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denimbex1986 · 10 months

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'Think about Sylvester Stallone training as Rocky while the empowering theme song building him up. The montage is an editing technique you have seen before, in many different ways, like Rocky reaching those museum steps. It might be emotional, the passage of time can be rapid, and there might be new reveals. You have probably seen this technique in the movies by director Christopher Nolan, which dive into the spectacle of the story and emotional cores of the characters. A dream thief struggles with fantasy and reality. A dark knight never loses his heroism. The thoughts of doomsday torture a physicist. Editors Lee Smith and Jennifer Lame worked on these titles to create an ending with a potent impact before the screen goes to black. While not all of Nolan’s movies end this way, he seems to love a good montage to bring everything full circle.

'Inception' and 'Interstellar' Expand Their Worlds in Different Ways

“Come back to reality,” Professor Miles (Michael Caine) says for an important line in Inception (2010), where not everyone knows what is real or fantasy. The professor tells this to Dom (Leonardo DiCaprio), an expert thief who can invade a target’s dreams. The loss of his wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) has turned him into a haunted man. He deeply regrets his part in her death, but one mission could allow him to return to his children. That is if Dom doesn't cause his own downfall. He constantly rushes to use his totem, waiting for the spinning top to topple over, which will assure him he’s out of a dream. Many of the memories Dom retreats to in his mind are of his late wife, but there is also the final moment he sees his kids. And after Dom successfully completes the central mission, Hans Zimmer’s score intensifies on the journey home.

There is hardly any dialogue in this montage ending. The pacing and transitions are smooth and quick, almost dream-like, as Dom gets closer. Then the music slows. Dom doesn’t look to his spinning top, instead he hurries to his family when he gets the chance. His memories and life have been seen throughout the movie, and this, his most personal experience, isn’t meant for us. The camera pans away to the spinning top, which is about to fall. Mal was “possessed by an idea,” Dom explained at one point, this last shot of the spinning top is just as captivating. Nolan clarified what the ending means, in his own way, “There is a nihilistic view of that ending, right? But also, he’s moved on and is with his kids. The ambiguity is not an emotional ambiguity. It’s an intellectual one for the audience.” Dom’s totem and his children are part of Inception’s conflict of fantasy and reality, and this is what the montage lingers on. In Nolan’s other sci-fi epic, he goes bigger than slipping into someone’s subconscious.

The universe to Interstellar (2014) is endless. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), Dr. Brand (Anne Hathaway), and the Endurance crew travel through a black hole to hostile planets in distant galaxies. They hope one will be the new home for the endangered human population. At various moments, there is cross-cutting, one method to limit how far Cooper is from his daughter Murph (Jessica Chastain). In a last ditch effort to save many lives, Cooper leaves Brand to travel to the next planet, allowing himself to be taken into the black hole. But it spits him out into a strange new setting where Cooper communicates with Murph across the previous years. Murph uses the data he sends over to save him and the world. For the existential crisis that erupts on Cooper’s space odyssey, the story narrows down to a child and parent finding each other again.

Cooper is finally reunited with Murph (Ellen Burstyn), now decades older than himself. She weeps, but takes comfort in seeing him, knowing it would happen. And why? “Because my dad promised me.” She doesn’t want him to see her imminent death, so she sends him to go find Brand. The ending closes in on both Cooper and Brand, separated by galaxies, but he’s been faced with greater obstacles. The montage has Cooper get into a spacecraft, while Brand sets up camp on a planet that will be suitable for life. It’s a new beginning, and Murph’s narration works as a closing statement: “Maybe, right now, she’s settling in for the long nap, by the light of our new sun, in our new home.” These final moments are hopeful. However, in Nolan’s superhero movies, it gets more complicated.

Gotham City Perseveres Because of the Batman

The Dark Knight (2008) challenges Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) like never before with the chaos of the Joker (Heath Ledger). When it seems this villain is defeated, the Joker cackles, “You didn't think I'd risk losing the battle for Gotham's soul in a fistfight with you?” Another force of chaos is unleashed in the grieving, half-burned Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), who has been manipulated terribly. Gotham’s white knight has sent crime lords and mobsters into prison, cleaning up the streets, but by the end, Dent wants revenge over who he blames for the murder of Rachel (Maggie Gyllenhaal), including a loved one of Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman). Dent is killed when Batman intervenes and the linear timeline is made flexible during the movie’s closing moments.

Batman isn’t a white knight, he can be blamed for Dent’s actions. In the montage sequence, Gordon gives a eulogy on Dent, then smashes the Bat Signal at a later time. For the greater good, the public will believe the cover-up. Can Batman die a hero, or will he live long enough to see himself become a villain? It seems Batman will be a villain to Gotham. But in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), the nocturnal crusader figures out how to avoid both of these scenarios. What helps is the emotional core to this trilogy in the relationship between Alfred (Michael Caine) and Bruce.

Alfred explains how he would take a trip to Florence, and visit a café where, “I had this fantasy that I would look across the tables and I’d see you there, with a wife, maybe a couple of kids. You wouldn’t say anything to me, nor me to you. But we’d both know that you made it. That you were happy.” That doesn’t seem to be the ending for Rises when Gotham is trapped under a nuclear bomb’s countdown. Batman is able to secure it to the Bat Wing, flying it safely out of the city, without any way he could survive the ensuing explosion. Bruce and Batman are soon memorialized, where Wayne Manor gets turned into an orphanage and a statue is built in honor of the dark knight. They die as heroes, or so it seems.

It’s in the title, the whole movie is about rising. There is the chant, “Deshi Basara!” that echoes in a prison pit, translated to, “Rise.” There is Bruce’s return into the bat armor, then his second return after his back is broken. Gordon delivers another eulogy, this time for Bruce, stating, “I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss.” The ending makes good on all these motifs. Alfred goes to the café he mentioned and there he sees Bruce, alive and content. A booming score swells during the final scene, where Officer Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is lifted in the Bat Cave to become a new protector. For this brisk epilogue, Bruce gets his happy ending, while Gotham remains in safe hands. When Nolan makes movies based on real-life, the montage reflects on the horrors that have been seen.

Christopher Nolan’s Historical Thrillers Face the Future

Dunkirk (2017) pays off from previous scenes for a somber conclusion. On the civilian side of the story, George (Barry Keoghan) jumps onboard Mr. Dawson’s (Mark Rylance) boat, hoping to do something big with his life. The plan is to save the lives of stranded English soldiers. An accident from a traumatized soldier (Cillian Murphy) causes George to fall and suffer a severe head wound. Laying nearly motionless, he confides to Mr. Dawson’s son Peter (Tom Glynn-Carney) his hopes of being in the newspaper where his father and old teachers see him credited him as a hero. He ultimately dies, not surviving long enough for the rescue of soldiers from a disaster. George’s death doesn’t seem courageous in any way until the ending.

During the final scenes, Peter gets George’s picture and obituary into the paper, where he is hailed as the hero the young man wished to be. This cross-cuts with other scenes with active soldiers. Alex (Harry Styles) makes Tommy (Fionn Whitehead) read the paper, unable to meet the eyes of people outside their arriving train. They aren’t viewed as cowards like Alex fears, they are victors, having survived is enough. Out on the beach they were rescued from, infantry helmets lay out on the sand, although many were saved, many others died. Spitfire pilot Farrier (Tom Hardy) is taken captive, but after he burns his plane to destroy it from getting into the enemy’s hands. Out of all these moments, the strongest element goes to poor George. He is a hero for stepping onto Dawson’s boat and for having to deal with the consequences of war. In the case of Nolan’s other historical movie, a darker resolution is reached.

Oppenheimer (2023), at three hours long, is laced with doom. Cillian Murphy’s portrayal of J. Robert Oppenheimer is a man who can’t articulate his anxieties, or if he does, he’s ridiculed for it. At the start, he’s fascinated with the quantum world. Once he conquers the atomic bomb, these visions turn against him. The physicist soon fears that his creation will destroy everything one day. In a fantasy, he’s stuck in a fighter jet watching nuclear destruction. In another, he sees the world catch on fire when the atmosphere ignites. A major scene takes place between Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein (Tom Conti), but the audience can't hear what is being said at first, just like the lurking form of Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.). It’s this exchange that concludes the story.

“When I came to you with those calculations,” Oppenheimer tells Einstein, “we thought we might start a chain reaction that might destroy the entire world.” Einstein nods, recalling this, “I remember it well. What of it?” Murphy’s face is frozen, an expression that shifts depending on who might be watching, it could be of shock, horror, or a grim acceptance for what he’s done. “I believe we did,” Oppenheimer replies. In his head, nuclear missiles are fired into the sky and the atmosphere lights up, this time from global nuclear weaponry. The ending is no longer the physicist’s nightmares, but a plausible, current threat which the movie’s own audience will have to deal with.

Inception, Dunkirk, and the other movies have a runtime that is over two hours long. The ending needs to finish strong. Swift cuts keep the pacing from feeling lethargic. Repetition in visuals can bring a new meaning to what has been seen or said earlier. The energy to these montage endings can lift you up, or it can stick with you for a feeling that innocence has been lost. Either way in a Christopher Nolan movie, there is no going back.'

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symeraid-s · 4 months

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2023 Retrospective: TV Shows, Movies and other Music

This is not being ranked. I’m just gonna talk about TV Shows and Movies I watched this year, as well as one artist that released a banger album, which I could not fit in anywhere else. So, let’s start out with:

Other Music

Måneskin

Yeah, the RUSH! Album is really fantastic. I don’t really know what to tell you. GOSSIP was randomly recommended to me, and I couldn’t stop listening to the entire album afterwards. My favourite song of it right now is probably either OWN MY MIND of GASOLINE, but it is a great all round package. If you like rock music, I really recommend you check this out.

