Oppenheimer

[Hans Tucker]

Only 15 days to go. I have been waiting for this movie since last year. A fascinating period in history. I have a read a little bit about Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project, so I hope this movie doesn't take too many liberties with historical facts.

https://youtu.be/bK6ldnjE3Y0

[ChrisD]

Same here, looking forward to seeing the movie, although I'm not expecting it to be uplifting. :)

[alpal]

I'm not sure how popular the movie will be as
there are so many videos on YouTube about the Manhattan project:


https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=The+manhattan+ project

[gary]

I have read many books on Oppenheimer and the history of the atomic and
hydrogen bombs and I'm looking forward to the Christopher Nolan movie
as well.

I note in the trailer details like the Szilard/Teller meeting with Einstein and
a visit to Stagg Field at the University of Chicago no doubt en-route to
visit Fermi.

The story of Oppenheimer himself reads like a modern Greek tragedy.

The synergy between Oppenheimer and Leslie Groves is key to the project.

The backstory of Oppenheimer's relationships with Kitty and Jean Tatlock
and his brother Frank are also key in understanding the man.

The friction between he and AEC chairman Lewis Strauss and the
overly-ambitious Teller and the backdrop of Cold-War paranoia
results in his sad fall from favour.

One of the better treatments was the 8-part 8-hour BBC drama, "Oppenheimer"
made in 1980 starring Sam Waterston as Oppenheimer and David Suchet
as Edward Teller.

For a highly detailed historical telling of the development of the
bomb rather than the story of Oppenheimer, the book I recommend the
most to the interested reader is Richard Rhodes Pulitzer Prize winning
"The Making of the Atomic".

It tells a story more fantastic, vast and epic than even any fiction dreamt
up by an incredible imagination of the likes of a Tolkien.

[Rigel003]

If any of you listen to the very amusing "The Rest is History" podcast, there is a recent episode about Openheimer's career, done in response to the film release.

[thunderchildobs]

Knowing Hollywood.
Coming this summer "Oppenheimer part 2: Rise of Godzilla"

[FlashDrive]

5mins Teaser........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOsIKu2VAkM

Col..

[alpal]

A great article here:

By Ben Platts-Mills 13th July 2023

As the movie Oppenheimer is released, Ben Platts-Mills explores the true story
of the enigmatic Manhattan Project scientist,
and the atomic bomb that made him a "destroyer of worlds".

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230712-robert-oppenheimer-manhattan-project-nuclear-scientist-atomic-bomb

[alpal]

I watched this doco on Oppenheimer - very good -
almost 1.5 hours.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZXphvc-BVk

cheers
Allan

[alpal]

Just found out -
it's a 3 hour movie with no intermission.
You'd think they would break it into 3 parts? :help:
here:
https://mixedarticle.com/oppenheimer-intermission
cheers
Allan

[RB]

I watched it last week.
Three hours went by in a ‘Flash’.

RB
:lol:

[ChrisD]

Yeah, I was blown away!

Chris

[RB]

:lol: :thumbsup:

[alpal]

Really - I don't think I could go 3 hours without a rest room break
unless a didn't drink any tea or water for hours before the show.

[RB]

I timed the rest room break to line up with General Leslie Groves’ Spiel.

:lol:

[alpal]

You might have missed a good bit. :)

[RB]

I did Allan ... :sad:
When I returned, everything was pink. :confuse2:
I was in the wrong cinema.

:lol:

[Rainmaker]

So you’re more into fission than fusion…….:shrug::question:

[UniPol]

An excellent read is Ray Monk's "Inside the Centre, The Life of J. Robert Oppenheimer" around 800 pages, took considerably longer to read than watching the 3 hour film. I still think the 1980 BBC mini series was really well done, 7 hours running time from memory.

[Huey]

In the late sixties I read a book by Robert Jungk about the nuclear scientists, titled "Brighter than a thousand suns". It was later translated from German into English and has several articles about Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project in general. A very good read and available for free (I think) on the net.

Huey

[alpal]

Don't tell me you watched Barbie too? :lol:

[RB]

:lol:

[alpal]

Come on Barbie - let's go party:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyhrYis509A


:lol:

[AstroViking]

There are a number of documentaries on YouTube about Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project, if you're curious and want to find out more.

I've got 3 of them bookmarked and need to make time to watch them.

[wavelandscott]

Just got back from the cinema and watching it in IMAX…it was a spectacle and I was glad I saw it on the big screen

[UniPol]

I see there is another doco on Foxtel currently; "To End All War: Oppenheimer & the Atomic Bomb" 2023, 1h27m, looks good.

