Oppenheimer

The film could have been better edited–I would have been looking at my watch near the end if I wore a watch.  The sex scenes were unnecessary and distracting, especially the one at the hearing.  Perhaps we could have had a bit more background on some of the scientists who worked on the bomb.  Maybe the relationship between the group at Chicago and the group at Los Alamos could have been made more clear.

The film shows the urgency of the effort to build the bomb before the Germans.  (I’ve heard people wonder if we would have used the bomb on the Germans.  You better believe we would have.)

The film makes clear how stupid Hitler was in driving out scientists and theorists who were Jewish.  It helps us understand why a demonstration bomb wasn’t dropped and why the bombing of Japan was felt to be necessary and why Kyoto was spared and why Americans at the time, especially soldiers and their families, were so happy when the bombs were used.  It gets across the paranoia of the Red Scare and the cruelties that resulted.  My quibbles aside, it is an excellent film with an excellent lead actor.

Tomorrow we see “Barbie.”