Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hello, good morning. It is once again me your favorite deputy of movie Deputy podcast, bringing to you a review that I have been waiting to bring to you since I first saw one of the previews months ago. Well, today we are gonna be talking about Oppenheimer. Now, this movie has definitely polarized a lot of audiences. Maybe not as much as the one we talked about yesterday, but this one definitely, uh, there's, there's just something about this movie and there's people that can't deal with this much truth in a movie nowadays. And I think one of the biggest things I appreciate, and I've touched on this again, I'm sure I'll touch on it many more times, is as a constitutionalist that I am, I'm very conservative, lone life of the Constitution that I appreciated that they didn't go woke with this movie. There's a brief scene that is less than a second long that most people will probably miss, that probably some left person wanted to get in there.
Speaker 0 00:00:59 Uh, it's kind of ironic as Jay Robert, op Oppenheimer was a self-described New deal Democrat. He was often thought of as a communist because he studied all over the world, all over the globe. He studied with communists and he had friends who were communists and he was fr just basically, he had a very well-rounded education. He didn't necessarily pay attention to where the information came from because science doesn't care what your political beliefs are. Science is science. There's a big quote in the movie that says, the important thing isn't, can you read music? It's, can you hear the music? So it's not just about understanding it on paper, it's about understanding it in your head and you have to be able to comprehend things on a different level than a lot of different people. And you're like, okay, but you haven't even given us really any information on this movie yet.
Speaker 0 00:01:43 Well, this one definitely does have a guilty rating. This movie is three hours long. So if you're planning on going to see the, going to see this, definitely make sure you're planning for a movie that is at length. There are some scenes of complete nudity and there is some very strong language used at times, including F bombs. So if either one of those things is offensive to you, this might not be the movie for you. But if you are going because you want to see the story of Jay Robert Oppenheimer and everything that went on with the Gray board and Louis Strauss and the whole kind of everything with the whole process, the Manhattan Project, everything, then this is one that you're gonna wanna see. The very first trailer that I saw for this movie, I had goosebumps back in the day. It's like, I know I'm old.
Speaker 0 00:02:29 But, um, <laugh>, I actually had done a report on Oppenheimer. He had a quote, and I've used this quote many times since then. Since then, I can't talk. But the people never really understood what the quote was referring to. And this quote is so much deeper than I think a lot of people give it credit for. But the quote is, I am become death destroyer of worlds. Now that sounds so dark and so foreboding. And so it has so much depth to it that it tends to turn people away. But there is so much to that quote. The original quote was in Sanskrit. And so it's been translated a few times. To the best of my knowledge, this is the closest translation to what it actually meant in Sanskrit. The Sanskrit is a language that is very difficult for many to understand, and it was thought to be a dead language for many years.
Speaker 0 00:03:16 And even back in the day of j Robert Oppenheim where he was interested in studying these things, because even back then they were studying science and to understand the depth of the importance of all that. And you're like, okay, why is she getting so philosophical? And this is like, that's what this entire movie is. This movie is aimed at intellectuals. It's not just like an entertaining drama about his life. It is that, but the movie is, is aimed at intellectuals. There's a lot of legal speak, there's a lot of just technical stuff that's going on. And like I, when I went to see this, I was just wowed. It's like I could not wait to go see it again. When I went to, we went, I went on opening night and then I took my, went with my husband the following night. 'cause he had really wanted to see it.
Speaker 0 00:03:59 And he had been at work the day before, but when he saw it, it's like, okay, I'm gonna go ahead and let you know the score that I gave it. I gave Oppenheimer a score of eight and a half out of 10 on the deputy scale. Now, as you can imagine, that's a pretty amazing score. But that's, this is a pretty amazing movie. But my husband, on the other hand, he's not into the legal speak. I know a lot of people aren't into the legal speak, but even with that, he gave it a 6.75 out of 10. And I feel it's important to mention that just because it's a different perspective. He doesn't eat sleep and breathe movies like I do, but he loves historical movies and he really gets into the historical ones. But even this one just, they're going through some of it so fast and they're jumping kind of back and forth.
