To be uncomfortable with the film Oppenheimer?

[LKM23]

I haven't seen the film, I'm sure it's a brilliant thriller and will be a Blockbuster hit. I don't think I'll watch it though, it makes my feel really uncomfortable.

It feels like a man who at the end of the day killed thousands of people and damaged millions is being celebrated and turned into a hero.

I lived in Japan for 10 years in my twenties. I visited both Hiroshima and Nagasaki and spent a lot of time with people both directly and indirectly affected by the dropping of the bombs. Those scars are real and still there and will be for a very very long time. It changed Japan and the people who live there forever and at the end of the day I think he was an awful person.

AIBU?

Yes would people have preferred that?

They were making similar leaps

The master butcher of Leigh-on -sea?

I haven't watched either yet. It's only what the top reviewers are saying. But congratulations on being clever enough to see past the PR machine.

Thank you MissyGirlie, for your account, deeply moving. It puts my feelings about it in perspective, just a minor thing.
My father, faced with CND supporting daughters, told us his unit was being prepared for being sent to the east when the bombs were dropped. I, and a lot of others in the UK, would never have been born without it.
But you give the "elite" a weapon like that, and it can't be uninvented. Putin probably wants to be a destroyer.

Oh behave yourself. Goodness knows but we would never win a war these days with people like you and others on this thread who basically do not understand WW2. For the record I don't actually consider him a hero and the film does not portray him so but he saved more lives than were lost by developing the bomb. What would you rather have had, the Germans get the bomb first? That would have ended well. Those who rewrite history make me very angry and disgusted.

Someone else on the first page said that they’re uncomfortable with Barbie and won’t be watching it. So it’s not just the OP

From the trailer it looks like they do show the regret he felt. The only way to know would be to see the movie and find out. Pre-judging anything without watching isn't really fair. You could block all mentions of it via apps etc. and then forget it and move on.

It's pathetic, people trying to justify the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by Japanese war crimes. As if they are some Athena, the goddess of wisdom, evaluating who deserves to die in some kind of cosmic balance(???) I am just speechless that anyone would think the atrocity of Hiroshima and Nagasaki could be justified.

Maybe it's because of my age but the atrocities of the second world war were heavily covered in my history GCSE. We learnt about the Japanese, germans. Oppenheimer and the race to develop the bomb because the Germans were very close to succeeding. The Norwegian resistance scuppered part of the German plans. The Japanese military were absolutely ruthless. Actually worse than the germans

@Thisismynewusername1

that was nothing to do with Oppenheimer. He didn’t decide to deploy, and is not responsible for any of that.

I'm not sure that's completely true, for example according to several histories Oppenheimer was one of four scientists (Lawrence, Compton and Fermi were the others - not exactly lightweights in the world of Physics) who as members of a Panel made the decision in June 1945 that a possible demonstration of the power of weapon at a remote site to Japanese officials wasn't a workable or wise idea and released a statement that ended with "we see no acceptable alternative to direct military use"..(from Rhodes).

I'm also fairly sure he was privy to the target list at some point but can't find a reference ATM.

Oppenheimer definitely had some influence in deployment...but yes he was highly conflicted post the events.

Then watch the film before making ridiculous observations.

I saw the film this morning. First showing.
It doesn’t glorify him at all. It’s an honest portrayal (from extensive research) of what he was like (and the political climate of the time).
A really excellent film. I would recommend it.

This is fatuous, the film does not depict him as a “hero”

Oh well it’s an Op ED from the LA Times. I guess that’s everyone else wrong then. 🙄

I saw the trailer in the cinema last weekend when I took my kids to see Elemental (which I thought was brilliant, btw).

The official trailer says if you love Barbie, this movie is for you. If you hate Barbie, this movie is for you (maybe slightly paraphrased but that's more or less verbatim).

I'm not "seeing past" anything. It's right there in their trailer and all of their marketing. They've aimed to "have their cake and eat it" and it seems that a lot of people have just accepted that PR without any thought.

Obviously it's not going to subvert the Barbie brand in any real way, or it wouldn't be an authorised Barbie product. That isn't a clever analysis on my part - it's blatantly obvious.

USSR coming into world war meant Japan couldn't fight on two fronts Pacific and Atlantic

By then Italy and Germany had already surrendered.

It was widely acknowledged by USA that Japan were about to surrender.

As horrific as the events were, this was total war, and the modern definition of a war crime, ie such as the targeted bombing of civilians, was not applicable in WW2. So the Germans bombed the shit out of the UK's cities, the British pulverised Germany in 1944, and the Dambusters raids killed thousands of innocent labourers and prisoners of war, as well as c.50 aircraft crew. Barnes Wallis regretted inventing the technology, I believe. So I don't think describing Oppenheimer as 'an awful person' is logical or fair. You are judging by modern standards and protocols, and I think you should wait to see the film.

This is the weirdest overreaction by an OP about something they don't know much about, don't want to learn anything about - but remain very very angry about...

I have a basic problem with the question itself, and wish you would have asked it in the Film forum instead.

Much of art - including movies - has a goal of making you uncomfortable. It may or may not be reasonable to be uncomfortable, but what's NOT reasonable if to shy away from everything in life that makes you uncomfortable. In particular, as far as I know, this film is not about making you uncomfortable with gratuitous violence, but with history. I think it's important not to avoid history.

Actually, with your time in Japan, I would have expected you to be MORE interested to see it, as it will possibly add to your greater understanding.

Thank you. A good recommendation.

CND are using the film as an opportunity to discuss the issues it raises @LKM23 . They have the Gen sec of CND in discussion with a prof of Film studies who's specialist subject is War and Anti War films. After the showing of the film. It is an opportunity to create debate, so a good thing.

https://thecastlecinema.com/programme/78512/oppenheimer-q-a-london-campaign-for-nuclear-disarmament/?utm_source=The+Castle+Cinema+Newsletter&utm_campaign=031440305c-whats_on_w%2Fc13th_July_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1cbf667c64-031440305c-61311086&fbclid=IwAR23PDZZrLCvRiDMFASwQfqic0VvybR7zAAsFKSG2KoNZpoAMfdgSAvLhrM

That Wiki page on Japanese war crimes is gruesome, had to scroll pretty fast in places.

My 87 year old Dad is a very peaceable global leftie liberal who was just 9 when WW2 ended, but he has always had (what seemed to me an inexplicable) dislike of “the Japanese” because of their inhumane treatment of so many millions of non-Japanese over the decades up to the end of WW2.

The Wiki page makes it more understandable.

You don’t drop atomic bombs in a nation to ‘chasten’ them after they have surrendered.

By your logic many countries working the world have the right to chasten us in Britain by dropping atomic bombs on us.