Board 8 > Just saw Oppenheimer. Questions and spoilers.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Long ass movie.

1) Why was Strauss and company so intent on discrediting Oppy and having him lose his clearance?

2) How accurate was this movie? Like, did Oppy actually have multiple affairs in real life? Did Truman dislike Oppy? Was the entire Strauss thing even real?

Can't answer 2 but I thought 1 was pretty obvious. Strauss was insanely jealous of Oppenheimer's accomplishments and was more subservient to the military interests. Knowing Oppy wasn't was enough to make him intent on getting his clearance taken away.

2) The affair with Florence Pughs character was real at least. Not sure how many others he had. Yes, Truman was not impressed with Oppenheimer. He actually called him a cretin, not a crybaby as in the movie. Yes, everything with Strauss was real, though the movie took some liberties with some details.

Apparently Oppy's wife was actually completely unlikeable in real life. She comes across like she's kind of a mess, but she means well and is pretty likeable despite her being an obvious drunk. But from what I understand, everyone in Oppy's life really didn't like her, and apparently they toned her down from real life.

And apparently he didn't actually try to poison his teacher, and some people were a pretty upset by that.

It was also very unlikely that Oppy had ever asked Einstein for help prior to the creation of the bomb though.

I also hear that yes, they took liberties with the Strauss end of things for dramatic effect. There's some articles floating around that talk about what wasn't accurate to real life.

I struggle to connect Strauss jealousy leading him and the government to taking away his clearance.

Moonroof posted...

I struggle to connect Strauss jealousy leading him and the government to taking away his clearance.

I thought this was very clearly explained.

Strauss hated that Oppenheimer was being anti-weapon after building the bomb and had set him up to be humiliated at an event. But Oppenheimer turned it around and embarrassed Strauss. And then with the added reason that he felt that Oppenheimer was turning Einstein and the rest of the military science community against him.

But stripping him of his clearance meant that Oppenheimer wouldn't have as much access to spread his anti-weapon speeches, opening up for him and the other generals to have more influence. Apparently Strauss was a nasty dude in real life too.

Moonroof posted...

I struggle to connect Strauss jealousy leading him and the government to taking away his clearance.

I mean they explained it well enough I thought. He knew that in a fair argument Oppy would have been able to sufficiently articulate himself to always be a thorn in the side of his (Strauss') agenda(s).

So you don't fight fair, you use the more easily manipulated bureaucracy to take away his (Oppy's) seat at the table.

And had Strauss never done anything? I feel like he still would have gotten his seat in the senate or whenever.

Moonroof posted...

And had Strauss never done anything? I feel like he still would have gotten his seat in the senate or whenever.

The movie frames it like it was significantly because of his vendetta Oppenheimer, but he had created a lot of enemies in the political sphere and he floundered pretty hard in the hearing. And he had already poisoned himself against the science community himself, regardless of Oppenheimer, though they were rather outraged by everything that Strauss had done to him too.

A large part of it was him constantly overstating his importance to the atomic bomb to the point he claimed to have been vital in convincing the President Truman to use it, to which the President wrote a letter that leaked stating that Strauss in no way was a part of his decision to use it.

He was just a nasty dude that made a ton of enemies.

I thought Strauss was pretty into the Red Scare angle too

I keep hearing he did try to poison his teacher but that Oppenheimer himself never told the story consistently, so who knows if it even happened at all.

Then again the scene in question is taken from the book anyway, and it was contested there too.

I assumed the poisoning was fabricated just to hit up the forbidden fruit/poison apple symbolism

When I saw it in the theater, during the scene with the apple, I heard someone behind me say to their friend "That really happened."

During that apple scene the person beside me said "Oh, he's a prankster." I swear. Putting cyanide in an apple is not a silly prank!