[oceanplexian]

I was massively let down by Oppenheimer.

It’s 90% interpersonal/political drama (Including a bunch of unnecessary nudity thrown in for dramatic effect), a few token scenes with Albert Einstein, a 10 minute detonation with decent SFX, and a small fraction of real physics and engineering. If you’re actually interested in the Manhattan Project you’ll be way more inspired by a history channel documentary than anything in that movie.

[lukeholder]

Hmm the “token” scene with Einstein was the pivotal interpersonal misunderstanding / paranoia trigger for the antagonist.

[psychphysic]

It also tells us that Strauss does not quite understand the game.

He had the medal pinned on him, he thinks this is a badge of honour. A mark of the lowly shoe sales man come good. Einstein tells us this was the marking of the end of his usefulness.

[psychphysic]

I loved the movie. Ultimately there can be no tension around the creation and use of the bomb. We all know that much of history atleast.

Instead it's a richly weaved tapestry asking an important question in various ways and giving various answers. "can you commit sin and expect sympathy"? We see this asked about nukes, about infidelity, and suicide, political maneovering. About science itself(original sin).

Take even the scene with the poisoned apple Bohr, Placket and Oppenheimer.

Bohr and Oppenheimer talk about forbidden knowledge (don't lift the rock if you're not prepared for the snake) as Bohr holds and apple. The forbidden fruit tempted by the snake in the garden of Eden.

No one with knowledge of WWII science sees a cyanide poisoned apple and doesn't think of Turning. Discarded after the war and persecuted for being gay (as Nazis persecute Jewish scientists and Americans communist scientists).

As Izzy Rabi says, bombs fall on the just and the unjust alike. As Oppenheimers constructed this bomb, the poisoned apple, which is about to hit the just (Bohr) and not Blackett (who he thinks unjust). Before regretting it.

Einstein regrets the bomb before he even started work after writing the letter with Szilard, others reject.it after construction, after testing, after Hiroshima, Oppenheimer seems to think enough is enough after Nagasaki. Teller goes further still... Where do we draw the line?

The apple scene alone is deeply layered with the major themes of the movies.

That's why people enjoyed it.