Posted on 07/30/2023 5:16:12 AM PDT by Rummyfan
The first glimpse I ever had of Robert Oppenheimer was in an episode of the landmark British television documentary series The World at War. (Soon to be the topic of this column.) It was in Episode 24 ("The Bomb"), which tells the story of the American nuclear program from its inception to the dropping of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Oppenheimer does not play a huge part until they get to the first test of the "Gadget", on July 16, 1945 at the White Sands Proving Grounds, roughly midway between Albuquerque and El Paso. He appears, his face filling the screen, in footage from a 1965 NBC documentary called The Decision to Drop the Bomb.
It's a strange face, made stranger by the cameraman's decision to frame him in an unforgiving close-up that makes his long, pale face, with its big, wide-set eyes and prominent ears, appear like a goblin or an alien. It would have made an impression on me even if I didn't hear his voice, which sounded halting and haunted.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
I enjoyed the movie. But it is structured oddly, with various plotlines and timelines interwoven so it can be difficult to remember things like “when did these guys first meet?” because the answer can be “very early”(in the film) and also “very late” (in the real world). Lots of personalities to keep track of. I plan to see it again, because there was a lot to take in (and I’m pretty familiar with the topic).
It should be noted that the communist sympathies are never portrayed as a bad thing, spies are talked about but actual spies are downplayed, and the general tone is that moral people are Leftists and Leftists are moral people.
But, at the same time, the vile nature of government bureaucrats, the in-fighting, and vindictiveness of people in power is made clear. Government is not your friend. I think it is an unintended message, but if you read between the lines (so to speak) you can see the early stirring of the Deep State.
You might try reading Bill O’Reilly’s “Killing the Rising Sun”. It’s an excellent writing on the subject.
I haven’t seen the movie, and I know this woke crap for Academy Awards qualification doesn’t kick in until 2024, but I’d be curious to know how a movie like “Openhemimer” qualifies in terms of the Academy’s moronic ‘diversity and inclusion’ standards.
Oh man.! I'm already so far behind on my reading, I may never catch up.!
My son gives me books, my neighbor gives books, the preacher gives me books, and I'm having a problems with my eyes.. I'm hoping it's cataracts. My wife had that and it was an easy fix.
Hollywood leftist movie studios teaching America’s children twisted history lessons, while the US DOE and your local school board are teaching your sons how to be daughters. What could possibly go wrong.
It's already gone wrong. Visit any metropolitan city in the US. Drug addiction out of control. Open prostitution. Black areas overrun with crime. Add to all that the mental illness of homosexuality and trans insanity.
Then read "The Rise And Fall Of The Roman Empire." I'm stunned that with all that's going on, Americans are oblivious to where we're headed. It's 1+1=2 simple.
We need a National Revival through Christ. But Americans are so reprobate and satan so prominent in every facet of our culture, I can't see it happening. But, that's just me.
If you read American Prometheus, you get the same factual information in a more conventional chronology. Nolan’s time shifts allow for the Trinity test to be the climax of the movie.
And just let him be Christopher Nolan. He’s really not into linear story telling.
Years ago I saw a University production of “In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer..” and it was a very powerful play.. His life was certainly almost as complex as “The Bomb..”
Look at the list of Hollywood shills appearing at the front of the film.
The cameo appearances of Hollywood egos appears in the film to fit the schedule of those egos.
When I moved to Chicago from Boeing’s Seattle I learned that the Story was a basement below the U of Chicago and not an airplane. Now we learn the story is a mid-level bureaucrat.
It’s like some other stories currently in the news. Story tellers tell the part that is important to them.
I don’t know Jean Tatlock’s story. Steyn writes that she died by suicide, under suspicious circumstances, in 1944. Details, anyone? And what was suspicious about the circumstances? How long did her affair with Oppenheimer last? Did it predate the Manhattan Project? Had Oppenheimer broken it off before her suicide? She was a card carrying communist, Oppenheimer was an unrepentant fellow traveler who lied about his communist connections to the FBI, and the Manhattan Project was target #1 for Soviet intelligence. Suspicious circumstances might mean almost anything.
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most universities stopped requiring Gibbon’s Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire in the 1960s....
I have read enough about Oppenheimer to neither respect nor like what he was (he was a leftie). I spent some time in the mid 1970’s studying details of WWII and the Manhattan Project. That was after the Freedom of Information act made it legal to write about.
Years ago I had a discussion of his famous phrase from the from The Bhagavad Gita (in Sanskrit), “Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
In that conversation with a Hindi speaking Indian told me that Oppenheimer totally misinterpreted the passage.
Here is a recent article saying that.
Oppenheimer Features Verse From The Bhagavad Gita; Here’s What It Means (Jul 24, 2023)
Op Ed by Barton Bernstein, a Professor of History at Stanford
Opinion: Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ marred by 5 historical inaccuracies
The first 15 minutes with Edward Teller are revealing...
Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr.: Better a Shield than a Sword, 1987
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erHZBDn0v2M
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