Everything Oppenheimer Gets Right And Wrong About The True Story

written and directed by Christopher Nolan and starring kellyanne Murphy Oppenheimer is one of the most historically accurate Blockbusters ever made but it still had to gloss over and omit some extraordinary details here's how close it got to the real deal perhaps the most notable character in Oppenheimer that isn't named Oppenheimer is Louis Strauss played by Robert Downey Jr upon meeting Strauss Oppenheimer remarks that he can relate to the fact that Strauss is a self-made man as his father was too the two also briefly commiserate about anti-Semitism otherwise the film doesn't delve too deeply into oppenheimer's childhood Robert's father Julius was a German Jew who fled to New York City in 1888. he really did start with nothing and he turned a job at a textile Factory into a lucrative business Empire the family wasn't religious as Julius and his wife Ella sent their children to a progressive institution called the ethical culture School in the film Oppenheimer claims that the J in his name didn't stand for anything the biography of the film is based on American premiere explains that it wasn't common practice for Jewish fathers to name their sons after themselves however Julius added his own name to his son's birth certificate at the last second J Robert oppenheimer's wealth distinguished him from other Jewish Americans socially even though he was generally indifferent about both money and his Jewish Heritage while growing up he was an odd child who was bullied by his peers he skipped Graves was obsessed with rocks and minerals and was once violently hazed at summer camp by his teenage years he was already showing signs of both genius and instability that's a lot of baggage for one man it took me a minute to actually comprehend and then I realized oh that's a huge responsibility while studying at Cambridge University Oppenheimer poisons his professor's Apple after he's forced to miss the beginning of a lecture and clean up his sloppy lab work the real Oppenheimer was notoriously clumsy with his experiments which was why he ended up working in theoretical physics that poisoning was no creative flourish either as Oppenheimer did indeed inject his tutor Patrick blackett's apple with chemicals and it caused more of a scandal than what's shown in the movie in the film Oppenheimer wakes up in a panic the following morning and rushes back to the classroom to find his Idol Niels Bohr about to take a bite to prevent a disaster he says that he spotted a wormhole and tosses the Apple in the trash in reality Oppenheimer was struggling with more serious mental illness his questionable perception of reality led to a diagnosis of dementia precox which is a now outdated term for schizophrenia in the real version of the misguided Revenge plot block it never ate the apple Oppenheimer was neither arrested nor expelled partly due to conflicting accounts and his father's influence the ordeal was seen as a cry for help and he managed to seek psychiatric care audience is expecting to see a movie about World War II may have been surprised by how much of Oppenheimer is instead about closed-door politics in particular there are the grueling series of hearings in which oppenheimer's security clearance and loyalty to America are called into question the film ultimately remains ambiguous about whether or not its subject was ever officially a member of the Communist Party suggesting instead that he was most likely a leftist FDR supporter who had associations with card carrying Communists in American Prometheus Oppenheimer is quoted as claiming that he was so apolitical that he didn't know about the stock market crash of 1929 until Ernest Lawrence told him six months later and he never voted until 1936. his interest in and support of left-wing causes began around 1934 and continued until roughly the time he became involved in war efforts Oppenheimer insisted that he never joined the Communist Party although he did admit in writing I have been a member of just about every Communist front organization on the west coast furthermore several of oppenheimer's family members friends and acquaintances were active Communists at certain points in their lives it feels to smell every single character is significant because they're all historical figures of consequence in the movie Oppenheimer says that only a fool or a child would presume to know what goes on in a relationship he's talking about his wife Kitty played by Emily Blunt but the sentiment is even more applicable to his romance with Jean tatlock as portrayed by Florence Pugh tatlock was studying to become a child psychologist when she and Oppenheimer met and bonded over their inner demons and left-leaning ideologies the film touches on their intense but relatively short-lived relationship as well as one final tryst followed by tatlock committing suicide by Drowning herself in a bathtub the truth is much more complicated in the movie She's annoyed at oppenheimer's habit of gift giving but in real life she ended up regretting her constant refusal of flowers and marriage proposals she was also rumored to have carried on an affair with her communist friend Mary Ellen Washburn Jean talock was blunt knew what she wants but at no point is she ever punished for that American Prometheus contends that tatlock's suicide may not have been a suicide at all when her father discovered her body he burned learned her letters before calling the police it's been theorized that a government official may have had her killed out of fear that Oppenheimer shared State secrets that she could have passed on to the Russians Kitty oppenheimer's incredible story is barely touched upon in the film she's depicted as an unhappy mother and jealous wife with a moderate drinking problem but the real Kitty was a more extreme version of the one we see on screen the only child of an upper-class German family Kitty falsely claimed that she was a princess she also frequently enrolled in colleges but failed to take any classes she divorced her first husband after learning that he was gay and addicted to drugs her second husband died in battle and then she became pregnant with oppenheimer's baby while she was married to her third dating married women and cheating on his wife wasn't unusual for Oppenheimer he attempted to seduce his secretary at Los Alamos and letters showed that he had a long-term relationship with Ruth Tolman the wife of his