Few weeks ago, watched Oppenheimer movie in a movie theater. The movie has outstanding performance by many well-known actors. I knew a bit about Oppenheimer as I have read entries about him, Fermi and other scientists in Wikipedia. Before watching the movie I googled Gen Leslie Groves and Lewis Strauss too as they appeared to be couple of important characters in the movie. Overall I really liked the movie.👍 If I have to describe the movie in 2 or 3 words I would say I would describe it as “fascinating and disturbing”. Let me explain
What did I find fascinating about the movie?
Oppenheimer was an intense man and an interesting personality. Highly intelligent, he was a brilliant theoretical physicist and clumsy in practical physics. You could say he was more a thinker and less a tinkerer! His interests and knowledge also spanned fluency in multiple spoken languages and it appears he learned Sanskrit to read the Hindu holy book “The Bhagavad Gita” in its original form. His famous quote “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds” is from the holy book. While teaching at UC Berkeley he appears to have come in contact with left-leaning people and might have developed an interest in knowing about socialism and communism. This association would come back to bite him later on. At Berkeley he mentored quite a few students and some of them went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. Before leading the Manhattan project he had not led very big teams and being chosen to lead a massive project of critical national importance was an interesting choice. Apart from being knowledgeable his being in academia, contacts with other scientists and ability to articulate passionately and convincingly about the subject might have tipped the scales in his favor. Leading a “dream team of scientists” would not have been a dream job per se as they would have had their own ideas, strong opinions and way of doing things. It’s to the credit of Oppenheimer and the team/s he led that whatever their differences they delivered big time. Physics was my major in my undergrad studies and I got a kick out of seeing the importance that the physicists got for their important role in the project.😊 I know what you are thinking but didn’t claim to be a great student or even a good student. 😄 I must add I did like nuclear physics when I was pursuing my Bachelor degree. 👍
What did I find disturbing about the movie?
The way Oppenheimer got treated after the bomb creation. Having taken up the leadership of the project as a challenge of solving a difficult problem (lot of theory that was being to put to test during the development of the bomb) and in national interest, Oppenheimer was horrified by the havoc and destruction caused by the usage of the atom bomb. So, he voiced his opposition to development of the more powerful hydrogen bomb. Little did he know of the trouble he would get into for taking this stance as he was taking on people in politics and the military with a lot of power and say. By voicing his reservation he had in effect cooked his own goose. The hearings on his security clearance were a sham as the powers that be had already made their decision. They resorted to the favorite method of discrediting a person at that time. Calling someone a “Communist” or a “Commie sympathizer” effectively derailed career and upended life of anyone targeted. A little bit of hubris also on Oppenheimer’s part for thinking he could convince people in politics to hear his arguments against developing a more powerful bomb and rethink their position. That thinking was probably influenced by the freedom enjoyed in research and success in convincing and recruiting some of the best scientists for the Manhattan Project. A stint either in the military or even in the corporate world might have led to the realization his opposition would go unheeded and he would be shunted to a position of much lower profile. I have read that Oppenheimer’s research on black holes was worthy of a Nobel but he never won that prize. Hopefully politics did not play a part in that. In recent times there has been so much discussion about assertation of the First Amendment (for freedom of expression) and the Fifth Amendment (the right to remain silent to avoid incriminating oneself) I wonder if those Amendments ever figured when the decision to revoke Oppenheimer’s security clearance was taken. The stress of publicized and high politicized hearings and revocation of security clearance would have taken quite a toll on the man. That’s sad 😭
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