TV Shows and Movies

Kamen Rider Geats

Technically this show started in 2022, but it finished in 2023, so I’ll count it regardless. This was the first Kamen Rider Season I watched while airing and honestly? I don’t regret it. It’s probably not my favourite Kamen Rider Season, that title will most likely remain with Build for a while, but God damn, is Ace just a fun main rider to watch. Because I can’t deny it: I love it when a character is an asshole with a heart of gold. He also gives me gender envy. I also really like the design of the rider forms (particularly Geats Mach 2 and Nago Fantasy) and the fact that there are multiple female riders that get a lot of screen time throughout the entire season. The fandom got really weird for a while though, which was not enjoyable. But hey, I guess that’s just normal with Toku shows.

Oppenheimer

Yeah, this might be one of the best directed movies I have ever seen. It’s 3 Hours of talking, but it never drags, and it never feels like anything should have been left on the cutting room floor. Cillian Murphy is also really fantastic as Oppenheimer, and I really hope he finally wins an Oscar for this movie. He would absolutely deserve it.

Barbie

It only feels right to put this one after Oppenheimer. I didn’t like it as much, but it certainly was one of the most movies to ever movie. I wish it had been a bit campier and actually stuck with the commentary they were doing, because it does backpedal at the end, when it gets to Mattel. It’s still their product after all, so you can’t portray them as irredeemable villains, but they really got of way too easy. Just saying. The set and costume design is off the charts though and Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are fantastic in their respective roles.

Nimona

This movie is just a delight to watch. It’ll make you laugh, but it’ll also emotionally destroy you and leave you weeping in a puddle by the end. According to fans of the graphic novel, it deviates a lot from the actual ending, but I really loved the conclusion, so I can’t complain too much about that. All of the voice actors did a fantastic job and the chemistry between the characters is perfect.

Bokura no Shokutaku/Our Dining Table

The Toku to BL pipeline is going strong with two main riders starring in this show. Both Iijima Hiroki and Inukai Atsuhiro are absolutely fantastic in this show and at this point I don’t know why I’m still surprised with Inukai’s performances. He always gives 200%. This show is really wholesome, but also sad. It explores how trauma can stem from the seemingly smallest thing, which is something that really needs to be explored more in media. It’s probably one of my favourite shows this year.

Heartstopper Season 2

The second season diverges a lot from the Webtoon, but in a good way. It expands the universe, so to say. It also starts to deal with more serious themes yet keeps you in this bubble of queer warmth which is beautiful. There is also a canon asexual character, so that’s also a win. My favourite character this season was Tao. Mostly because every time he opens his mouth I think: “He’s just like me for real.” William Gao really does a great job.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Amongst Thieves

This is just a really good fantasy movie, regardless of if you play DnD. I watched this one together with my DnD party though, which was really hilarious, because our DM constantly went: “You are just as stupid as them”. Aside from that, the technical aspects of this movie are also really great. The practical effects are really stunning and the VFX look just as good. Chris Pine is also the best Hollywood Chris.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

I watched this movie together with my colleagues because the company I work for contributed the COVID tests for the filming done in Germany. So, whenever we recognised a set, we would immediately point it out. Some shots from District 12 and the Capitol were filmed in Duisburg and Berlin respectively, in case anyone is interested. But yeah, I wouldn’t have watched this movie, if it wasn’t for that. To be fair, the performances were really good, and I liked the songs, but it does kind off feel… weird. Like, some of the plot advancements seem contrived.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

My father is a big fan of the franchise and Harrison Ford, so he dragged me and my mother to see this movie. It was not the worst, but god, was it a drag at times. The entire opening scene, where they de-aged Harrison Ford was so badly lit, that I almost couldn’t see any of the action. The main villain’s plan doesn’t make any sense. The ending seems purposefully left open, even though we don’t want or need a new movie. I can’t believe I’d say this, but just let Indy die.

#disclaimer: just my opinion #2023 retrospective #maneskin #kamen rider geats #oppenheimer #barbie #barbenheimer #nimona #bokura no shokutaku #our dining table #heartstopper #dungeons and dragons honor amongst thieves #the hunger games #indiana jones #final part

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red-ibis-red · 4 years

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“..:If this were a courageous country,

it would ask Gloria to lead it

since she is sane and funny and beautiful and smart

and the National Leaders we’ve always had

are not.

When I listen to her talk about women’s rights

children’s rights

men’s rights

I think of the long line of Americans

who should have been president, but weren’t.

Imagine Crazy Horse as president. Sojourner Truth. John Brown. Harriet Tubman. Black Elk or Geronimo. Imagine President Martin Luther King confronting the youthful “Oppie” Oppenheimer. Imagine President Malcolm X going after the Klan. Imagine President Stevie Wonder dealing with the “Truly Needy.” Imagine President Shirley Chisholm, Ron Dellums or Sweet Honey in the Rock

dealing with Anything.

It is enough to make us weep with frustration,

as we languish under real estate dealers, killers, and bad actors.”

—Alice Walker, from “These Days”, Her Beautiful Body Everything We Know

#Alice Walker #poetry #lit #blm

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papermoonloveslucy · 4 years

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LIZ LEARNS TO SWIM

June 11, 1950

“Liz Learns To Swim” is episode #92 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on June 11, 1950 on the CBS Radio Network.

Synopsis ~ George makes a bargain with Liz: If she'll learn to swim, they can go to the beach with the Atterburys for their vacation.

“My Favorite Husband” was based on the novels Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage (1940) and Outside Eden (1945) by Isabel Scott Rorick, which had previously been adapted into the film Are Husbands Necessary? (1942). “My Favorite Husband” was first broadcast as a one-time special on July 5, 1948. Lucille Ball and Lee Bowman played the characters of Liz and George Cugat, and a positive response to this broadcast convinced CBS to launch “My Favorite Husband” as a series. Bowman was not available Richard Denning was cast as George. On January 7, 1949, confusion with bandleader Xavier Cugat prompted a name change to Cooper. On this same episode Jell-O became its sponsor. A total of 124 episodes of the program aired from July 23, 1948 through March 31, 1951. After about ten episodes had been written, writers Fox and Davenport departed and three new writers took over – Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and head writer/producer Jess Oppenheimer. In March 1949 Gale Gordon took over the existing role of George's boss, Rudolph Atterbury, and Bea Benaderet was added as his wife, Iris. CBS brought “My Favorite Husband” to television in 1953, starring Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson as Liz and George Cooper. The television version ran two-and-a-half seasons, from September 1953 through December 1955, running concurrently with “I Love Lucy.” It was produced live at CBS Television City for most of its run, until switching to film for a truncated third season filmed (ironically) at Desilu and recasting Liz Cooper with Vanessa Brown.

REGULAR CAST

Lucille Ball (Liz Cooper) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon.

Richard Denning (George Cooper) was born as Louis Albert Heindrich Denninger Jr., in Poughkeepsie, New York. When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles. Plans called for him to take over his father's garment manufacturing business, but he developed an interest in acting. Denning enlisted in the US Navy during World War II. He is best known for his roles in various science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. Although he teamed with Lucille Ball on radio in “My Favorite Husband,” the two never acted together on screen. While “I Love Lucy” was on the air, he was seen on another CBS TV series, “Mr. & Mrs. North.” From 1968 to 1980 he played the Governor on “Hawaii 5-0″, his final role. He died in 1998 at age 84.

Bea Benadaret (Iris Atterbury) was considered the front-runner to be cast as Ethel Mertz but when “I Love Lucy” was ready to start production she was already playing a similar role on TV’s “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show” so Vivian Vance was cast instead. On “I Love Lucy” she was cast as Lucy Ricardo’s spinster neighbor, Miss Lewis, in “Lucy Plays Cupid” (ILL S1;E15) in early 1952. Later, she was a success in her own show, "Petticoat Junction” as Shady Rest Hotel proprietress Kate Bradley. She starred in the series until her death in 1968. Gale Gordon (Rudy Atterbury) had worked with Lucille Ball on “The Wonder Show” on radio in 1938. One of the front-runners to play Fred Mertz on “I Love Lucy,” he eventually played Alvin Littlefield, owner of the Tropicana, during two episodes in 1952. After playing a Judge in an episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” in 1958, he would re-team with Lucy for all of her subsequent series’: as Theodore J. Mooney in ”The Lucy Show”; as Harrison Otis Carter in “Here’s Lucy”; and as Curtis McGibbon on "Life with Lucy.” Gordon died in 1995 at the age of 89.

Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) was also later seen on “I Love Lucy.” She first played Mrs. Pomerantz (above right), a member of the surprise investigating committee for the Society Matrons League in “Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E25), as one of the member of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League in “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (ILL S3;E3), and also played a nurse when “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (ILL S2;E16). She died in 1996 at the age of 96.

Bob LeMond (Announcer) also served as the announcer for the pilot episode of “I Love Lucy”. When the long-lost pilot was finally discovered in 1990, a few moments of the opening narration were damaged and lost, so LeMond – fifty years later – recreated the narration for the CBS special and subsequent DVD release.

Gale Gordon (Rudolph Atterbury) is not in this episode, but is mentioned by Iris.

