Re: What is The Last Movie You Watched?
Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, 2023)
Early on in this film, J Robert Oppenheimer admits to a student that Quantum Mechanics is a paradox, and Nolan thus explores what he sees as a paradox in the man: the creative scientist who helps to create a physics of destruction. Oppenheimer did believe that the advent of nuclear weapons should lead to arms control negotiations between the US and the USSR, and he was opposed, mostly on financial and scientific grounds to the development of the 'H-Bomb' -but he was not opposed to the use of the Atom Bomb on Japan, so it is a mistake, in my view to think of Oppenheimer as some sort of 'Liberal'.
The film moves forward and backward in time, which is confusing for those not familiar with the pre-war attractions of Communism to American intellectuals -not just the Jewish ones intensely aware of what was happening in the Third Reich-; and the post-war attacks on Oppenheimer by so-called 'Realists' for whom arms negotiations were pointless and the development of 'weapons of mass destruction' an essential component of the Cold War. If you are not sure who Lewis Strauss is then about half the film will be confusing, and it is not to my mind made clear that Oppenheimer did not arrive in Princeton at Strauss's request until 1947, two years after the Manhattan Project's detonation of a bomb.
That bomb caused immense damage and long term medical problems for those in New Mexico living downwind, something the film ignores, just as it ignores the bi-sexuality of Jean Tatlock, the Communist Oppenheimer had an affair with, who committed suicide. The sex scenes with Florence Pugh are gratuitous and without meaning. Oppenheimer's wife Kitty was born in Germany but in the film has an American accent. The Senate confirmation hearing that denies Strauss a Cabinet post was not swayed by the vote of a 'young Senator' called Kennedy -JFK was already in his second term and his vote was not decisive, but plays into the Nolan scripture that by the 1950s Oppenheimer represented a 'Liberal' Science cohort with which the 'red-baiting' anti-Communists of Congress such as Senator McCarthy were at war.
Apart from a few minutes, the film is all but swamped in ominous, tense muzak whose aim is to make you feel 'This scene is VERY IMPORTANT'. Indeed, Nolan seems to think his film is VERY IMPORTANT, when it is really just a well-made film that actually avoids asking some of the really hard questions about post-war Nuclear Policy and the strategic thinking behind it.
Is it one of the best films ever made? No.
5/10 for effort.
Re: What is The Last Movie You Watched?
Oppenheimer (Directed by Barry Davis for the BBC, 1980)
This seven episode series does what Nolan's little film does not - go into more depth with regard to the associations Oppenheimer had as a young academic at Berkeley in California, how he was elevated to lead the Manhattan Project because of the advent of the Second World War, and how those earlier political associations led to him being expelled from the US science administration in 1954 because of the Cold War.
It underlines the extent to which Oppenheimer's associations did not mean he was ever a Communist as such, though he had what might be termed 'Liberal politics' which in the context of the Depression, the New Deal and the growth of Fascism and Nazism in Spain and Germany was not such a big deal but became an obsession of J Edgar Hoover whose personal views led to the surveillance of Oppenheimer that created the 'damning' file on which his later career ended. But if Oppenheimer was warm to the Liberal social policies of the New Deal, he had no 'Liberal' problems in developing a weapon of mass destruction, even as he became conflicted by it when it was used on Japan, his famous remark being 'We have blood on our hands'.
But it also emphasizes that when leader of the Manhattan Project, he took the view that the 'Atom bomb' was more feasible than the 'Thermo-Nuclear' bomb advocated by Edward Teller. That Teller's view took hold after the war is in a way just one of those things, the science moved on and Oppenheimer's view was shown to be wrong. What is clear is that Oppenheimer and others involved in the Manhattan Project had to come to terms with the human costs of nuclear weapons, with the belief that to stop an arms race, international co-operation should take priority, something that was lost as the hysteria of the Cold War, albeit accelerated by the expansion of Soviet influence in Eastern Europe in the 1950s. It means Oppenheimer was not expelled from the Atomic Energy admin because of the science as much as his politics, at a time when anti-Communism was as hysterical as the supporters of Trump in Congress today, and just as myopic and crazy. But it also speaks to the emergence of the 'Realist' doctrine in International Relations that dominated US security and military policy, leading to the concept of 'Mutually Assured Destruction' and Deterrence. This took place at the same time that the more Conservative politics of the Truman and Eisenhower admins neutralized the UN and its agencies.
The series is this superior to the film, the scenes are longer, not smothered in muzak, though the music (by Carl Davis, who died this week) is just as bad. The film elevates Lewis Strauss to a significant figure, whereas in the Series he is merely a figure in Congress, and there is no hint of any bitterness or rivalry between him and Oppenheimer. General Nichols also is elevated in both film and tv series indeed he protested at his portrayal in the Series claiming he only worked with General Groves once being located at one of the other sites on the Manhattan Project. Sam Waterston gives a stunning performance as Oppenheimer, and David Suchet a venal and compelling Teller.
I would rate this 9/10. It can be seen here-
BBC Oppenheimer - YouTube
or on the BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer - Oppenheimer - Series 1: Episode 1
Re: What is The Last Movie You Watched?
Fahrenheit 451 (Ramin Bahrani, 2018 )
Another attempt to film Ray Bradbury's book, and a failure on every level. Wooden acting, feeble script.
Re: What is The Last Movie You Watched?
The Company You Keep (Robert Redford, 2012)
Never been a fan of Redford, though Three Days of the Condor (1975) and All The President's Men (1976) are still worth watching. This film tries too hard to be serious and ask important questions about 1960s student radicalism and how time changes people. At the end one of the characters who, to remain in character should have disappeared, turns herself in to law enforcement. A dismal ending to a film that was never going to succeed with the permanently hysterical Shia LaBeouf
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Re: What is The Last Movie You Watched?
Re: What is The Last Movie You Watched?
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Originally Posted by
Fitzcarraldo
Again?
Re: What is The Last Movie You Watched?
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Originally Posted by
Stavros
Again?
Yes. It's magnificent.
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Fitzcarraldo
Fitzcarraldo :)
No surprise there, but what about this one?
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Re: What is The Last Movie You Watched?
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filghy2
Another case of the sequel not being as good as the first one, and that's not a recommendation. Can we not retain some class when contributing to this thread?
Re: What is The Last Movie You Watched?
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Originally Posted by
filghy2
Ha! I'm not familiar with it.
