One part Great Man Theory with tons of navel gazing and genuflecting to a handful of star figures. One part Sorkin-esque courtroom drama.

Zero parts fun.

Three fucking hours long.

Don't waste your money on this shit bag, folks.

  • NotARobot [she/her]
    ·
    11 months ago

    I don't remember that specific quote but it was a big government project that not only coordinated a massive amount of resources but also brought a bunch of the world's top scientists to work on it. To call that great man theory seems nitpicky.

    • lmaozedong
      ·
      edit-2
      11 months ago

      deleted by creator

      • JuneFall [none/use name]
        ·
        11 months ago

        How many of those hundred thousands are shown in the movie? The Manhattan project is a good example for why Great Man History is wrong, but when stuff is written about it not seldom it is made to be this hive of scientists working for one specific goal guided by a super genius. Depiction and framing matters quite a bit.

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      hexagon
      ·
      11 months ago

      That's not how the story is presented. Oppenheimer is the constant but-for factor in the lead up to the development of the bomb, with the bulk of the supporting cast being military handlers, social relations, and sex partners.

      • NotARobot [she/her]
        ·
        11 months ago

        Oppenheimer is the constant but-for factor in the lead up to the development of the bomb

        do you remember any examples? The sense I got from the movie is the opposite. It is basically suggested every physicist in the world more or less understood the technology at least potential if not on the horizon when the findings were published at the beginning, and many of the scientists seem to have a good guess what they are being recruited for despite it being a top secret project. Also, The USSR getting the bomb is treated as an inevitability prior to it was even known whether espionage occurred. I guess the best counter to this is why do we care about Oppenheimer sad at the destruction he helped unleashed if it was basically soon going to arrive anyway, and the only answer is that because the movie is about him.

        • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
          hexagon
          ·
          11 months ago

          do you remember any examples?

          Nothing I could quote chapter and verse. But the endless need for supporting caste to say - over and over again - that he's exceptionally brilliant, combined with the quasi-mystic music of the spheres stuff they lead into the movie with, heavily implies it.