Over the last two weeks my partner and I have seen both Oppenheimer and Barbie at the movies. I have to admit that initially I was only intending to see Oppenheimer at the movies and then watch Barbie at home, as by my estimation, Christopher Nolan movies are almost always better seen at the cinema. Both movies were fantastic, and they framed an interesting set of thoughts for me that I would like to delve into a bit here.

Oppenheimer

The first of the two that we went to see was Oppenheimer. I have been familiar with Oppenheimer (the man) and the Manhattan Project for some time, but only in a very surface level way. That is to say, I had a good idea of what the broad strokes of the story would probably be - I wasn’t far off.

The only real complaints I had with the whole thing were first, the depiction of the Trinity test which I felt, through the focus on a practical reproduction of the explosion, fell short of really managing to communicate the incredible destructive force of a nuclear bomb. Secondly was, again this is very much my personal opinion here, the trivialisation of the line Oppenheimer is famous for from the Bhagavad Gita. Perhaps it was wrong for me to do so but I expected this line to be somewhat more important in the movie than it was.

The primary public criticism that I have seen of the movie is either that it turns Oppenheimer into a hero, and honestly I couldn’t disagree more, it far from mythologises him in my eyes, or that it whitewashes, or at least ignores, the ways in which the Manhattan Project, particularly Los Alamos and the Trinity test impacted local peoples at the time. This second point, I think, is the more valid criticism, however I think it falls short, as the movie is about the man, not about the bomb, or the Manhattan Project, or even the war. That being said, including some indication of the impacts, such as the fact that the site for the Trinity test, or even Los Alamos, was not simply an empty desert but rather inhabited, and appropriated by the government for their use, would not have hurt the story being told.

Although the movie was fantastic, and I left the theatre happy that I had gone to see it, I found myself somewhat forgetting it and thinking on it very little in the week that followed.

Barbie

As I said earlier, I was initially not intending to see Barbie at the cinema. My partner and I don’t often go to the movies and Barbie seemed like a movie that could just as easily be enjoyed at home. However, in the two weeks after their release, there was a great deal of discourse about the two movies, and particularly Barbie. One thing I noticed about this discourse that was of interest to me was how divisive it was, and generally how gendered it was. I had friends commenting on the movie saying things along the lines of, “It’s more a movie for girls” or, “I didn’t really get it”, and that’s not even mentioning the amount of content online that voiced to very similar points. And I decided that I had to see the movie so that I could develop my own understanding of it rather than relying on second hand information and opinion.

A side note: I think on of the mistakes being made by people commenting on these movies is that they are trying to compare them in some way. Although, both being movies, they are comparable, their content, style, messaging, etc, is, I would argue, incomparable. Any discussion trying to determine which movie was better is going to go nowhere. As such, I will avoid doing so.

I loved Barbie. I found it an enlightening movie. After it was over I described it to my partner as viscerally enjoyable. I found it funny, educational, moving, and profound. I will certainly see it again in the future. To me, it felt broadly unlike anything I had seen before, and this resulted in it feeling very refreshing. It articulated a great deal of things that resonated with me in a very consumable, entertaining way. Having said all that, I think it is obvious why so many people, primarily men, leave the theatre saying things like I mentioned before.

I don’t want to dwell in this issue, or divide, because I honestly feel that it is not my - a, very comfortable in his gender, male - place to do so but I do want to say something.

Anyone criticising this movie for being too feminist or “woke” needs to re-evaluate their attitude. It is clear that the success of the movie speaks for itself in terms of how much people enjoyed it and how popular it is, as much as I’m sure there were some people hate-watching it, they will be/have been/are among the minority. I think that if you watch a movie like Barbie, particularly as a man, and don’t like it either because of its attitude towards men, its portrayal of men and women, or its vocalisation of women’s issues, then again, I recommend an attitude adjustment.

It’s hard for me to articulate exactly how disappointing it is that people take such a negative view of what is really a fantastically entertaining and educational movie. As much as other peoples perception of the movie does not affect mine, it does worry me that there are so many people who perceive it badly.

Editor’s Note

This was written, and left somewhat incomplete, a while ago, I’m publishing it now as I still feel the way I did then, but I’m not adding to it.