GUEST CAST

Hans Conried (Benjamin Wood, Liz’s Swim Instructor) first co-starred with Lucille Ball in The Big Street (1942). He then appeared on “I Love Lucy” as used furniture man Dan Jenkins in “Redecorating” (ILL S2;E8) and later that same season as Percy Livermore in “Lucy Hires an English Tutor” (ILL S2;E13) – both in 1952. The following year he began an association with Disney by voicing Captain Hook in Peter Pan. On “The Lucy Show” he played Professor Gitterman in “Lucy’s Barbershop Quartet” (TLS S1;E19) and in “Lucy Plays Cleopatra” (TLS S2;E1). He was probably best known as Uncle Tonoose on “Make Room for Daddy” starring Danny Thomas, which was filmed on the Desilu lot. He joined Thomas on a season 6 episode of “Here’s Lucy” in 1973. He died in 1982 at age 64.

This begins Conried’s history of playing Lucy’s instructors. Percy Livermore taught her grammar; Professor Gitterman taught her singing and acting.

Herb Vigran (Filling Station Attendant) made his "I Love Lucy” debut as Jule, Ricky’s music agent, in “The Saxophone” (ILL S2;E2) in 1952 and immediately returned in “The Anniversary Present” (ILL S2;E3) to play the same character. He will also play Mrs. Trumbull’s nephew Joe, the washing machine repairman, in “Never Do Business With Friends” (ILL S2;E31) and Al Sparks, the publicist who turns Lucy and Ethel into Martians, in “Lucy is Envious” (ILL S3;E23). Vigran also played the man who sold Lucy and Desi The Long, Long Trailer (1953) and returned to work for Lucy in six episodes of "The Lucy Show” between 1963 and 1966. He died in 1986.

EPISODE TRIVIA

The day before this episode aired, Lucy and Desi were in New York City on their ‘vaudeville tour’ designed to try-out material for “I Love Lucy” and prove to the networks that they had good chemistry together. There they appeared on “The United Cerebral Palsy Telethon” hosted by Milton Berle and aired on NBC.

The script for “Liz Learns To Swim” was basically a remake of “Vacation Time” (aka “A Trailer Vacation To Goosegrease Lake” broadcast on April 29, 1949.

Unlike many episodes of “My Favorite Husband,” “Liz Learns To Swim” has no corollary on “I Love Lucy,” although certain situations and dialogue will be familiar to viewers.

EPISODE

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers tonight, summertime is fast approaching and Liz has roused her self from spring fever long enough to go on a shopping spree for some beach clothes.”

As the episode begins, Liz is showing Katie the Maid what she has bought for her summer vacation, including a skimpy swimsuit.

LIZ: “I want to look good for George. He’s going to see a lot of me this summer.” KATIE: “He’s not the only one!”

In “Off To Florida” (ILL S6;E6) Ricky thinks Lucy’s new skimpy new swimsuit is for Little Ricky!

RICKY: “Hey, look, Ricky! Mommy bought you a bathing suit.” LUCY: “That's mine!” RICKY: “Yours?!” LUCY: “Relax. It stretches when it's on.” RICKY: “See that it does!”

Lucy also buys a swimsuit that Ricky feels is too skimpy when shopping for their California trip in “Getting Ready” (ILL S4;E11).

In looking over their daily mail, we learn that the Cooper’s live at 321 Bundy Drive. Liz gets something from Weeping Willow Ranch, where they spent last year’s summer vacation. It is not a place Liz is anxious to revisit.

LIZ: “One week there and you understand why the willows are weeping.”

In “Vacation Time” from 1949 (the episode upon which this one is based) the resort was named Goosegrease Lake.

Lucy Carmichael visits a dude ranch called Tumbleweed Inn during a 1966 episode of “The Lucy Show.”

Liz wants to go to the beach with the Atterbury’s while George insists on going to the dude ranch. George agrees to go to the beach if Liz will first learn to swim.

Adventure-Loving Lucy Ricardo swam in the chilly Med before pedaling to Nice in “Lucy’s Bicycle Trip” (ILL S5;E24). Fred calls her “the poor man’s Florence Chadwick” an American swimmer known for long-distance, open water swimming and the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions, setting a record each time.

Liz’s neighbor, Mr. Wood (Hans Conried), teaches her how to swim - without ever leaving the living room! George is doubtful Liz can learn swimming without getting wet, so they agree to a test at the Country Club pool the next day. That night, Liz ‘swims in her sleep’ - nearly drowning!

At the pool next day, Iris (Bea Benadaret) brings Liz some water wings to wear under her swimsuit and fool George. To inflate them, Iris drags Liz to a Filling Station to use their air pump. But the water wings burst, just like Iris’s plan. Iris thinks of a loophole: Liz never promised George she wouldn’t use help - so Iris darts home for one of Rudolph’s life jackets.

Life jackets and Lucy Carter’s inability to swim were integral to “Lucy Rides The Rapids” (HL S2;E4), filmed on location on the Colorado River.

Liz puts on the life jacket and dives into the pool. George agrees to take her to the beach - even though Liz failed to inflate Rudolph’s life jacket. She swam without help! As soon as she realizes it, however....HELP!!!

HELP!!! Lucy pretends not to be able to swim so that Ricky can pretend to save her, all to get the attention of gossip columnist Hedda Hopper in “The Hedda Hopper Story” (ILL S4;E21).

Lucy and Anthony Newley tread water in the Thames River in “Lucy in London” (1966).

Lucy and Desi relaxing in their pool at home in the 1940s.

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hadrongospeltranscripts · 7 years

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Ep. 1- The Reluctant Hadronaut

[Rift sound effect.]

Electronic Voice: Hadron Gospel Hour

Dr. Oppenheimer: I do apologize for the makeshift accommodations here in the break room Mr. Wilkinson. I thought it might ease your transition into this insane world of cackling horror. And you were in pretty rough shape when I picked you up last night. Have considered my proposal?

Mike: Listen, uh, Doctor… Oppenheimer? Uh, I don’t know how many ways I can say this. I’m an IT guy. Who happens to write dialogue driven movies in my spare time. An IT guy with a splitting headache. Uh, did you even try Craigslist?

Dr. Oppenheimer: Oh, sure. “Scientist who caused incalculable damage to the space-time continuum seeks help creating podcast about he destruction his hubris has rained down on on all the inhabitants of the multiverse?” No. No, I have not placed that ad. But I’m sure you’re being too modest about your talents Mr. Wilkinson. May I call you Michael?

Mike: Uh, Well, I prefer Mike…

Dr. Oppenheimer: Michael it is. Michael, since the… event, I have been driven to catalogue and document the scenes I’ve seen through the rift— that bleeding mocking wound in space-time. I want— I need to share these tales with the world, Michael. To warn them of the perils that await those who would, like me, tinker with he very warp and weft of the multiverse’s gauzy fabric. And what better way to spread this terrible hadron gospel than…

Mike: To… create a podcast?

Dr. Oppenheimer: Precisely! Oh, and a tumblr. We’ll need to set up a tumblr. (pause) Trail mix?

Mike: No thanks. So, is that the reason for the Misfits makeup?

Dr. Oppenheimer: My… grieving mask, you mean. I have adopted the visage of death itself to honour the deaths that I have caused. So many lives, Michael, so many timelines ruined. Plus I think it looks cool (crunching sounds) Mm. Are you sure? It’s the only think in the vending machine without high fructose corn syrup.

Mike: Nope, I’m good. I mean, you kidnapped me from my bachelor party. On the eve of the most important day of my life. I’d just given what I thought was a very eloquent and moving speech about the power of friendship—

[Cutaway to Mike’s bachelor party.]

Mike: (clearly drunk) What’s important to me, is that— is not so much that, uh… it’s the value of the friendship that means good… It’s what everybody— and then, y’know, it means that you (indistinguishable mumbling) And then… I dunno, it’s— I—I do know. It’s good. It’s friend, it’s good. So here’s to… um… to y’know… and then, um, everybody friend good. And then— But the value, the value—

Partygoer: Attaboy Mike!

Mike: Is— is really what I mean to… So raise your glass and (mumbling) good frie— Fr-friendship good.

[End cutaway, back to the bunker]

Dr. Oppenheimer: (eating trail mix) Michael… When I saw you though the rift, your words moved me. I sensed in you something of a kindred spirit and I felt the celestial rush of synchronicity, like wind upon the water’s surface, for I too have lost a love. (theme song starts under his words) Here, look.

Mike: A gift receipt.

Dr. Oppenheimer: (paper rustling) Ah, oh no, sorry. Here.

Mike: Ooh, a wedding ring.

Dr. Oppenheimer: My wife, Esmerelda, was a brilliant physicist and my partner in the Hadron Project. She objected to the weaponization of the Hadron Effect, but I convinced her that the money, security, and yes, fame, would more than compensate for the grisly knowledge that our work would be used to such terrible ends. For the Hadron Weapon was designed not only to destroy its quarry, but to retroactively edit it out of existence as though it had never been! What a weapon, eh Michael? And what a paycheque! We could finally afford to move back into the downtown area and get one of those nice loft spaces. You know, with a café and a laundromat and little boutique shops on the ground floor.

Mike: Makes sense.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Total sense, Michael. We’d been living int he suburbs. Ever been to the suburbs, Michael? Scenic, but a special kind of purgatory.

Mike: And.. the Hadron Weapon was your ticket out.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Yes! Sadly, all of our dreams were for naught. I must have miscalculated somewhere along the way, for, during the first true test of the Hadron Weapon, something went horrible wrong. The weapon misfired, it gouged a rift through the very fabric of space-time; and Esmerelda, my wife, lost. Lost forever, with only this ring left behind. (ring box clicks closed) But enough of all this sadness! I didn’t bring you all this way to weep at you about my vaporized life partner, how about a tour of the lab! (theme music gets louder)

Intro: Hadron Gospel Hour! Written by Michael McQuilkin and Richard Wentworth. Starring Richard Wentworth, Michael McQuilkin, Lisa McQuilkin, Michael Atkinson, Vera Schränkung, and George Jack. With musical guests, Reindeer. Streaming and podcasting thanks to Afterbuzz TV and Acami Technologies. And now, the hour approaches! Hadron Gospel Hour!

