It is very difficult to get me to have high praise for a film where the protagonist is a known philanderer, considering all of the people I have known who have been personally hurt by such actions. Oppenheimer succeeded because it didn't try to absolve him and portrayed him as both a complicated man and at times a scummy one, with at times ideals that were laudable. This made him human and even at times a distraction from the huge themes behind his famous name. He was a speck in the universe in comparison to the projects he was a part of.

In 1996 Congress repealed the Nuclear Radiation and Secrecy Agreements Laws, allowing veterans to speak about the nuclear experiments done on them. This is the experience I transcribed from a close family member who experienced this (and I don't have to be worried about this being classified thankfully because of that repeal). He gave this account while fighting dementia, so some of the details are fuzzy or wrong, but I think it's an interesting account that people would want to read, “1957 I was taken out of my marine unit, Delta Company, and was placed in a special unit, Golf Company, 2nd Battalion. They gathered up marines from around the country, around the different areas; they formed a marine company, full strength. We were taken to Las Vegas, Nevada, north of Las Vegas a hundred miles called Yucca Flat. Yucca Flat was a bombing area range that had had about 25 nuclear devices in the last 10 years, in various sizes and shapes, altitude and atmosph- ground (sic) for different types of bombs. We were first scheduled to, (sic) we trained there for a while in the hot desert just to get used to the, acclimated to that kind of environment. There was uh, early in July, and uh, well actually probably the latter part of June, and we were taken to Camp Rock, Camp Desert Rock, which was near the bomb site, but not right by it. There we set up our tents and stuff and got used to acclimation and went on patrols and stuff in a desert style.

The bomb we were supposed to watch was called Diablo, Spanish for Bull, I believe (sic, Diablo is Spanish for Devil). As we mounted into the trenches, trenches were about uh 25 yards apart and about 50 yards long. Well, not quite 50 yards, probably about 30 yards long and about 20 yards in front of them, we were in the front trench. Front trench, rear trench, it's all the same distance there, just a few feet apart and behind that was uh some areas with big block houses where they could watch, glass would blow it out (sic), then beyond that there were some people standing above ground about a mile back. Well anyway the bomb was set off to go off, and they had the countdown. Countdown went to zero and no bomb. No bomb. It was a misfire. So we had to stay down in the trenches for about 45 minutes to an hour until somebody went up there and disengaged the bomb so it wouldn't go off prematurely. That took a lot of courage on somebody's part, and then we were held back another week or two weeks, I'm not exactly sure and then we were gonna watch Hood. The bomb was designated, it was a Plumbbob series and Hood was one of the bombs. It's interesting, it was 70 kilotons. The one that was dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima was 16 and I think 14, this was 70. One of the largest, it was THE largest bomb detonation in the continental United States. Bikini Atoll was one larger, but that's the biggest one in the United States (sic).

We got mounted into the trenches, countdown started. Then detonation. I don't think I can even, [in] any way, tell you enough about how scary that was, to see that much power. It started with tremendous flash, it looked like there were nothing but diamonds laying on the bottom of the trench, it was that bright. It's like taking a cold frozen steak and throwing it on a sizzling grill, it had a sizzle to it, that initial flash. Then the trenches started waving up and down, some of them caved in a little bit. We were kneeling, with, facing to the west, with the bomb is (sic) to the right shoulder, to the north. And each hand, each marine had his hand on his buddy, his training buddy marine, who had his back to you on his entrenching tool, so we could dig each other out if the trench collapsed, sometimes it'd collapse. They were not exceptionally deep, but sometimes they'd just collapse from the shock. After that initial flash, the wind came out from the bomb, from the north, tremendous blast, bomb blast, and then it stopped, went through us, and then it came back through and sucked right up into the mushroom cloud. Mushroom cloud raised up into the heavens quite a bit. Aircraft are flying up and they are monitoring stuff while stuff was still floating down from the heavens. Strange enough, we, 45 minutes later after the bomb was dropped, we were HALO helicoptered into ground zero area. The day before we had seen a combat town constructed in that area, ground zero area, and houses built of concrete block, cinder block, brick, wood, they had fighting holes, trenching holes, there were Amtraks, cranes, bulldozers, trucks, all kinds of cars, all kinds of things. We inspected it before the town was detonated. We saw that the night before, I think over around the town (sic), fake town, went back to the base. Now, when I had my right hand curled to my left shoulder, I had my face right down into my sleeve, I had a light, little light coat on, nothing major, I had sunglasses on, and then I had the glasses, I had the glass mask as well, and as that bomb went off I visualized that I could see the bones in my wrist, with my eyes closed. I thought they were closed. I could see the wrist bones in my wrists and I was just awed at it, but I just couldn't believe it. When we stood up, witnessed the bomb before we left by helicopter, I said to my buddy marines, I said, “Did you see what I saw?” And they said yes and I found out later on there had been a number of I would say complaints but no authorization to validate that very thing.

