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The true, dramatic story of Robert Downey Jr.'s 'Oppenheimer' villain

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Re: The true, dramatic story of Robert Downey Jr.'s 'Oppenheimer' villain

#11

Post by tinco »

mapasj wrote: post #5

I did not like this movie. That must be an unpopular opinion, given all the movie’s success. And specifically what I didn’t like was that the film makers could have gone in many directions in telling a story about Oppenheimer, but chose to make the RDJ villain central to the plot. The conflict in the film felt forced and unnecessary for telling a good story.

As someone with an interest in the history of physics as I'm sure many people here are, I didn't much like the film either. I liked the renditions of the different physicists and the overall arc of the story, but more like I'd be interested in a documentary.

What's impressive about the movie is that they managed to create drama, artistry and tension in what's fundamentally something you can't really make a movie about because in the end it's just a story of some physicists that successfully accomplished something without anyone really opposing them in any material way.

I think that's laudable and interesting. But if you would judge the movie just based on its entertainment value, I don't think it would score very high. The Barbie movie, which I just saw 2 weeks ago on my TV was clearly a better movie on I'm pretty sure every aspect, and you could tell it was in the first minute.

Re: The true, dramatic story of Robert Downey Jr.'s 'Oppenheimer' villain

#12

Post by vasco »

tinco wrote: post #11
mapasj wrote: post #5

I did not like this movie. That must be an unpopular opinion, given all the movie’s success. And specifically what I didn’t like was that the film makers could have gone in many directions in telling a story about Oppenheimer, but chose to make the RDJ villain central to the plot. The conflict in the film felt forced and unnecessary for telling a good story.

As someone with an interest in the history of physics as I'm sure many people here are, I didn't much like the film either. I liked the renditions of the different physicists and the overall arc of the story, but more like I'd be interested in a documentary. What's impressive about the movie is that they managed to create drama, artistry and tension in what's fundamentally something you can't really make a movie abou…

> What's impressive about the movie is that they managed to create drama, artistry and tension in what's fundamentally something you can't really make a movie about because in the end it's just a story of some physicists that successfully accomplished something without anyone really opposing them in any material way.

Feynman made it way more interesting in his book without needing to create fake villains! You could make a whole movie about his shenanigans alone.

Re: The true, dramatic story of Robert Downey Jr.'s 'Oppenheimer' villain

#13

Post by KennyBlanken »

agomez314 wrote: post #8

Having read "Now it can be told" by Groves, I can testify to other commenters on how much the Manhattan Project was an enormous logistical problem - Elon's manufacturing prowess pales in comparison to what Groves had to grapple with. On a different note, I liked how the movie portrayed the world of quantum mechanics and somehow didn't try to make Oppenheimer a hero or something more than what he was.

[flagged]

Re: The true, dramatic story of Robert Downey Jr.'s 'Oppenheimer' villain

#14

Post by telesilla »

mapasj wrote: post #5

I did not like this movie. That must be an unpopular opinion, given all the movie’s success. And specifically what I didn’t like was that the film makers could have gone in many directions in telling a story about Oppenheimer, but chose to make the RDJ villain central to the plot. The conflict in the film felt forced and unnecessary for telling a good story.

To me this movie showed how Oppenheimer's protests against nuclear proliferation was hushed by the powers of the time, leaving him to be remembered in history as the architect of the most fearsome weapon imaginable, not a brilliant scientist full of regret, becoming anti-proliferation but blackmailed into silence due to earlier communist ties.

I was also fascinated to learn that the fear of Germany getting the bomb first was what drove him and so many others to create the worst thing humans have ever created and used.

As a non-american, none of this was common knowledge and I welcomed the history lesson, I always wondered why such a brilliant physicist and intelligent person would want to destroy the world but never thought to find a book on the topic (I've since added American Prometheus to my read list). It is shameful he was not allowed a public platform to denounce nuclear arms as strongly as he felt.