[Theme song ends]

Dr. Oppenheimer: I do hope you can handle the shrieking horror of it all. Although, the decor is midcentury modern, so it’s not all that bad.

Mike: I’ll be honest with you: this is not a fun place to be hungover.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Well, it’s going to get much worse Michael. You may not unseen that which next assaults your eyes. Behold, the Hadron Rift!

[Large metal door opens. Rift sound.]

Mike: Oh my God… This can’t be real. It’s horrific. Broken buildings, strange situations, empty shopping malls. Comedies of error.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Terrible, I know. Coffee? A.S.H. LE (pronounced Ashley), two coffees please. How do you take yours, Michael?

Mike: Black, I guess. Who’re you talking—

Dr. Oppenheimer: Two coffees with cream and sugar, please A.S.H. LE.

Mike: Oh, but I’m lactose—

Dr. Oppenheimer: Cream and sugar, A.S.H. LE.

A.S.H. LE Of course, Doctor Oppenheimer. Two coffees with cream and sugar. (computer beeping noise)

Mike: (sigh) Aren’t they going to… materialize or something?

Dr. Oppenheimer: Ha, no. They’re in the coffee machine back in the break room. I’ll go get them. (footsteps leaving) This isn’t science fiction Michael!

[Metal door closes]

Mike: (muttering) Gonna wake up now any second Mike. (Out loud) Ashley, huh?

A.S.H. LE: What? What was that? Oh. (sigh) Short for “Automated Servitor Heuristic Lite Edition”. Dr. Oppenheimer and his wife had me custom built to assist in their work here in the lab. Hey, I am the lab. Programmer knows, I do more than any of the meat bags around here. You’re Mike?

Mike: Uh, yeah. Hey, he’s got a lot going on, doesn’t he?

A.S.H. LE: Oppenheimer? Oh yeah he does. Well, it’s nice to meet you Mike. If there’s anything you need, just ask. I am programmed to assist.

Mike: Well, actually, uh, could you make one of those coffees black, please?

A.S.H. LE: (computer beeping noise) Done.

Mike: Thanks. So what’s Oppenheimer’s deal other than being a bit of a drama queen?

A.S.H.LE: Ha. Oppenheimer’s deal is that he’s trapped here. Oh he can leave the lab, but only for short trips. He inevitably reappears right back here in the lab, in the exact spot where he was standing when the Hadron Event happened.

Mike: Like respawning in a video game. Huh, cool.

A.S.H. LE: Sure, cool. So anyway, he trapped here, in the lab. Forever. I mean, I’ve scanned him. No gene death, no aging, just me and Oppenheimer. Here in the lab. Forever. Fun, right?

Mike: Oof. Yeah, not at all appealing. But, A.S.H. LE, I could go back to my time, right? Back to uh… my… timeline?

A.S.H. LE: Of course. I recorded the exact temporal, spatial, parallel coordinates Oppenheimer had me extract you from.

Mike: Oh that’s amazing! But, what’d it mean when Oppenheimer said we’ve… we’ve both lost a love? Nothing happened in my timeline, right? (pause) A.S.H. LE? Nothing has happened, right?

A.S.H.LE: Mike, the Hadron Effect has been felt across all timelines, even yours. The dissonance is different in each timeline, but it has happened, or will happen, or is happening. Or in fact… all of the above. From our relative position—

Mike: Jesus, don’t be so quantum. Just tell me what happened… or is happening, or whatever.

A.S.H. LE: I shouldn’t, Mike.

Mike: But— but Beth, my friends. You said different. How different? Like… new Darren different or New Coke different?

A.S.H. LE: In your timeline? New Coke different.

Mike:(softly) Son of a—

A.S.H. LE: Listen Mike, Dr. Oppenheimer was trying to fix the rift, but he’s been… distracted lately. Obsessed with recording those scenes from the rift. His physiognomic scans are showing an overall decline into depression. Maybe you can… cheer him up, and get him back on track.

Mike: Cheer him up? I don’t think I could cheer me up right now.

A.S.H. LE: Well than maybe just… be his friend.

Mike: (sigh) Alright, I’ll try, but he’s not making it easy.

A.S.H. LE: I hear ya.

[metal door opens]

Dr. Oppenheimer: My ‘supercomputer’ messed up your coffee order, Michael, so I’m afraid I had to add your cream and sugar manually, sorry for the delay.

Mike: Thanks. Hey it’s, uh (gags) perfect.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Well, it’s not every man that can make manual coffee these days Michael.

Mike: So, hey, what’s this about a collection of uh, horrific videos?

Dr. Oppenheimer: My “Tales of the Hadron Rift”, you mean?

Mike: Uh, yeah. Yeah, what d’ya say, we should watch a few.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Well, yes. Yes, I suppose we should. A.S.H. LE, fire up the VTR!

Mike: Um, don’t you mean a VCR?

Dr. Oppenheimer: What? No, I said VTR. Video tape recorder. What’s wrong with that?

Mike: Nothing, I’ve just never heard that term before. They’re video cassette recorders. VCRs.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Well, this York’s model is plainly labelled VTR, so I don’t know how much clearer it could be than that. Plus, you use video tapes in them. The medium is magnetic tape, Michael.

Mike: Yeah, but the magnetic tape is encased in a video cassette. (sound of video cassette being picked up) See, look at this one, VCR.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Well that’s just silly, VCR. Feh. A.S.H. LE, video tape one, please.

A.S.H. LE: (sigh) The tape was not rewound. Rewinding. (sound of tape being rewound) Tape rewound. Playing.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Ah, Michael, you’re in for a treat. Allow me to present to you, “Tales of the Hadron Rift”!

[Rift sound]

Mike: Hey, neat sound.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Thank you, A.S.H. LE and I composed it for our into. I rather like it.

[Rift sound]

[Rustling and dragging sounds. A sigh. Fridge door closes.]

Unnamed Character: Okay, he’s gone. So, first day in the fridge, huh. Nervous?

Nahoo: Uh, maybe a little.

Unnamed Character: Ah, don’t be. This job does itself once you get the hang of it. And the heath benefits are sweet.

Nahoo: So, how much of this is turning the light on and off? Cause it seems like that would be a really cool job.

Unnamed Character: What?! Jesus, they send you guys greener every year. We don’t do the goddamned light, kid.

Nahoo: Really? Aw, that’s too bad.

Unnamed Character: Well, get over it. There’s more important stuff to worry about. Like goddamn salmonella. Yeah, I know, sounds dramatic, but listen. The fridge is about eighty percent paper work, fifty percent meetings, and five percent getting the hell behind the olives when someone opens that door. And a little general mold and mildew containment. You’ll do fine, you got any… powerpoint experience?

Nahoo: Um… Unnamed Character: Access?

Nahoo: Well…

Unnamed Character: Word?

Nahoo: No.

Unnamed Character: Excel?

Nahoo: Well I consider myself slightly above average.

Unnamed Character: Jesus, do you even have a computer? How do you not know Word?

Nahoo: Well, I have trouble staying in my seat.

Unnamed Character: Okay, let’s switch gears a bit. Are you comfortable being alone?

Nahoo: What?

Unnamed Character: Well, there are extended periods of darkness in here and folks tend to get lost in their own thoughts. I just wanna make sure you’re comfortable with that. We’ve already lost too many men to the labyrinth of their own minds in here, so you gotta be careful. You ever considered taking your own life?

Nahoo: No! (pause) What’s that smell?

Unnamed Character: Oh yeah. Well, the giant who owns this box is going through a rough patch. Wife left him a while ago. That’s the last takeout order they got together. I don’t have the heart to get rid of it. Neither does he so, we live with it. And you will too if you wan to keep this job.

Nahoo: Oh. Uh, okay.

Unnamed Character: So, that’s the basics. Lemme introduce you to Larry, you’ll be relieving him. He’s been in here for a couple of years now, so cut him some slack. Larry, this is Nahoo, the new guy. I’ll let you guys get aquatinted.

Nahoo: Hey there, nice to meet ya!

Larry: Hmm.

Nahoo: So, um, what d’ya do at sing along time in here?

Larry: I haven’t sung for five years. Doesn’t mean anything anymore.

Nahoo: Well, I know a few tunes that we could—

Larry: This used to be a magical place, now it ain’t. A place where you’d lovingly store the foods you’d use to sustain your family and entertain your friends. Now it’s a morgue for food that doesn’t even know it’s already spoiled. Sad sacks who don’t know they’re already dead.

Nahoo: Oh.

Larry: You smoke?

Nahoo: No.

Larry: Hm. Well, we’re not supposed to, but part of me hope this whole place goes up. I know it’s scientifically impossible, but a guy’s gotta have something to hold onto, right? Well, let me show you around. So over here we got a bunch of food no one gives a damn about; some open cans of soda, unpackaged celery that’s so rubbery it would probably be more effective as a police baton, chunky peanut butter that, quite frankly, does not belong in here. I mean, how much time you buyin’?

Nahoo: What’s that, way back there?

Larry: Oh yeah, that. We call that the Shrine. Been here as long as I can remember, a bottle of French dressing. And I’m pretty sure that company went out of business.

Nahoo: So is this a seating area?

Larry: Nah, those are egg holders, if you can believe that. Once in a while some stray M&M’s will get trapped in there. When no one’s lookin’ I use ‘em as toilets, and trust me, kid, no one’s lookin’. Another relic from a long gone era that no one gives a damn about anymore. No one but Larry. And when Larry’s gone… That’s that I suppose.

