I discuss an early 80's documentary about the man called The Day After Trinity:
Just blindly, I’ll proclaim that this Oppenheimer documentary should be watched before or after Oppenheimer the movie. Even if you’re not signed up for The Criterion Channel, you can watch The Day After Trinity on the platform for free until July 31st.
Before I review this, Barbenhemier has to be discussed. Barbie’s been marketed so well that it undoubtedly also was a benefit to its main competitor from another studio… which is especially incredible as Nolan took Oppenheimer to Universal because he was mad at Warner Bros. for wanting all their 2021 films on streaming, and Barbie was slotted for this weekend on purpose as a middle finger. Warner, Universal and even Voldemort running WB shouldn’t be upset as both films did astronomically well. Despite everyone (especially on Letterboxd) attending both and loving both, neither will be seen by me. That’s an opinion most will vehemently disagree with, but let me explain why.
The former, it’s the trailers and the “comedy” it presented which told me “nope.” It has nothing to do w/ it “hating men!”, as some attention-seekers on prominent YouTube channels love to proclaim for clicks. I understand the film is incredibly heavy-handed (another reason not to view) but the claims from those folks that it is “unhinged” or “has contempt for men” or even that it’s “woke”… just from assumption it’s likely overblown hot takes, which is a charitable take from me as it’s better than saying that they didn’t understand the film. It IS funny that grown men are having conniption fits over BARBIE; for all my faults at least you won’t see me show my ass like that.
As for Oppenheimer, the director’s previous work and my not liking most of what I’ve seen is a big reason. Also, I have to shake my head and change my stance from “this is an Emperor w/ No Clothes scenario with most loving him despite obvious flaws” to “cult of personality.” A popular YouTube reviewer extolled the virtues of the movie & it was all “Bravo! Le Magnifique!” Then, he mentioned that in this 3 hour dialogue-heavy motion picture, he could only understand 75% of the dialogue! After that, this reviewer continued on with the “Masterpiece! Movie of the year!” and literally proclaimed the entire product “a monumental achievement.“ The director deciding that these sound mixes are what he WANTS yet most excuse this inanity… this is now why I say “cult of personality.”
With all that setup explained, this was a documentary I had never even heard of until two nights ago, let alone knew it was on The Criterion Channel. An e-mail from that platform alerted everyone to The Day After Trinity; wise decision. It was produced in part by a PBS station (public television for those worldwide) so the product is on the dry side yet I was personally riveted. After his life up to WWII was explained along with his personality, the crux dealt with The Manhattan Project then his regret that the bomb won’t lead to peace and instead not only killed so many in Japan, it led to the Cold War. This is augmented by footage and photos (including those of “Oppie” himself) along with interviews w/ people he worked with throughout life… not to mention his brother Frank.
As long as you like documentaries that aren’t flashy and you wish to learn more about the man & his mote noteworthy achievement without the time investment of reading a book and want the visual aspect that reading Wikipedia won’t provide—it’s at least worth a shot.
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