Now, 45 minutes we were at ground zero running combat maneuvers and I thought, 'Who in the world would be left in a combat maneuver, nothing but dust!' All I saw was the differential and rear-end of a great big 6 by truck (sic). Nothing else, nothing else! What about now (sic), we spent about 4-6 hours running around that little (sic), doing crazy stuff, and then we were trucked back to our areas, went home, got washed down with decontaminant water and stuff, clothes, left our clothes in a pile, took off our, stripped off our clothes, put our clean clothes back on and left the area.

I've often wondered, sometimes things happen for a reason. I am trying to figure out why the Lord let me witness such an awesome power, awesome power, power. Unbelievable. I never did figure it out, I have yet to figure it out, what we in this future war with countries who played around, only blame as it might Afghanistan, some might blame just Afghanistan, Iraq, and what have you, and now North Korea acting up, let me know what stupid brings to an atomic bomb exchange, and I can not even describe the belly of the beast that that is, I have yet to find anything incredible like this ever, in my life, have I seen that much power. And I think the power of the Lord is greatest because when we had the big tsunami in the Philippines and India and stuff, they said it was equal to 600 atomic bombs, that tsunami. So God's power is much more important, but that sure was a demonstration of awesome power. I'm so grateful that it did not come down to a nuclear exchange between North and South Korea. Or North Korea because there would be no more North Korea, period, and the innocent people there under that brittle ruling regime would not know what hit him. It would be so horrible to put them through some of that because the massive destruction is such, if you want to know what happened to all of the people who save people, fire departments and hospitals and police departments, there would be nothing left of them, nothing. I couldn't comprehend more destructive power then the exchange between two nuclear powers...” He did try to apply for the compensation Bill Clinton promised in 1994-1995, but the government told him he had never been exposed to enough radiation to qualify. The Atlantic released an article about similar stories on 27 May 2019, and referenced the short doc, Atomic Soldiers as well if you are looking for more references that refer to experiences like this.

There are some amazing thoughts explored by the film, about 4 or 5 which I felt were intensely important that I can remember. The first thing that really started popping into my mind (other than the major anxiety attack I was battling through until the countdown) was what I found to be Biblical allegory surrounding the film. I locked on to the four horses that ascended at Los Alamos immediately, but there were better connections than even that. Revelation 8-9 describes a profound silence, deafening sounds from different angels, lots of smoke from incense that when cast from the fire of the altar to the Earth created as it were voices (either a rush of wind or cries I'd imagine), lightning, an earthquake, thunderings, “hail and fire mingled with blood,” fire burst out of the sea as if it were blood or lava, the water became poisoned, “and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp” which fell into those waters to cause them to be poisoned, and the sky was blackened so that the sun moon and stars could barely be seen. There was day in the night, and night in the day. Ships, fish, people, and plant life perish in droves. Another star fell to the Earth and created a bottomless pit, a black hole from which nothing can return.

The film touches on how in segregating oneself from a group of minds in your population you remove every bit of innovation that group has to give. This is especially egregious if that group is successful and hold a lot of the skill in your area because you're approaching every idea with an arm tied behind yourself. This allowed the Allies to win, though sadly the Allies were doing this themselves less systemically to their own minority groups. He who inflicts pain on others for his own glory will eventually only reap ashes (at least according to Judeo-Christianity). Hopefully some day the cries of segregation will actually fade. This statement also reminds me of the idea that the works of God can not be frustrated, because in trying to destroy the Jews, the Germans created a rallying identity for Israel and also hampered themselves in the creation of the atomic bomb, further guaranteeing the success of the Allies. I've found so often in my life that even in pain God sends down his blessings to us.

