re: Oppenheimer | Official Reaction Thread | Spoilers

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I haven't seen this many fancy words used since I watched The Kings Speech

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get to readin, boy

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Transformers 8’ was just down the hall.

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Funny thing is I’m not into big action packed movies. There was nothing gripping about it. It just wasn’t entertaining. No peaks. Kinda got tired of watching Cillian stare into nothing 45 times during the movie. Snooze fest.

I would have to watch it again to figure all that out.

Strauss’s hearing and certain flashbacks with him were in black and white

but wasn’t the flashback at princeton with Einstein in color?

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I’m still trying to figure out the switch from B&W to color. I have some ideas, but nothing I’m comfortable with yet.

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Am I missing something? Thought it was just color for Oppenheimer's perspective and black and white for Strauss. I didn't read that much into it.

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I didn’t find that to be that difficult.

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It wasn't difficult to follow, it just didn't seem consistent.

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but wasn’t the flashback at princeton with Einstein in color?

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The first one was in black and white. The flashback at the end of the film, as told from Oppenheimer's perspective, was in color.

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So is everyone.

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Per Nolan:

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"We have two strands to the movie. One very much from Oppenheimer's point of view, which is the color sequence, and then the black and white stuff is Robert Downey Jr., Lewis Strauss' point of view."

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He didn’t say anything about Strauss, lol. That’s the beauty of it.

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Am I missing something? Thought it was just color for Oppenheimer's perspective and black and white for Strauss. I didn't read that much into it.

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I got all artsy fartsy and ignored the most obvious, lol. Thanks homie.

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After the isotope fiasco and the perceived slight by Einstein, Strauss was convinced that Opp was turning all of the scientists against him

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This.

The film postulates that it was Strauss's insecurities that brought him and Oppenheimer to blows. You can see just how insecure in his position Nolan makes him out to be when he reveals to Oppenheimer his backstory when they first meet. He started out as a shoe salesmen to which Oppenheimer says disbelievingly: "Lewis Strauss was once a lowly shoe salesmen?" To which Strauss replies, somewhat resentfully, "No, just a shoe salesmen."

And then after Rami Malik's David Hill testifies in front of the Senate confirmation hearing, you also see two other aspects of Strauss's character come to the fore: paranoia and narcissism. He goes on a rant about how Oppenheimer turned the scientists of Los Alamos and Chicago against him and that it was he, the great and benevolent Strauss, who shielded Oppenheimer from any criticism he might have encountered concerning Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was Strauss who made sure the world would remember Oppenheimer for Trinity and none of the less than savory aspects of atomic weaponry. Instead of coming after him with David Hill, Oppenheimer should instead be down on his knees thanking Strauss for everything he did for his reputation.

At least that's what Strauss wants the world to think. In the end, his paranoid and vindictiveness brought down a complex but, all in all, good man who just wanted what was best for mankind. He saw the development of the hydrogen bomb as needless escalation in the Cold War. Instead of building up nuclear arms manufacture, Oppenheimer fought for de-escalation and arms talks. He was an idealist who, after seeing the terrifying nature of his creation, did everything he could to put it all back into the box.