friend Richard Tolman according to American Prometheus Kitty was resentful of her husband's lovers and his Fame and alcoholic who got into several car crashes and sustained Broken Bones from Falls she favored liquor over food at parties and frequently fell asleep with lit cigarettes she may have also suffered from postpartum depression she had this Defiance against the system that felt so modern the most accurate part of Oppenheimer is likely the section that takes place at Los Alamos which lasts from 1942 to 1945. Leslie Groves as played by Matt Damon recruits Oppenheimer to head up the secret army weapons lab the real Groves and Oppenheimer had their disagreements but they respected each other and worked well together Groves wanted the scientists to become soldiers and wear uniforms but he conceded that they could meet once a week to share ideas for the sake of progress additionally Isador Isaac Robbie did indeed decide to consult rather than move west while Edward Teller did indeed favor the hydrogen bomb the technical specs are more or less historically accurate as well a cyclotron was used to accelerate particles and the theorists did truly fear that they made ignite the atmosphere the uranium and plutonium cores were about as big as represented by the fishbowls filled with marbles the bomb was referred to as the gadget so as to minimize awareness of its purpose and the crew was relieved to learn from Niels Bohr that the Germans took a wrong turn despite the Head Start that Werner Heisenberg had given them but the film doesn't portray how the U.S considered having Heisenberg assassinated and poisoning German food supplies and in the movie Oppenheimer Whispers his famous quote from the bhagavad-gita even though he may have only thought it on the day of now I am become death destroyer of worlds in one key scene Professor haken Chevalier played by Jefferson Hall tells Oppenheimer that the academic Community has been complaining about Americans refusing to share intelligence with their allies including Russia he mentions that another physicist named George eltonton made it known that he could Channel such information should anyone want to divulge their secrets Oppenheimer says that would be treason and Chevalier changes the subject in real life Oppenheimer did report eltonton but not until sometime after chevalier's visit instead he concocted a fake story to protect his friend he admitted the truth to Leslie Groves eventually but the fake story came back to haunt him by undermining his character during his security clearance hearings in the end chevalier's name came out anyway and he was blacklisted after that he moved to France to work as a translator for his part he maintained that he was simply alerting Oppenheimer to elton's scheme rather than soliciting nuclear Intel as the movie hurdles toward its climax Oppenheimer and Josh hartnett's Ernest Lauren attend a Department of Defense meeting to discuss whether and where to drop the atomic bombs prior to this meeting some of the scientists at Los Alamos had begun to discuss the ethics of the weapons Oppenheimer assured them that public awareness could be terrifying enough to end all wars behind closed doors some wonder if a demonstration might be enough or if civilians should be warned in advance the military shoots down these ideas though as they would jeopardize the mission and the safety of the pilots the group chooses two Targets out of 11 possibilities with Kyoto being withdrawn from consideration because Secretary of War Henry stimpson honeymooned there these details are all true Oppenheimer had much less power once the A-bomb had been invented and the scientific Community had begun to question its necessity Germany had already surrendered and Hitler had killed himself Japan was likely to surrender in the coming months if they were permitted to keep their Emperor although unconditional surrender was preferable Oppenheimer defended the decision to drop the bombs throughout his life although he did tell President Harry Truman that he felt he had blood on his hands as he does in the film if there's a villain in Oppenheimer it's Louis Strauss he's depicted as a vindictive man who has it out for Oppenheimer because he embarrassed him during the debate about the export of Isotopes and stood in the way of the development of hydrogen bombs he was a righteous guy I think it was a great public servant but he's always behind the scenes I've always appreciated the people who are backstage in real life there was even more animosity Oppenheimer and Strauss were as similar as they were different both were the sons of German Jewish immigrant businessmen but a recession hit strauss's family harder both were smart and ambitious with plans to study Physics but Strauss couldn't afford to continue his education Oppenheimer was liberal while Strauss was conservative and Oppenheimer was secular while Strauss was religious Strauss orchestrated the demise of oppenheimer's reputation but he also brought about his own ruin in the process three votes including that of Senator John F Kennedy made the difference as he failed to be appointed as Secretary of Commerce Oppenheimer ends with a fictional scene involving Albert Einstein whom Lewis Strauss had long believed that Oppenheimer had turned against him a senate aide played by Alden ehrenreich tells him that maybe they were discussing something more important when we finally see that conversation play out Einstein talks about Awards while Oppenheimer expresses his belief that he set off an Unstoppable chain reaction with the Advent of nuclear power Einstein and Oppenheimer did indeed know each other and Oppenheimer did indeed receive a medal it was the Enrico Fermi award for his contributions to physics and it was widely seen as an apology for his treatment during the McCarthy era later in life Oppenheimer continued to speak out about the threat of nuclear war and in favor of international cooperation but he was never the same after the humiliation he suffered when his loyalty was questioned and his clearance was revoked he and kitty lived part-time in the Virgin Islands where he rediscovered his love of sailing a lifelong smoker Oppenheimer died of throat cancer in 1967 at the age of 62. [Music] thank you

Channel: Looper

Views: 442,001

Keywords: looper, oppenheimer, true story, right and wrong, history

Id: 0MW6vVuPQho

Length: 11min 44sec (704 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 23 2023