Politicians are great at making us believe they have our best interests at heart because in so doing we allow them greater control over laws that they can manipulate for their own profit. When someone decides to kick the hornet's nest, whether a good or bad person, the hornets will do everything in their power to kill the foot, because otherwise the nest is in danger. So often it feels like the government bears too much resemblance to a gang, where we pay protection money to keep them off of us, the laws don't apply to them, and they have complete control. Too many people support the gang too, because it's all they've ever known and they feel that it is an assimilated part of their culture. Gangs and politicians are like cuckoos in the nest trying to convince everyone they are part of the group when they never have been, they're just killing all the competition, killing all the young ones, and reaping all the benefits. Just like gangs, the politicians have songs written about their exploits and diss tracks for their naysayers. They have control over local business in a way that becomes a front for laundering money. They use their power over media to ensure their power never dies.

Oppenheimer's greatest flaw throughout the film is his hubris. His hubris is why he can be controlled and his hubris is also why he's in the hot water he accumulated around himself. He too often felt that he had become God, and as a character in the film said, “You don't get to commit sin, and then ask all of us to feel sorry for you when there are consequences.” This realization opened up an element of myself that requires work. Pride has always been my Achilles Heel. I've never understood how to keep it in check and I especially don't know how to do so when someone wants to hurt me. It's as I said, my greatest fatal flaw. This also translates to feeling like the experiences of others don't matter and I condescend to others much too often and do not allow them the benefit of failing like I do myself. I get so caught up in the fact that the golden rule is not being practiced back to me that I neglect the adage to turn the other cheek, and in fact to love my enemies rather than hate them. Sometimes there is a place for war, but too often I turn to it rather than diplomacy. The sad thing about WWII is that diplomacy had been tried many times, but would never succeed because of prior hurts that had resulted in anger and reactionary retaliation had not been addressed sooner.

In the case of Oppenheimer's indiscretions I thought the usage of the famous line during sex was apropos, visualized in the scene in the interrogation where his wife has to relive that pain. There are many ways to be the destroyer of someone's world and we need to be more cognizant of our effect on others. Speaking of which Blunt deserved an Oscar for that performance, she was biting, gripping, and stole every scene she was in.

The focal point of the film, whether or not the bomb should have been used, is something that has changed in the public eye over the years. Pointing to an article published by The Atlantic back in the forties, a Japanese officer of repute was asked how the war would have gone down had they not used the bomb, and though he admitted that they were already defeated before that, the Japanese people would not have allowed surrender until they were all dead, and many Allies would have been killed in the process (though not as many as published in the papers). I agree especially with this statement in the article, “Was the use of the atomic bomb inhuman? All war is inhuman.” More recently we know that the committees of the time thought Japan would just surrender before the use of the bomb (so they probably should have tried that), but we'll never know because there is no evidence to that effect. 2006's Racing the Enemy asserts that it was a combination of Hiroshima and the Russian Invasion of Manchuria that both influenced the idea to surrender.

Most of the attacks on Truman's narrative are obsessed with the number of dead Americans he alluded to in his propaganda, but the grammar to me doesn't state that, it includes Japanese and American alike, using framing only to make people think it is referring to Americans in order to increase support for the drop. Again, politicians, lies, and media support, though in this case the modern media attack is poorly formed, even if there is merit to some of the claims. I don't think it's enough to flip the narrative, from what I read anyway. A better argument is that 1 atomic bomb alone killed more than the fire bombings did because of their aftermath, contrary to the narrative of the time. It's also why now we use things like MOABs. The focus of a MOAB is to make sure everything within the blast radius ceases to exist, and nothing outside of the radius is harmed. This allows for much more strategic warfare, but was only invented in the late 90s early 2000s, before that what would work best gets murky. The government of the 40s were very obviously proponents of shock and awe, and that has been an aspect of warfare since the beginning of time. Was it right or not ends up being more intellectually dishonest than revealing however, because again, all war is inhuman and all of the right or wrongs before it are not being questioned as they should, and the available and ease of application of technology of the time is often skipped over as well. The results are skipped over, the ideals of the people of the time are skipped over and the whole situation gets boiled down to if you now with your hindsight were in front of the button to drop it, would you, and that's just not what happened. People of the future think they wouldn't have made the same decision, but they are fools to think so. You're no different than your ancestors if the right circumstances appear.

Finally, the film spoke to truths behind the, at times, terrible characters on the screen. We should be allowed to have a different opinion, be allowed to make mistakes, and be allowed to be human. We should be allowed to explore, but often the overreach of government infringes on all of these things. Even if you think all you are doing is limiting the rights of someone bad or evil, you are likely to reap the same level of control over yourself. Thomas Paine once said in Dissertations of First-Principles of Government, “He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.” A great film that is elevated to classic by statements of truth, rather than spectacle alone.