[Andy01]

Saw it yesterday.
Honestly, was pretty good but lop 30 mins off each end and it would be much more engaging. :D
As it was, it felt too long & political. I get what Nolan was doing, and I do enjoy his work- but still… this film as subtle as a reversing garbage truck with two flat tyres :lol:

[AstroViking]

I saw the film last night with my GF. We both enjoyed the film, but the background audio at times drowned out the dialogue, which was a bit frustrating.

I can see how Oppenheimer was conflicted - a research scientist who pursues his work to it's physical conclusion and then has to grapple with the moral ramifications of his work.

Nolan may have been rather unsubtle in his messaging, but you can clearly see the child-like naivety of the American politicians (and military industry) who desire the "biggest and shiniest toy" to show off. Not to mention their insane obsession with defeating communism at all costs.

Having been to both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, having stood at "ground zero" at both locations, having spent time in the museums and memorials to all the victims, I can firmly say that nuclear weapons should be destroyed and removed from the hands of the morons in charge of our countries.

[Hans Tucker]

Too late, and, like US 2nd Amendment, you won't be able to roll it back. Oppenheimer opened up a Pandoras Box .. and this box cannot be closed. Possible Nuclear Holocaust is a threat that humanity will have to live with.

[Andy01]

Well said, I agree with all of your comments! :D

[AstroViking]

The original (and full) wording of the American 2nd amendment was (to paraphrase) the right to bear arms against a corrupt/over-reaching government.

Far too many people seem to leave off the second half of that sentence. It was not a free-pass for people to own as many firearms as they want.

Pandora's box has been opened and the nuclear genie will not be going back into it's bottle. (If you'll pardon my mixed metaphors...)

[scarecrow2012]

Good doco, watched it last night. Seeing some of the injuries was shocking, cant imagine the ones that werent shown. It was a very sad decision to use on a civilians.

[gary]

My DALLE-2 AI prompt - "Barbie doll wearing protective goggles watching the detonation of the Trinity atomic bomb test in 1945"

[RB]

:lol: :lol:

[gary]

Today, 6th August 2023, marks the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

When you get off at the train station and start walking toward the hypocenter, about a km away, you come across plaques along the way that show the amount of destruction at that point.

The fireball reach 1 million C, and the ground temperature 4000C for about 3 seconds. The surface temperature of the Sun is in the order of 5000 C.

At a radius of 2km, the vast number of people were severely burnt. Out at a km, like where the railway station is, you received a fatal dose of radioactive rays.

The Hiroshima device, Little Boy, was untested. It was a uranium gun bomb. They were just confident that the simplicity of its design world work.

The Fat Man device on Nagasaki was an implosion plutonium design. The same type as the "Gadget" they tested in New Mexico.

The design of the shaped explosives took some of the most brilliant minds of the time to design, amongst them, John Von Neumann.

Hands Bethe, who went onto win the 1967 Nobel Prize for his work on stellar nucleosynthesis, said, “Von Neumann’s mind seemed to indicate that he belonged to a new species, an evolution beyond man."

[alpal]

That is discussed here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W06g7gIfwRE

[sharkbite]

Imagine what the world would be like if they put their minds to designing something useful...

[Saturn488]

Was a good movie but probably won’t see it again.

- Wayyyy to much music. Was very distracting and couldn’t hear some of the dialogue. It felt like I was watching an extremely long movie trailer.
- It was about 1 hour too long, it didn’t have to be 3 hours
- The explosion when the a-bomb went off I felt could have been better. Too many close ups and different angles which didn’t really show the true power or size of the explosion
- It was hardly linear the way the story was told. Too much jumping around to different times which made it more complicated than what it could have been. I like movies where you can understand what is going on as you’re watching it, not working everything out at the end.

For those who haven’t seen it I’d recommend to go watch it but it was overhyped and not Christopher Nolan’s best movie.

[AstroViking]

It was still an infinitely better film than 'Barbie'.

[Sunfish]

:rofl: ha. Very good.

[AstralTraveller]

Well, that was three hours of my life I won't get back. Maybe I didn't get something important at the start but basically I was confused much of the time. Losing about 10% of the dialogue behind the music didn't help but the flashbacks, and flashbacks within flashbacks, had my head spinning. Apart from the main few characters I often lost track of who was who. I tried to follow the story but struggled. In retrospect, I did absorb the broad story and while talking to my wife I have recalled more detail than I thought was going in. It's an interesting story which I appreciate hearing but it wasn't an enjoyable experience.

[JLPark]

A very good book is The making of the atomic bomb by Richard Rhodes.

[Saturn488]

It was a great 3 hour movie trailer :lol:

A wasted opportunity to tell the story of Oppenheimer. This should have been a mini-series instead like Chernobyl or Band of Brothers.