Re: The true, dramatic story of Robert Downey Jr.'s 'Oppenheimer' villain

#15

Post by MrScruff »

tinco wrote: post #11
mapasj wrote: post #5

I did not like this movie. That must be an unpopular opinion, given all the movie’s success. And specifically what I didn’t like was that the film makers could have gone in many directions in telling a story about Oppenheimer, but chose to make the RDJ villain central to the plot. The conflict in the film felt forced and unnecessary for telling a good story.

As someone with an interest in the history of physics as I'm sure many people here are, I didn't much like the film either. I liked the renditions of the different physicists and the overall arc of the story, but more like I'd be interested in a documentary. What's impressive about the movie is that they managed to create drama, artistry and tension in what's fundamentally something you can't really make a movie abou…

> The Barbie movie, which I just saw 2 weeks ago on my TV was clearly a better movie on I'm pretty sure every aspect, and you could tell it was in the first minute.

This is wildly subjective, different people watch movies for very different reasons.

Re: The true, dramatic story of Robert Downey Jr.'s 'Oppenheimer' villain

#16

Post by [deleted] »

mapasj wrote: post #5

I did not like this movie. That must be an unpopular opinion, given all the movie’s success. And specifically what I didn’t like was that the film makers could have gone in many directions in telling a story about Oppenheimer, but chose to make the RDJ villain central to the plot. The conflict in the film felt forced and unnecessary for telling a good story.

[deleted]

Re: The true, dramatic story of Robert Downey Jr.'s 'Oppenheimer' villain

#17

Post by [deleted] »

agomez314 wrote: post #8

Having read "Now it can be told" by Groves, I can testify to other commenters on how much the Manhattan Project was an enormous logistical problem - Elon's manufacturing prowess pales in comparison to what Groves had to grapple with. On a different note, I liked how the movie portrayed the world of quantum mechanics and somehow didn't try to make Oppenheimer a hero or something more than what he was.

[deleted]

Re: The true, dramatic story of Robert Downey Jr.'s 'Oppenheimer' villain

#18

Post by newsclues »

bmitc wrote: post #4
ant6n wrote: post #3

There’s a lot of bits in the Oppenheimer film that seem simplified. For example that Los Alamos appears to be a fairly small operation, a bunch of shacks in the prairie, a kind of physics camp for a team of nerds. In reality the Manhattan project at Los Alamos was a huge operation, like 8000 people living there in 1945, a kind of university/research campus and town, but the movie doesn’t really show the scale. Also,…

Every picture I have seen indeed shows it was a bunch of shacks and hastily built buildings. I'm not for sure a tour of Los Alamos was necessary. An overhead shot might have worked.

That’s an expensive overhead shot unless it’s a model or cgi.

Re: The true, dramatic story of Robert Downey Jr.'s 'Oppenheimer' villain

#19

Post by NoboruWataya »

mapasj wrote: post #5

I did not like this movie. That must be an unpopular opinion, given all the movie’s success. And specifically what I didn’t like was that the film makers could have gone in many directions in telling a story about Oppenheimer, but chose to make the RDJ villain central to the plot. The conflict in the film felt forced and unnecessary for telling a good story.

This is a pretty common criticism (and I agree with it). To me it felt like the successful test was the obvious dramatic climax of the movie, but then you had another hour of a bunch of guys sitting in a room arguing about security clearance. It could have been shorter, or if they wanted to keep the length they could have explored Oppenheimer's early life in more detail.

Re: The true, dramatic story of Robert Downey Jr.'s 'Oppenheimer' villain

#20

Post by [deleted] »

telesilla wrote: post #14
mapasj wrote: post #5

I did not like this movie. That must be an unpopular opinion, given all the movie’s success. And specifically what I didn’t like was that the film makers could have gone in many directions in telling a story about Oppenheimer, but chose to make the RDJ villain central to the plot. The conflict in the film felt forced and unnecessary for telling a good story.

To me this movie showed how Oppenheimer's protests against nuclear proliferation was hushed by the powers of the time, leaving him to be remembered in history as the architect of the most fearsome weapon imaginable, not a brilliant scientist full of regret, becoming anti-proliferation but blackmailed into silence due to earlier communist ties. I was also fascinated to learn that the fear of Germany getting the bomb f…

[deleted]
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