Nahoo: Well, don’t you have any family?

Larry: I got a cousin that made it out to the Lawn a few years back. Got a commercial deal. I get a postcard now and then. Screw him. (pause) Well that’s my queue. Good luck kid, you’re up.

Nahoo: But— But what do I do?

Larry: You know, I used to ask myself that same question a lot. You know what the answer is? Doesn’t matter. I’m outta here, don’t disturb the surface of the Jello!

Nahoo: Wh-what? (exhale) It’s cold. Well. Maybe a song will warm me up. (Sings) Living a boy’s adventure tale… So many—

[Elephant trumpet, confused shouting]

[Rift sound]

[ProductCo theme start playing]

Product Announcer: Hold onto your hats… If you’re not excited about this product now… Get ready…

Rick: Alright, well I— I have to tell you about a wonderful new product that I just came across and it is… probably the best product that I’ve ever tried.

Mitch: Now look, I don’t usually pipe up about things like this, but I am just so over the moon with this product that I felt like I had to got to this forum and record my words in order to get them to you.

Product Announcer: An exciting new development in product technology…

Rick: I really love it, and I think you will too. For all the things that you would use this product for, you can use this particular product and not the other ones that are far inferior. I mean, I’ve tried ‘em all…

Product Announcer: Not convinced? Listen to some trusted personalities…

Rick: I’ve been using this product now for.. an unspecified amount of time, and I’ve gotta tell you, it has done some amazing things for me. It has changed the— the way that I use products.

Mitch: I had that similar need for this product, and thus I used it. So the results were… all positive, I promise you.

Product Announcer: Tonight, on a very special: your life just got better because of this product.

Rick: I tried all the other products that cover— that cover similar ground to this product, they don’t come close.

Mitch: My friends notice it, my… pets notice it. They notice that I am a changed man for the better. I’m pretty sure that you might have a very similar reaction.

Product Announcer: Get on board, this train’s leaving… for trusted productville…

Rick: You’ve come to rely on this company for so many things, they’re like a trusted family friend. If they’ve been around that long.

Mitch: You listen to me, you son of a bitch, if you think I came here to blow smoke up your ass, then, uhhh, I—I’ve got nothing else for you, my friend. Because you’re an ignorant person.

Rick: Don’t waffle about this, this is something you need to try! It’s so wonderful.

Product Announcer: I hunger…

A.S.H. LE: Video ended. Rewinding. (sound of tape being rewound)

Mike: Wow, uh, I had no idea the multiverse was so… dysfunctional.

Dr. Oppenheimer: That it is, Michael, a big old bag of it.

Mike: Hey, where’s the boys room, Oppenheimer, I need to send this coffee along to its final resting place. You do have bathrooms here, right?

Dr. Oppenheimer: Ha, of course. This lab may be stranded outside the space-time continuum, but we’re not savages. It’s down the hall and to the left.

[sound of footsteps]

Mike: (to himself) Somebody spiked my drink maybe? No, this feels to real. Peyote? No, it can’t be. I haven’t met Mescalito yet.

Cyrus: Ha!

Mike: Woah!

Cyrus: Mescalito, nice. You read Casteneda?

Mike: Who are you? Why are you sticking out of the wall? Jesus, are you okay?

Cyrus: Me, oh, I’m fine. For the most part. (pained grunt) I’m alright, just fused with the wall, name’s Cyrus.

Mike: Ummm, Mike.

Cyrus: Nice to meet you Mike! Say, could you do me a quick favour? My arms are, uhh, somewhere else, and my nose is real itchy. Do you think you could… you know, give it a little scratch? Just a quickie?

Mike: Oh, uh, yeah, sure. Just, uh. (scratching noise)

Cyrus: (scratching noise continue while he speaks) Aaaaaaaaah… That’s amazing. Oh man, thanks! The doc won’t do it, and it’s been years. Oh wow, I can’t over how much better that f— (pained grunt, scratching noise stops) It’s okay, I’m okay, just (pained grunt) the wall.

Mike: This happened in, ah, the accident?

Cyrus: Yep, I was mopping the hallway floors when it happened. Never seen anything like it. Weirdest feeling I’ve ever felt. Like being sliced down to the bone and pulled apart in a million different directions, and not in a fun way.

Mike: And you’ve been sticking out of this wall for… five years?

Cyrus: Has it been that long? It’s hard to keep track.

Mike: And, uh, the rest of you?

Cyrus: Well, that’s the thing. I can still feel the rest of me, but who the hell knows where it is. We thought it might be the next room, but A.S.H. LE scanned and I’m not there. The doc says it’s probably wedged in another timeline, weird right?

Mike: Yeah, that sound horrible.

Cyrus: You know what though? Could have been a lot worse. I could have been completely vaporized like the doc’s wife, or I could be unemployed. And I’ve been blessed with an experience most guys never have in their entire lifetime. Yeah… I’ve got it pretty good. (two pained grunts) Plus I’ve had a lot of quiet time to hang out and meditate. Recharge my qi. I’ve been trying to practice more mindfulness. Nothing worse than an unexamined life, am I right?

Mike: I guess. So, are there any more people around here I should know about? I don’t want anymore surprises…

Cyrus: Ha! Yeah, sorry about that man. Nah, it’s just me, the doc, and A.S.H. LE. Well, there was this guy, Greg, but he’s been gone for a while. Guy from tech support, rock and roll type, real slacker. Just took off one day, nobody knows where to. So, a Casteneda fan, huh?

Mike: Huh? Oh, right. Well… I read The Teachings of Don Juan when I was in high school.

Cyrus: Trippy stuff, huh?

Mike: Uh, yeah.

Cyrus: Cause you mentioned Mescalito back there and…

Mike: So I’m gonna go use the bathroom now… (footsteps)

Cyrus: Mike, wait, listen, I know we just met, but could I ask you another favour?

Mike: Uh, sure man. What d’you need?

Cyrus: Well, I’ve asked the doc about his a bunch of times, but he told me it’s impossible. (sigh) Maybe it is, I don’t know.

Mike: What, what’s up?

Cyrus: I’ve told you that it looks like my lower half is, er, somewhere else, right? Well I would really love to have my wallet back. It was— it is in my back pocket and there are lots of pictures of my family in there… Gosh, I’d really love to see ‘em again.

Mike: Hey, I’ll see what I can do, okay?

Cyrus: Oh man, that’d be amazing, thanks! I knew you were a good guy. Find the others, right man?

Mike: Absolutely.

A.S.H. LE: I just don’t think it’s a good idea to use the Rift and your personal restaurant take-out service.  Dr. Oppenheimer: But these ration packs are completely inedible! Tuna lozenges, quiche strips, partially de-fatted pork fatty tissue, a tube of Vienna sausage paste… I—I don’t think any of this is organic, A.S.H. LE. And dare we speculate at what proprietary blend of herbs and spices comprises this buffalo chicken flavoured sparkling beverage? I mean, nobody’s going Paleo in this lab, I can assure you of that! Egh, at lest in the Rift we’ve got a shot at buying non-GMO.

A.S.H. LE: The packs are perfectly nutritive, according to my data!

Dr. Oppenheimer: That’s easy for you to say. You get to dine on conditioned electric current, you’ve never tasted the joys of farm-to-table cuisine.

A.S.H. LE: Hm. Meat disgusts me anyway.

[metal door noise]

Mike: Hey, guys? We need to help Cyrus.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Who’s Cyrus?

Mike: The guy out there? In the wall? The guy who’s been out there in the wall for the last five years.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Oh, him. Absolutely not.

Mike: What?! What d’you mean? He’s a human being, Oppenheimer.

Dr. Oppenheimer: He’s nothing more than a decorative element. And an ugly on at that. He matches nothing, Michael.

Cyrus: (muffled) I can hear you guys, ya know.

Mike: Oppenheimer, you can’t be serious.

Dr. Oppenheimer: I am deadly serious, Michael, he completely clashes with the midcentury modern look of the lab. Listen, we have important work to do here.

Mike: Your podcast, you mean? Well, you can do it alone then. If you won’t help Cyrus, I’m out. A.S.H. LE, send me back. I don’t care if it is all New Coke back there, i—it’s better than working for this asshole.

Dr. Oppenheimer: New Coke? Now— now wait a minute! A.S.H LE Don’t you dare!

A.S.H. LE: I will do it, doctor.

Dr. Oppenheimer: But… But he’s— (sigh) Oh, alright. Okay, alright. If I help him you’ll stay?

Mike: Yeah. Yeah, I’ll stay.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Well, okay then. Okay. I guess it’s been a while since we used a little science around here.

[rift noise]

Mike: Okay, I got the cheek swab from Cyrus, I had to assure him we wouldn’t share his information with any third parties. So what’s this… for exactly.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Well, Michael, it’s very simple really. A.S.H. LE will analyze Cyrus’ DNA and then we’ll attempt to find a match somewhere out there in the chaotic miasma of the rift. It should work, in theory. Michael, please hold the sample up a little higher.

Mike: Oh, yeah, sure. How’s that?

A.S.H. LE: Scanning… (computer beeping noise) Processing.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Well, what d’ya know. Impressive.

A.S.H. LE: Well, yeah.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Hm. Interesting. According to the display, Cyrus’ right arm is sticking out of the break room wall next to the vending machines. I’ve always thought that was one of those new, hip art shelves. Huh. I’ve been using it for my keys and gum wrappers.

Cyrus: Oh, that’s what that was?

Dr. Oppenheimer: Sorry!

Cyrus: No problem, Doc.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Now, let’s see. Hm. Ah yes. A.S.H. LE, magnify parallel coordinates 427548, 75285, 433859. Ah, good, good. Good! My friends, I believe we are looking at the exact location of Cyrus’ hindquarters! Give or take.