Speaker 0 00:04:39 Uh, the movie is both in color and in black and white. Everything in color is from like Oppenheimer's life and everything like that. And then the stuff that is in gray is years later in front of the gray board or the black. It's, it's in black and white. They're in front. It's a, it was a panel not designed to put Oppenheimer on trial, but it was designed to e it was either approve or deny his security clearance. No. So like he was never on trial for like any of this stuff. But his credibility and his associations put his security levels at risk due to the due, the Atomic Energy Commission and even some of his best friends in the whole thing with the Manhattan Project and everything. Even looking back from that, that for their perspective is even they had to admit under the Atomic Energy Commissions new guidelines that they would no longer approve his security clearance. Airy stuff that, but sorry, one of my kitties, <laugh>, they're kind of a usual thing. I've always got 'em in here with me. But this really delves deep into his life. It delve, it looks into his studies, both foreign and domestic. It looks into his travels, his relationship with his wife, his relationship with his mistresses. I guess that if you're sensitive to that kind of thing, this may not be the movie for you, but
Speaker 1 00:05:56 If you, you can look past all that and just look at the history that's being presented here. He, he made such a difference and you're like, okay, he created a bomb. How does that make a difference? There's so much more to it. He literally created a haven for independent minds. He refused to live his life afraid to make a mistake because he theory could only take him so far. And in order to, to learn from that, he had to take it beyond theory. He ended up alienating himself in, in among the scientific community. I know that sounds so, so counter counterintuitive. The exact quote from the movie is, don't alienate the only people in the world who understand you Someday you might need them. And then there's another point that touches on it. It's kind of a counter, counter argument says that they need us until they don't.
Speaker 1 00:06:49 Now think about that. One of the most brilliant minds in history creating the bombs that were targeted for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, some of the most devastating bombs in history when they did their test in Los Alamos, New Mexico back in 1945, they had run all the numbers they could run, but something like this had never been done before. So some of 'em were betting it was thousand tons to 20,000 tons. They were, they were calculating in kiloton. And there was even a calculation that this would cause a chain reaction that wouldn't stop. So even though the number was near zero, there was a chance that when they did this test in Los Alamos that it could have ignited the atmosphere. Now, even just talking about that, I get goosebumps. They did not know what was gonna happen, but they knew we needed to, to win the war.
Speaker 1 00:07:44 Knowing that power and having that power and controlling that power seems so unthinkable. There's another quote in this movie that I think just, it captures the entire movie in a quote. And don't worry, I'm not giving you any spoilers or anything. You know how much I hate spoilers. So, but I said, once it's used, meaning these bombs, once it's used nuclear war, all war becomes unthinkable until someone builds a bigger one. Now, he was a man of conviction. He was a man that knew what he wanted and knew how to get it, but the initial numbers and the estimates, they didn't capture the depth and destruction of these bombs. And he never reg, it wasn't that he regretted building these, it wasn't that they regretted using them, it's just he could not help but have sorrow in his heart and have some conviction of like all of the innocent lives that were lost now with any, well, it's like the movie we talked about.
Speaker 1 00:08:47 I'm trying to remember which one it was. It was one of, I think it was one of the mission Impossibles. But without war, there could be no peace. This is one of those situations, this war would've gone on and on and on and on and on. And these bombs were not the end, just the end of World War ii. They were big, the beginning of the Cold War. And that, except this movie touches on so much of that. But that's not the main focus of the movie, believe it or not. And yes, I know I am going way long for a review here. I'm actually not gonna even apologize for that because this one is just, this is just what it is. And I said, the focus of this movie is actually the gray board. It is basically orchestrated by Louis Strauss and he picks these three board members.
Speaker 1 00:09:26 Of course Oppenheimer has his defense attorney, attorney and there's a prosecutor. But like I said, it's not a trial, it's just a board that either approves or denies. And they judge on that a lot in the movie. It's not a con, they're not looking to convict. They're just looking to deny. But they rip his entire life apart. Every decision he's made, every relationship that he's had, they bring in people that are for him, people that are against him. He can bring in people, but they manage to twist things all around. And so one of the most important people to history basically almost gets forgotten because of the way that this board was processing all of the information and because just kind of everything that happened. Now, Lewis Strauss had a vendetta against Oppenheimer for many years over something that was actually not something that, it wasn't what it seems, I can't give that away 'cause it would be a major spoiler, but he had a vendetta that he, he really held onto for a long time.
