Conversation

So, I went to go see Oppenheimer with a bunch of people. Felt a little bad, but the last movie I payed to see in theaters was... Alita? It's been a while.

Anyway, it's not very good.

I could nitpick on things like how Oppie was giving a lecture at Berkley in the 1930's, and his stellar astrophysics class was filled with women and blacks (and black women). But there are more important problems.

Listing a few, it's oddly historically accurate in certain areas, such as showing Feynman refusing goggles because "regular glass would stop the UV from the explosion", and then he gets temporarily blinded by the rest of the explosion... Feynman was a bit of a tard. But then most of the time the movie is assembled in such a stupid way. It feels more like a Family Guy cut away gag. Many things are put together, out of order, to show stuff happening. Oppenheimer does a thing, but UH OH! He's upstaged by Hitler invaded Poland! Did you know it was the 1930's???

It's also a more political story. People are being mean to Oppenheimer because "it's the McCarthy era". Basically the whole story is really about the red scare, and how horrible it was. This poor guy, tortured by his past, who associated with (and screwed) communists, and now is working to stop the American nuclear program in the middle of the cold war is being treated unfairly!

But the biggest problem is the fake "smart guy" shit.

>"I suck at math, and I'm not good at experimentation".
>"Ah, but Oppenheimer, do you hear the music?"
>"Yes?"
>"Let me write you a recommendation to the highest university!"
...Actually, that story might be true.

He gives the black hole talk. Every "smart guy" in cinema gives the black hole talk. Basically, he repeats a description of a black hole found on IFLS or something. Now to be fair, he did work on the problem, but not on the existence of black holes, but the limit for when a neutron star would collapse into one, or something else (we still don't know). It would have been more neat to see that part of the problem, and not the "black hole talk".

OH, and whenever he thinks, he see sparks and particles and dust. Every smart person, when thinking in a movie, thinks in dust and sparks.

What I don't get is that people fall for this again and again. How many times can you see this and go "whoa! He's really smart!"? And now just regular people, but actual physicists.

Public

Notices

Feeds