The ship’s TV system has a group of films we can watch whenever we choose, the DrsC choose for after supper entertainment. Last night we opted for the film that vied with Barbie for viewers last year - Oppenheimer. It was an admittedly reluctant choice.
The film is a mish-mash of straight narrative of the Manhattan Project plus flashbacks and flashforwards (sic). The latter featuring a series of committee hearings during which Oppenheimer is exonerated of Communism and ‘convicted’ of using poor judgment in allowing unreliable people to participate in highly confidential science leading to leaks to the Soviets. That is what passes for a story line.
What you see is a group of moderately unattractive people (mis)behaving with each other politically, scientifically, and sexually while doing science at a level most humans cannot imagine, thinking thoughts mostly kept to themselves and only hinted at to the audience.
To what extent it represents accurately what actually happened I have no idea. One supposes it downplays connections to Communists, for that is Hollywood gospel and thus not to be mocked.
History tells us Communist spies leaked the science to the Soviets who built their own bombs. The film tries to tell us this would have happened regardless of leaks, but the scientifically superior Germans who had no such leaks did not succeed, something the film fails to mention.
Did we enjoy the film? Not especially. It had moments but much of it was excessively “arty” at the expense of a recognizable narrative line one could follow. A fair amount felt like a fever dream, which is to say disturbing and unpleasant. Perhaps that was the intent.
Full disclosure: my parents and I lived in Hollywood until 1947. My patriot/veteran dad had pals in the LAPD. I grew up hearing his stories of anti-Red raids in the 1920-30s, and the generally dissolute behavior of Hollywood notables and wannabes. Dad believed showfolk were scum. I’m sure my views are colored by that upbringing.
If you’ve watched the War and Remembrance TV miniseries you see the Hollywood entertainment folk put on a party to agitate for the US and Brits to open a second front in Europe. This they did at the explicit urging of their Soviet contacts. It is a rare moment of Hollywood self-awareness, an admission of Commie influence. It is worth noting that the Soviet Union was an arms-length ally at the time.