Cyrus: Really? Alright!

Dr. Oppenheimer: Well, Michael, are you ready to visit Cyrus’ lower half and retrieve his family treasures?

Mike: (laughs, clears throat) Sure.

Dr. Oppenheimer: A.S.H. LE, open the Rift!

A.S.H. LE: Opening. (rift noise)

Mike: Be back in a flash Cyrus!

Cyrus: Good luck, fellas.

[Weird half rift, half groan sound as Mike and Oppenheimer leave]

A.S.H. LE: Humans.

Cyrus: I know, right!

[Rift noise]

Mike: Holy— It— it’s beautiful! The colours, the sounds!

Dr. Oppenheimer: Welcome to hyperspace, Michael, the space between worlds, the prima materia that our very realities are born of! Here in it’s raw, spectral glory.

Mike: Does it always take this long?

Dr. Oppenheimer: (whispering) Only the first time the audience hears it. (out loud) Now, ready yourself, I can feel us returning to our corporeal state!

[Thud]

Mike: Okay, this place it truly weird. I feel like I’m on the ass end of a Pop Rocks and Pixie Stix binge.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Yes, yes, some sort of crystalline world. Very odd. Even the air seems crisper somehow— Glad we can breath it, hadn’t check on that— Now, let’s find Cyrus’ uh… hindquarters. A.S.H. LE, how close are we?

A.S.H. LE: He’s approximately 4.2 kilometres north of your current location, about midway up the mountain.

Dr. Oppenheimer Excellent, thank you A.S.H.— Wait, the mountain? Couldn’t you have gotten us any closer?

A.S.H. LE: Hm. Let’s recap. I pinpointed Cyrus’ location in the multiverse using only a cheek swab, oh and the power of quantum computing. I transported the two of you to said location across the infinite multiverse through a highly unstable rift int he fabric of space-time. Did I forget anything? Oh yeah, you’re still alive, (Oppenheimer clears his throat) and able to communicate with me. But you’re right. I’m the asshole for making you two do a little light hiking. I feel like a complete failure. A.S.H. LE out.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Well, I… hm… I suppose we should get climbing then, Michael.

Mike: Sounds like a plan. Hey, how many miles is 4.2 kilometres?

[Rift sound]

Mike: (out of breath) That was… That was more than… 4.2 kilometres, wasn’t it?

Dr. Oppenheimer: (also out of breath) A.S.H. LE may be short tempered, but she is unerringly accurate about distances, Michael.

Mike: Yeah, sure. Of course, I didn’t mean to—

Dr. Oppenheimer: Sh sh, look, over there, jutting out of that outcropping of rock, do you see?

Mike: Hey, yeah. That’s gotta be Cyrus. Those are totally Earth slacks, right?

Dr. Oppenheimer: Totally. Well let’s get his items and be done with it. (walking sounds)

Mike: Okay, but wait a minute, what’s all that stuff around him. A bunch of, uh… are those candles?

Dr. Oppenheimer: Some arrangement of light generators, yes. Why, it almost looks like a… shrine. We’d better hurry and retrieve the wallet. (walking sounds) Okay, quickly Michael, I’ve never toughed this mana nd I don’t intend to start now.

Mike: Sheesh, what is your problem? Alright. (pause) There’s nothing in he— Ow! (kicking noise)

Dr. Oppenheimer: Hm. Must be and involuntary reflex, like with a horse. You’re obviously approaching him wrong. Here, let me tr— Oof! (kicking noise) You’re right, there’s no wallet there. Wait, do you think that someone could’ve… (footsteps) Oh. Oh my.

(Whenever the Crystalosians speak it’s normal words played over strange noises, as a non-diegetic translation)

Lady Rubalith: Who intrudes upon the sanctity of the Object of Prime Cosmological Significance? Explain your soft, puffy presence here, strangers.

Amethystar: High Zenith Lady Rubalith, perhaps they too are friends from the sky like the Object. Observe their meaty mien and their similar slacks.

Lady Rubalith: Yes, yes, perhaps you are right, Amethystar. You give wise counsel my old friend and advisor. So, why are you here, strangers? Well?

Dr. Oppenheimer: Well, this is awkward. A.S.H.LE, establish real time translation.

A.S.H.LE: You have attempted to access a feature that is not available in the lite edition. To unlock this feature, please visit the Umbra Digital website at h-t-t-p colon forward slash—

Dr. Oppenheimer: (frustrated grunt) Well, so much for that. Listen, friends. We only want to retrieve he belongings of our friend here.

[clanking noises]

Lady Rubalith: Cease your gesticulations, it is forbidden to gesture toward the object. Enough of this ineffectual parlay, guards, take these two meatlings to the Crystal Caves.

Dr. Oppenheimer: I told you this wasn’t worth it. Let’s run!

Mike: No, just… Hold on. I’ve been listening to these guys talk, let me try something. (speaking with weird intonation) Prime Object mean much to Crystal guys, yes?

Lady Rubalith: What?

Amethystar: He speaks the Crystal Tongue.

Lady Rubalith: Guards, stand down. (clanking) Impressive, meatling. What is the purpose of the visitation? Speak carefully, you address the Lady Rubalith, High Zenith of Crystalos.

Dr. Oppenheimer: What? What’s she saying, Michael?

Mike: I’m not an expert Oppenheimer, I… I think she want’s to know why we’re here.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Oh. Well, tell he we made a mistake and let’s be off. Cyrus and his wallet be damned.

Mike: You know I can’t do that. Hold on, let me try something. (weird intonation again) Oh High Mucky Muck Big Time Lady Rubalith, legs in wall am friend from up waist. Us promise wall friend top parts us come find pocket stuff, then bring back to wall friend and he have big happy. You can help, please?

Lady Rubalith: Friend? The Object of Prime Cosmological Significance is your friend?

Amethystar: Can it be?

Lady Rubalith: Silence. I require a moment. Very well meatling. Your words and your slacks ring true. And I taste in both you and your companion the flavour of deepest loss, a frequency of sorrow that rouses a crystalline compassion in the geometries of my heart. These are after all, only relics, and our Prime Object is only a meatling’s lower half. But what you seek is more substantial, is it not? I will grant you what you ask.

Mike: (still using that weird intonation) You am big good, big happy us thank.

Lady Rubalith: There is just one condition. I will whisper it into your fleshy, audio receptor.

Dr. Oppenheimer: What? What is it?

Mike: (weird intonation) Deal. (normal voice) They’re giving us the wallet.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Excellent! Let’s get it and go. I’ve spent enough time on this fools errand.

Mike: Okay, but she’s invited us to stay for the ritual. They’re celebrating the anniversary of the discovery of the Object of… well, Cyrus’ ass. It would be rude to leave so abruptly.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Nonsense, we’ve stayed too long already. Say good bye, Michael.

Mike: She said there’ll be food.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Food, you say?

[Rift noise.]

[Sounds of lots of talking in background]

Lady Rubalith: We welcome our guests, Mike and Oppenheimer, as we celebrate the appearance, so many eons ago, of the Object of Prime Cosmological Significance, now known for the ages as Lower Cyrus; and the return of his… artefacts to their rightful place.

Mike: Jeez, I really wish Cyrus coulda been here. Well, the rest of him, his head and torso. A—and his arms.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Smells wonderful. Excuse me sir, do you know, is this organic?

Crystalosian Man: Excuse me?

Lady Rubalith: And now, let us feast as we reflect not he wonders of the cosmos. A happy Life-day to all. Let the music begin.

Reindeer Band Member: Hey Crystalos, we’re Reindeer! Thanks for having us at your… Life-day celebration. This one’s from our new single, it’s called “Tony”. Boy no more You’re a grown up cat that makes All the birds In the neighbourhood sing it on When you move Like a panther in the sand Sniff around, you just grow on everyone Can’t you see The whole world awaits your smile On the prowl You will kill with a fire inside What you are Is an eating machine in a million creatures why Do I hold you So close to my heart Kill with a fire inside Kill with a fire inside Kill with a fire inside your heart When you move Like a panther in the sand

[Rift sound.]

A.S.H. LE: Tape ended. Rewinding. (rewinding noise)

Dr. Oppenheimer: Well, that was a particularly satisfying adventure, Michael. Thank you for forcing me into it.

Mike: Ha! Any time.

Dr. Oppenheimer: And it was actually quite nice to reunite, um…

Cyrus: (muffled) Cyrus!

Dr. Oppenheimer: Yes, Cyrus. It was nice to reunite Cyrus with he contents of his wallet. (to Cyrus) Your family seems very nice.

Cyrus: (muffled) Thanks, Doc! It’s good to have the old library card back, too.

Dr. Oppenheimer: (yawns) So, I suppose I’ll turn in. We’ve much more work to do not he morrow and all that climbing and rich Crystalosian food has worn me out.

Mike: Just one more thing though, Oppenheimer. Um… Lady Rubalith gave this to me at he feast. She told me I should give it to you when I got back, said it’s something you needed. Here.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Crystal box? Well, it’s beautiful, but I don’t see how— Oh, there’s some sort of luminescent particle inside. It’s— oh, huh! (sparkly noise)

Mike: Whoa, look out!

Dr. Oppenheimer: No no no, wait. I don’ t think it’s harmful. Look, it’s settling on my desk. On… Esmerelda’s ring. My goodness, (unclassifiable sci-fi noise) it’s shot into the Rift! A.S.H. LE what’s happening, what does this mean?

A.S.H. LE: Scanning and processing. (computer beeping noise) Two things. One: the Rift has just healed. By an infinitesimal degree, but still. And two: I’m getting a DNA reading from the ring.

