God” resembles atheism far more than it does the God of the Bible.

But even this belief in “Spinoza’s God” led Einstein to refuse to accept that quantum mechanics was valid because he just couldn’t accept that “God plays dice with the universe”.

In fact, the belief in “Spinoza’s God” had tragically blinded Einstein and lamed him as a scientist by causing him to waste two decades trying in vain to disprove quantum mechanics instead of contributing to it.

 

[cerving]

I saw Oppenheimer last week. I really can't decide if I liked it or not... but it's definitely a Christopher Nolan movie. It kinda reminds me of Batman Begins... a good part of the movie is spent getting into the head of the protagonist, so from that point of view it's a step above the typical fictionalized bio-pic.

 

[Dan Griffing]

I saw Oppenheimer last week. I really can't decide if I liked it or not... but it's definitely a Christopher Nolan movie. It kinda reminds me of Batman Begins... a good part of the movie is spent getting into the head of the protagonist, so from that point of view it's a step above the typical fictionalized bio-pic.

The virtual script for the movie was the definitive biography of Oppenheimer, “American Prometheus”, and every event in the movie comes from the biography. I don’t think the movie is at all typical and hardly any of it was fictionalized. For example, all of the testimony from the security clearance hearings come from the transcripts of the actual hearings that were documented in the biography. Even the “poisoned apple” incident allegedly happened and nearly got Oppenheimer expelled from Cambridge, but the details were fictionalized for the movie.