“Now it’s your turn to deal with the consequences of your achievement. One day, when they’ve punished you enough, they’ll serve you salmon and potato salad. Make speeches. Give you a medal. They’ll pat you on the back and tell you all is forgiven. Just remember it won’t be for you. It’s for them”
– Einstein said to Oppenheimer
“Did you think that if you let them tar and feather you the world would forgive you?”
“We’ll see.'”
– final dialogue with his wife
Ever since I watched the trailer for “Oppenheimer” last year, I’ve been eagerly waiting for its release. Now, it’s finally out.
It’s another masterpiece by Christopher Nolan.
Although I love his movies, I didn’t feel like watching “Tenet”. However, with the films like “Memento”, “Inception”, and “Interstellar”, Nolan has been my favorite director.
The story, direction, cinematography, editing, and scale always surpass my imagination.
If “Inception” was unparalleled in its creativity, “Interstellar” was unique for translating astrophysics into narrative and visuals.
This “Oppenheimer” captures a life of a genius, with his scientist’s achievements and the internal moral conflict from the result in the intricate political and historical context. And all these are sophisticatedly drawn with the process of the atomic bomb development
To me, Oppenheimer was a name I encountered later than Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Feynman, etc. I read a memorable novel in high school about Lee Hui-so, and I think that’s how I came to know about Oppenheimer.
He was known as the research director who successfully led the development of the US atomic bomb. But later in life, consumed by guilt, he was found dead on the streets, a tragic protagonist.
Until now, that was pretty much what I knew about Oppenheimer.
The Oppenheimer I encountered through Nolan’s work was even more of a genius than I anticipated. He excelled in various fields like Einstein, had great leadership and political prowess, but ultimately remained a scientist who couldn’t abandon his humanity.
While racing towards the development of the atomic bomb, he must have burned with pure scientific passion. A project he dedicated himself to so much, he has even neglected his own child. He must have felt like the atomic bomb was his child after the success. But amidst the overwhelming applause, he must have realized that he didn’t have any right whatsoever over this creation. The “power” had left his hands.
Much like how we consume meat only thinking about taste and nutrition without considering the animals or those who slaughtered them, politicians only saw the atomic bomb as a means to solidify their position.
I already knew that wars are foolish and childish, like boys playing battle game when they are young. Yet, I realize again that countless things get destroyed for petty reasons like a person’s pride.
Everyone has their sense of right and wrong. Some even face adversity to enforce their notion of justice. Continually trying to discern and promote the right and eliminate the wrong. But maybe, they’re just creating endless disputes.
Unless you detach from this society, you can’t live without disputes. Even if we know our mind is made of thoughts and that “I” is a collection of these thoughts, we can not be detached from it. Therefore the only thing I can do is to do my best and calmly accept whatever comes, good or bad.
What else can we do in life?
Personally, the movie felt like a date with the genius scientists of history, whom I once admired as a science student. Names like Heisenberg and Bohr, or the terms like quantum mechanics, particle accelerators used to hurt my heart. But now they seem to fade into time like many other forgotten desires.
If I decide to forget, I can. After all, they’re just “thoughts”, which are “obsessions”.
Like Wang Wook said to Haesoo in “Moon Lovers”,
‘In this life time, it’s impossible to be with you.’
Even the term “this life time” is just expressing a mind full of regrets.
This life, the next life – where are they?
The ‘mind’ will probably end when the body dies.
my alien mom 