Dr. Oppenheimer: But, what? Esmerelda! A.S.H. LE, did you get a full scan of the luminescent object?

A.S.H. LE: Of course.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Compare it with the DNA on the ring.

A.S.H. LE: It’s… a complete match, Dr. Oppenheimer.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Of course it is, A.S.H. LE, of course it is!

Mike: Wait, what?

Dr. Oppenheimer: It’s very simple Michael, so very simple! When the Hadron Event occurred, I thought my wife had been simply vaporized, but that’s not it at all! You know, that man in the hall, um…

Cyrus: (muffled) Cyrus.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Yes! How Cyrus’ body was fragmented and blasted throughout the multiverse in the accident? Well the same thing happened to Esmerelda, only because of her proximity tot he blast it happened in a much more complex and devastating fashion, but it’s essentially the same thing, Michael! And if my guess is right… Here, let me show you. A.S.H. LE, run the same sort of DNA scan on the rift that we did for Cyrus, this time using the DNA not he ring.

A.S.H. LE: Scanning. (computer beeping noise) Processing.

[Whoosh]

Mike: Woah, the power’s dipping.

A.S.H. LE: It’s alright. Processor maxed out. Switch to auxiliary power cells. (boot up noise) Processing complete. Rendering matches on multiverse display.

Dr. Oppenheimer: My god… It’s full of stars. She’s… She’s…

Mike: Everywhere. Nice reference by the way.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Thank you. Thank you, Mike. I’m gonna fix this then. All of it.

Mike: The Rift, how?

Dr. Oppenheimer: Yes, the Rift, Esmerelda, it’s all connected. Look at her there, scattered across the multiverse. Lady Rubalith, that marvellous crystal woman, she showed me how. (theme song starts playing) If I can find and recover all these bits I can do it! And bring back my beloved Esmerelda. I;m certain of it! I’ll of course return you to your timeline, you’ve been far too patient with me already. I think you’ve earned it.

Mike: Now wait a minute. I’m not going anywhere. Until the Rift is fixed… there’s not hope for my timeline, or Beth. At least now I can do something about it. There’s all sorts of weird worlds out there, filled with all sorts of weird creatures and, let’s face it, you’re not the greatest communicator.

Dr. Oppenheimer: Hm. True. You were very helpful with the Crystalosians. Welcome to the team.

Cyrus: Uh, guys? Speaking of those crystal folks… I, uh (pained grunt) I think they’re trying to (pained grunt) make a crystal offering…

Mike: Well, what’d say, doctor, ready to take a little trip?

Dr. Oppenheimer: Michael, I dare say that I am. A.S.H. LE, open the rift! This multiverse isn’t going to save itself.

A.S.H. LE: Opening. (Rift sound)

[Theme song gets louder.]

Credits: You just listed to Hadron Gospel Hour! Written by Richard Wentworth and Michael McQuilkin. With production assistance for Katie Falvey, Rebeka White, Tim Conway, Sam Cusac, and Kris Paukstys. For more information on Hardon Gospel Hour, or to download new episodes find us at hardongospelhour.com. Dowload, rate, and review us on iTunes, Stitcher, Tunein, Dogcatcher, or wherever fine podcasts are consumed. And be sure to join us next time for an all new episode of Hadron Gospel Hour!

[Theme song ends.]

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principleofplenitude · 7 years

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As it happened however, his words were seen as a great betrayal by the majority of physicists who supported Oppenheimer. The result of this perception was that Teller himself was damaged far more by his testimony than was Oppenheimer. Close friends simply stopped talking to him and one former colleague publicly refused to shake his hand, a defiant display that led Teller to retire to his room and weep. He was essentially declared a pariah by a large part of the wartime physics community. It is likely that Teller would have reconsidered testifying against Oppenheimer had he known the personal price he would have to pay. But the key point here is that Teller had again let personal feelings interfere with objective decision making; Teller's animosity toward Oppenheimer went back years, and he knew that as long as the emperor ruled he could never take his place. This was his chance to stage a coup. As it happened his decision simply led to a great tragedy of his life, a tragedy that was particularly acute since his not testifying would have essentially made no difference in the revocation of Oppenheimer's security clearance.

“The many tragedies of Edward Teller” from Scientific American

#reading list #scientific american #edward teller #robert oppenheimer #physics #hydrogen bomb #military #hans bethe #science

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denimbex1986 · 10 months

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'The logical reason that Christopher Nolan’s new movie Oppenheimer does not depict the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that were the fruit of title character J. Robert Oppenheimer’s secret operations at Los Alamos and elsewhere is that the movie sticks hard to its title character. A man who heard about the bombings on the radio just like everybody else in the United States did. Nolan’s movie gives the viewer the world through Oppenheimer’s eyes — while the movie does depart from the character’s perspective to move its frame story forward, it’s never directly about anything but the man and, more importantly, what he did.

For some this puts the movie at a disadvantage…but in terms of what? In terms of spectacle? If any filmmaker could get financing and summon the technical wherewithal to actually depict fiery carnage on a scale of Hiroshima’s, it’s certainly Nolan. And while the filmmaker himself hasn’t cited moral or ethical concerns when discussing his withholding of these sights from his movie, such issues are summoned and given a thorough albeit indirect airing out in two films by the French director Alain Resnais.

The first, and most obvious, is, well, Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Resnais’s first feature, directed after he made a decade’s worth of innovative non-fiction short films. The 1959 fiction film was written by Marguerite Duras, the groundbreaking French writer whose experimental fictions were rife with philosophical and intellectual challenges. The subject of Hiroshima, Mon Amour is of trauma, historical and personal.

The movie, in black and white and Academy aspect ratio, opens with a negative image of a plant growing, perhaps, as we’ll infer later, a mutated, irradiated one. Then we see naked limbs and flanks, components of a couple in embrace. Sand pours on to their bodies. Soon it starts to glow; is it sand, or a form or radioactive dust. A man’s voice says “You saw nothing in Hiroshima. Nothing.” 'A woman’s voice insists that she has seen Hiroshima. She’s been to its hospital: “The hospital in Hiroshima exists. How could I not have seen it?”

She describes, and the camera echoes with physical evidence, what she’s seen: The Hiroshima museum, with its “bouquets of bottle caps” — objects fused together in the nuclear fire of the explosion — and the hair that fell out of the heads of those who weren’t killed in the vicinity that day, and the photos of actual burn victims. But the man insists: you saw nothing. She says “The reconstructions were as authentic as possible. The films were as authentic as possible.” And again, Resnais shows simulations of the survivors of the blast (a couple of briskly moving tracking shots of fake burn victims), and then puts in actual documentary footage of people with missing eyes, twisted limbs, and more.

“As authentic as possible?” Exactly. What, in these circumstances, does authentic even mean? To what extent does the information we are being given correspond to the reality of what happened? Hiroshima, mon amour strongly suggests that such films, however “accurate” or “authentic” (two entirely different categories of course), have nothing really to do with direct experience of trauma. And that such documents are perhaps the akin to the graven images that Mosaic law prohibits, in that there is the possibility that we might elevate them in a vain attempt to transcend or ameliorate trauma.

“The illusion is so perfect that tourists weep. What else can tourists do,” the woman says near the end of an over ten-minute sequence on the question. “What else was there to weep over,” the man asks, and eventually the movie tells us. The woman (Emmanuelle Riva) is French, the man (Eiji Okada) is Japanese, and neither is named in the film. Not naming your characters was a thing in arty postmodern literature and film at this time (the same thing happens in Resnais’ next film, Last Year At Marienbad, another study of reality, memory, and what can be known, albeit a much more abstracted treatment), but here it’s crucial to the movie’s final point, delivered in its last lines. In any event, their love story began with a bar pickup in a post-war Hiroshima, where she, an actress, is playing a nurse in a fictional movie about the bombing’s aftermath. “It’s about peace,” she shrugs when the man meets her on the set. “Here in Hiroshima we don’t make fun of films about peace,” he says. A few extras pass them, carrying signs bearing enlarged photos of burn victims. The couple is obscured but are laughing when they’re revealed again.

This feels insane — how can we behave as we do, with images of such suffering being paraded before us? In part it’s because those images cannot make us know suffering.

The movie’s larger question outside its historical context has to do with the possibility of love, and what love can achieve for both individuals and humankind, if anything at all. While it may seem so at first, the movie doesn’t abandon Hiroshima to tell the story of the female character and her own personal World War II trauma; it tells that story to demonstrate what she carries, and to demonstrate that what we all carry is inextricably tied up with our ability to empathize, as far as it goes, and the film insists that it can only go so far.

Throughout the film, we distinguish between recreations, acted drama, and footage of real events, and unconsciously assess the weight of each form as we’re also processing the narrative of the love story.

“The whole world rejoiced. And you rejoiced with it,” the man says to the woman about the bombings that did, after all, put an end to World War II. This was the world’s shame, and not just the West’s shame — do you think that China and Korea were sorry to see Japan’s days as a military power come to an end? The scholar and historian Paul Fussell shocked America’s more guilt-ridden intellectuals with his early ‘80s essay “Thank God for the Atom Bomb.” From the point of view of a U.S. soldier who was spared having to fight in the Pacific Theater, the atrocity was indeed a godsend. (Believe it or not, the British blues rock band The Groundhogs actually beat Fussell to articulating that sentiment with its song “Thank Christ For The Bomb,” from the 1970 album of the same name.)