Speaker 1 00:10:25 And it's really true that the truly vindictive can be patient as saints and that the power stays in the shadows. There are so many parts to this movie, and like I said there, the one timeline is all in color. The other timeline is in black and white and it jumps back and forth a bit. So you kind of have to be able to put that together in your mind. And like I said, it's three hours long, but there is not a dull moment in this movie. There's not one of those moments where you're just like, okay, looking down, checking your phone. This is one of those movies when the three hours have gone by and the credits start rolling, then you look at your phone and you're like, it's been three hours <laugh>. It's just, if you go to this movie and you don't have goosebumps, I don't, I don't know what to say.
Speaker 1 00:11:11 I really don't. I, every person that I talked to was moved significantly by this movie. And ob, I didn't talk to everybody, obviously, and I know a couple people walked out of this. I heard one person just randomly sang in the lobby when I did go to the theater that they thought it was boring. And I'm like, did we just watch the same movie? And another older gentleman looked at her and or looked towards her. He wasn't even like standing near her, just looked over her. And he's just was like, and he, he just said the word pitiful. And so I, you could tell that the movie had gotten to him. He had tears in his eyes and he's from the generation that where a lot of this was happening. And maybe it was his dad's generation. Maybe he was, maybe he might have been a little bit
Speaker 2 00:11:52 Younger than he looked, or who knows, he may have been from the World War II generation. This is just movies like this. There have been, we've been really lucky this year. There have been some amazing movies that have come out this year so far. And there have also been a lot of flubs as well. But Tarots, stop it. Sorry, <laugh>. But like I said, this one, like I said, I did give an eight and a half out of 10. I did give this a guilty rating. Like I said, there is nudity, there is language, there's other things that are happening too. There's a few continuity errors that it's the only reason, it's not a higher score. Honestly, this one probably deserved a nine, but there were a few continuity errors that I just couldn't get past. One of them being that this movie is taking place in the 1940s and they have flags that have all 50 stars on 'em.
Speaker 2 00:12:44 And if a couple scenes, and I'm like, no, that the flag at the time was only a 48 star flag. And that's probably my biggest thing. But honestly, my husband didn't even notice it. And he normally picks up on that stuff. It's just, it's a time, it's in a scene where the flag has run a lot of motion. So unless it's like you're really paying attention, it's not something that you're gonna catch. And so I don't wanna get stuck on that. 'cause that's not, that's not the focus of this movie. The focus of this movie is, it's not just these bombs. It's not the fact that we dropped them on Hiroshima, Nagasaki. It's, it's about the man. It's about everything that went into the Manhattan Project and everything that went into the program, that cr that split the atom and built, made the atomic bomb.
Speaker 2 00:13:24 Now, mind you, Oppenheimer was not involved with splitting the atom. I don't want anybody to get confused on my review on that, but there was just so much to this. I just <laugh>, I wanna talk, I wanna tell you more about it, but there's so many things that are spoilers and I, and I won't do that to you <laugh>. It's just, I, I've, I wanna know your feedback when you go see this movie, message me or tag me on social media and let me know what you think about this movie. This is one of those ones that I would love to have maybe discussions on down the road. Like I said, this is one of those ones that really goes deep into the whole intellectual side of it. I would, like I said, I would really love to get people's opinions on just as a whole.
Speaker 2 00:14:04 If I wanna leave you on one final note on this is, it's one of those things to think about when you're watching the movie and maybe in real life too, but do people need a reason to do the right thing? It's one of those things that could really go either way. It, it can evoke a lot of thought, it can evoke a lot of arguments. It can evoke a lot of everything. But that's note what I wanna leave you on, on this, and I hope this review has enticed you enough that made you wanna go see this movie made. You wanna go experience this for yourself. That's one of the reasons I do what I do with this is I, I love getting so passionate about these movies and I do like to warn people. Like I said, it's got the nudity in the language.
Speaker 2 00:14:45 So I wanna warn people that if you're sensitive to that, this is, this may not be the movie for you, even with all the historical stuff in it, and I have to praise the studio on this. They really did an exceptional job in Sian Murphy as Oppenheimer. It's like, you forget you're watching a movie. You, you feel like you're watching his life at times. And Robert Donny Jr. As Louis Strauss and everything with this, there is so much conviction in the way that they play these parts that it blows me away. It shows that there's more than all of this woke garbage in Hollywood. And I would love to see more of this. So if you agree with me, of course, please like and subscribe. If not, so be it. But I have had a lot of fun bringing this to you. And like I said, I hope that I have enticed to you and inspired you that you wanna go see this. So until we talk about the next one, bye-bye.