When my partner first told me the Oppenheimer movie didn't talk about this AT ALL, I immediately lost whatever little interest I had. Gross to make so much money off of them, yet not even mention the victims. 35 infants died the month after the test bomb alone.
Idk, call me a buzzkill or whatever but I don't think there's enough special effects in the world to make me feel less gross about this. I really thought part of the movie would be him facing the reality of what he created tbh.
@vapaad I traveled to Golden to see it in IMAX last weekend. I thought it was a magnificent film. Audacious in this time. I'm an old film buff who once thought of filmmaking when I was really young and idealistic.
It's a biopic, the film focuses on one man. That's what it is. That's why they don't even show what happens to the other bombs he builds (other than them being shipped away from Los Alamos) because he wasn't there when they exploded (the camera focuses on Oppy's face 90% of the time).
@vapaad I can understand the insensitivity to the locals, and it's real and devastating. And maybe Christopher Nolan can address their plight and tragedy in a meaningful way, time has a way of bringing the best out of conscientious creators, especially when pressured from outside folks.
Yes, I'm defending the film. Because I've seen thousands of films and Oppenheimer is an amazing film, top to bottom. I'm going to see it again in an IMAX theater soon.
This indeed, and while you are at it, tell the story of the innocent Japanese civilians, the ones that perished on the spot and those with radiation sickness dying after incredible suffering…
@vapaad @Illuminatus Just noting that to pick up enough radiation to kill you within a month typically takes a prompt radiation dose of over 1 Gray, the sort of level you'd get from being at ground zero of an H-bomb but shielded from blast/heat effects.
Meanwhile, infant deaths in 1945 ran at levels that are frankly inconceivable today, especially in poor rural areas: limited neonatal care, no vaccines against childhood diseases, no antibiotics.
(Leukaemia over 70 years OTOH is more credible.)
@vapaad I have not seen the film yet. I never met Oppenheimer. I did attend a lecture by Edward Teller in which he was asked about Oppy. I won't quote him, but his defensive answer left me with the impression that none of these guys were heroes.
IMHO:
The mindset of the scientists of the time is most clearly captured in Kurt Vonnegut's book, "Cat's Cradle." For better or worse, their toying with the destruction of global civilization was mainly "play," until the Trinity test.
As a science teacher, I explained the process of nuclear decay on the blackboard, and the principles of fission and fusion. It wasn't until I visited the research reactor at Oak Ridge and stared down through the pure water in the "swimming pool" at the eerie blue-white glow in the core of the reactor, and felt the heat on my face, and saw the Cerenkov radiation from the spent fuel rods, that nuclear energy became real to me. I suspect that something like that was true of the physicists of the time.
@sysfrank @vapaad the film agrees with you, for what its worth. Oppenheimer's moment of 'I may have fucked up' in it is not the test detonation, but the moment he hands Fat Man and Little Boy off to the army, and it becomes suddenly clear to him: he's outlived his usefulness.
they are relishing being the center of attention, given whatever they want, and when goes away they are left to realize 'wait, what the fuck have I done'
@sysfrank Cat's Cradle is one of my favorite books so it's nice to read your assessment of it.
I work in oncology so perhaps I'm a bit more knowing of the effects on the body than the actual science around the bombs itself, but man when you have faces and names and obituaries to put to (later, but still cancer causing) US war crimes it just makes it a lot harder to swallow I feel.
@vapaad @thisismissem I can’t find the source now (possibly radio), where one or more scientists said they felt that overall, the movie which was long overdue, was reasonably accurate, but, didn’t go far enough to show the true horrors of what was “accomplished” at home and overseas. My son (21) and I saw the movie and it was a real eye opener for him, but I very much wish he could have seen the full truth.
I can’t bring myself to watch again on so many levels
#DarylGKimball mentions the omission of the New Mexico downwind victims fairly quickly in [1]. #EmilyFaux mentions the near-total omission of women in the movie [2] and says that the movie fails the #BechdelTest [3]. Overall, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist analyses are good, though 5/5 (so far) are by men ([2] is not in the list [4]).
[1] https://thebulletin.org/2023/07/oppenheimer-the-bomb-and-arms-control-then-and-now
[2]
https://thebulletin.org/2023/08/what-barbie-can-teach-us-about-nuclear-weapons
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test
[4] https://thebulletin.org/2023/07/physicists-and-other-experts-react-to-oppenheimer
@InternetEh not sure where I said anyone was condoning it. Just personally I'm not interested in seeing a movie with a major plot point being an event that harmed a lot of people but doesn't mention those people it harmed at all.
I also hate extremely awkward unnecessary sex scenes. It's just all in all just not for me, and that's okay.
@vapaad State of Utah website.
Feds waited for winds to shift so radioactive fallout from NV tests would fall in UT on "low-use segment of the population." They knew it would poison and kill people.
"Nuclear Testing and the Downwinders"
@vapaad More info on this utter atrocity here:
Fierengraw
abby
His Teleness The Charlie Lama
xs4me2
Charlie Stross
L'égrégore André ꕭꕬ
Hans Gerwitz
sysfrank 🤣🤣🤣
Bryce Youngquist
goat
Firefly's Ghost
MaybeMyMonkeys
Dark Matter Zine
Out of Control 
🇨🇦
Tagomago
Boud
Sid 🇵🇸
Bob Morris
Jake in the desert
Ellie 🏴🏳️⚧️
PRNE
Alexx Kay
Michael
spaghettisquash
RealWaaagh
Arael15th
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