La Cucaracha by Lalo Alcaraz for August 11, 2023

Florenheimer.

Before they tested the Bomb there were three theories about what would happen. A: It wouldn’t work. B: Biggest man made explosion ever. C: Burn forever, destroying the planet. Some were worried it might destroy the world, but they tested it anyway.

Your government at work for your benefit.

“Oppenheimer” is a decidedly adult movie. I would not take a child to see it.

That’s the best reaction a movie can do to a child.

I think that Oppenheimer is a terrific film. It’s got “Academy Award” written all over it, fersher for costume and sound design and quite likely screenplay.

While the idea of conflict as being essential for a good story is most obviously played out with the WW2 backdrop of USA vs. Nazis, the three that get the most attention (and are considerably more cerebral than most conflicts) are scientific openness/collaboration vs. military secrecy/compartmentalization; humanitarian instincts vs. doing one’s duty; and theory vs. practice. While all of that was extremely thot-provoking, the idea that will linger with me longer than anything else is the film’s chilling final conversation:

Oppenheimer: When I came to you with those calculations, we thought we might start a chain reaction that might destroy the entire world.

Einstein: What of it?

Oppenheimer: I believe we did.

Barbie was the Bomb

Just now got through reading American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. It was the bomb about the bomb.