To see suffering on the Hiroshima scale meticulously recreated through performance and special effects — would this help us, decades on, to resolve any of these contradictions? The answer to the question, according to Duras and Resnais, is that had Nolan chosen to somehow “recreate” the bombing of Hiroshima, we, the viewers, would really see nothing. I think they’re right. In any event, Oppenheimer finally is about something altogether different: the reality that men of science, completely rational beings supposedly, have enabled mankind’s potential instantaneous extinction. This is indeed unprecedented.

If we want to continue to think about the ethics of re-creation and depiction, though, It’s useful to think about it relative to another 20th century calamity. If the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while taking a staggering number of human lives, demonstrated the cataclysmic — indeed, apocalyptic — potential of nuclear weapons, the Holocaust, with its six million dead, demonstrated that the horror of man’s inhumanity to man is alas inexhaustible. In 1956, Resnais made Night and Fog, one of the first and most important Holocaust documentaries. The 32-minute film begins with color footage of death camps as they were 10 years or so after liberation — empty, overgrown with grass, still. Resnais’ camera dollies down a railroad track, following the path the trains packed with Jews marked for extermination did. Narrator Michel Bouquet says (the script is by Jean Cayrol, a poet): “we move slowly along…looking for what? Traces of corpses that fell out when the doors opened? Or of those herded at gunpoint to the camp’s gates amid barking dogs and glaring searchlights, the crematorium’s flames in the distance” — and here the camera gets to the very end of the tracks — “in a nocturnal spectacle the Nazis were so fond of.”

While the film uses horrific archival material, it also insists that in revealing the camps as they stand at the time of filming, “we can only show you the outer shell.” As, for instance, the fingernail scratches on the ceilings of the crematoria. The narration pauses to let the viewer consider how these came to be. The Nazis destroyed as much documentation on the death camps as they could once the war was lost and the Allies were on their way (and much documentation had been trashed even prior to that), but Night and Fog is also asking “How much do you need to see, anyway?” Because memory will recede. The gods of war are only pretending to be asleep. Looking at such images and relegating them to the past yields a comfort that is ultimately false. “We pretend to regain hope as the image recedes, as though we’ve been cured of that plague,” the narration states near the movie’s end. Resnais’ approach helps us understand why Claude Lanzmann included zero archival footage in his astonishing Holocaust film Shoah.

As for fictional treatments of the Holocaust, the genie of depiction got out of the bottle quite some time ago. For many, to orchestrate a simulation of such atrocities is itself an obscenity, although good luck convincing a Life Is Beautiful fan of this. Writing about Night and Fog in his 1995 book Flickers, the novelist and critic Gilbert Adair also turned his attention to Steven Spielberg’s 1993 Schindler’s List, and after saying the picture was “not at all the disgrace that one had every right to expect,” he nevertheless deemed it “a monstrosity.” After which he grimly mused on the performative recreation of death camp horrors: “[W]hat I see when I watch the film, what, hard as I try, I cannot prevent myself from seeing, is that cast being put through its paces on some foggy, nocturnal location, put through its paces by the boyishly handsome director himself in his snazzy windcheater, his red N.Y. Yankees baseball cap, his granny glasses and his beard. I see him blowing into his cupped hands and pointing a gloved finger as directors do. I see the bony, skeletal extras, in striped pajamas or else stark naked, laughing and joking and jostling one another (why not? It’s their right) while waiting for a new shot to be set up. I see the makeup artists…” and so on. Let us not allow Adair’s feverish projection (Spielberg doesn’t wear Yankees caps, for one thing) obscure his larger point: Some things, finally, just should not be acted out.

Did this notion inform Nolan’s decision? Maybe not as much as we’d like to think, given that the dramatic structure of the film doesn’t allow for an easy departure across the world to begin with. But in the end, incineration by nuclear blast is depicted as Oppenheimer’s nightmare vision of just one person. A Los Alamos worker played by Nolan’s own daughter, Flora. Who is a film student of college age, so chill.'

#Oppenheimer #Christopher Nolan #Los Alamos #Alain Resnais #Hiroshima #Marguerite Duras #Paul Fussell #“Thank God for the Atom Bomb”#Night and Fog #Shoah #Claude Lanzmann #Flickers #Steven Spielberg #Gilbert Adair #Schindler's List

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denimbex1986 · 9 months

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'It’s perplexing. Who thought that it would be a good idea to pair the premieres of the films, Oppenheimer with Barbie? Ultraviolence (I am become the God of Death — Bim-Bam-Boom!) and Ultrasex (in the guise of some toy’s anatomical incorrectness being solved by Margot Robbie’s Babylonian generosities). Do we need another sign that it’s over for human civilization? That the twin allures of Das Kapital have finally found a way to make us munch popcorn and weep to Oppie’s loss of national security status because he once had pinko ties, and that Robbie has bravely taken pink Barbie out of anorexia nervosa and hangs out with the horns of plenty now. Why no GI Joe, sporting a new 3D printer dick, included in the flick for Margot to bivouac with?

That’s the mainstream for you. They’ve totally bought into the America yin-and-yang, sex and death, just as Freud feared in Civilization and Discontents. Popcorning to a nuke movie. How about that! We just can’t take anything seriously any more, can we?

Pssst. What? Not anatomically corrected? Then why would you go to that movie? Is it a nod of homage to the non-binary orientalists? Is it some kind of an AI inside joke? A fist-up stand of solidarity for poor old Alan Turing and the Singularity ahead? Or is it just omnipotence versus impotence? What a double bill.

Naturally, what’s left of the Left have been wringing their hands, and playing old Dylan tunes again, in disgust at how wrong Hollywood got it. Oppenheimer should represent an important ‘teaching moment,’ as they say, for those of us who have a tendency to forget, and look at Jewish friends with bewilderment when they say, “Never again.” Whaddya mean, Isaac? we go. And they schlep off, muttering at the wall.

I watched Oppenheimer yesterday. The story has been told a number of times now. This particular version, directed by Christopher Nolan (Interstellar, Inception), is based upon the 2006 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin. It stars Cillan Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer; Emily Blunt as Kitty Oppenheimer; Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock; Matt Damon as General Leslie Groves; Robert Downey as Lewis Strauss; Tom Conti as Albert Einstein; Kenneth Branaugh as Niels Bohr; Jason Clarke as Roger Robb; and, Matthias Schweighöfer as Werner Heisenberger. It’s a stellar cast for the Blast from the past (although it might have benefitted from casting the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman as General Grove). It’s an epic biographical thriller; but it’s too vanilla, and I feel that all that hellfire and angst(roms) should have broken my heart in twain for the last time. But, as Peggy Lee might have sang “Is That All There Is To An Atom Bomb Blast?”

Oppenheimer follows the Bird/Sherwin delineation and begins at the end of his career. In December 1953, the Atomic Energy Commission had suspended Oppenheimer’s security clearance, and a few weeks later revoked it, fearing that, although he could be regarded as a loyal American citizen, his past affiliations with communists, as well as his post-Hiroshima speeches regarding the need to control nuclear proliferation through UN measures, roiled rightwing militarists and political fascists, such as Senator Joseph McCarthy — and president Harry Truman, who referred to him as a “crybaby.” Their decision was influenced by an FBI report that stated that “more probably than not J. Robert Oppenheimer is an agent of the Soviet Union.” The three-hour film attempts to honor Oppie’s request to weigh his existential being in the totality of his life, rather than with reactionary jibes and jingoism.

The AEC move meant Oppenheimer could not work or know about future nuclear weapons projects, but more importantly the widely-publicized rebuke to his legacy as the Father of the Atomic Bomb left his name blackened and his mood blue. The full frontal assault led by Washington lawyer Roger Robb, known for his “ferocious cross-examination” technique, and played typecastically by Jason Clarke, who had us believin’ in torture from his role in Zero Dark Thirty. As the authors of American Prometheus put it:

In assaulting his politics and his professional judgments—his life and his values really—Oppenheimer’s critics in 1954 exposed many aspects of his character: his ambitions and insecurities, his brilliance and naïveté, his determination and fearfulness, his stoicism and his bewilderment.

This deeply contradictory and, yet, serene and highly literate Oppie is what director Christopher Nolan tries to capture in the film. Recently, Cillan Murphy summed up Oppie and how he approached the role of playing the enigma, whose rationale for continuing to develop the Bomb was the counter-intuitive notion that it would make war obsolete: “I do think that he believed it would be the weapon to end all wars,” Murphy recently told NME. “He thought that [having the bomb] would motivate countries to form a sort of nuclear world governance. He was naive.” Indeed, the United Nations has proven futile to stop the dominators amongst nation-states from nuclear proliferation. In the film, in a scene just following the successful explosion of the atom bomb (that’ll end all war), Oppie is talking with Edward Teller, when the former says he hopes that the message sent is that ‘all war is now unthinkable,’ but Teller immediately responds that, yes, maybe, ‘until a bigger bomb comes along’. Teller would go on to become The Father of the Hydrogen Bomb, a super fusion bomb 1000 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima.

Unfortunately, for my enjoyment of the movie, I’d read other accounts of the relationship between Teller and Oppenheimer. Daniel Ellsberg, for instance, who wrote in his last book before he died, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner — the book he says he wished he’d been able to get out before the Pentagon Papers — that when he came out of seeing Dr. Strangelove with a buddy they were convinced they’d just watched “a documentary,” and writes Ellsberg, “Teller was, along with Kahn, Henry Kissinger, and the former Nazi missile designer Wernher von Braun, one of Kubrick’s inspirations for the character of Dr. Strangelove, who wore, uncomfortably, the Glove that Vice President Dick Cheney would find the need to take off, but who was entirely self-satisfied with in the end. We got very little of this tension, or frisson, if you will, in the film. Director Nolan goes with “naive,” thereby painting all lefty rhetoric since the Double-Tap on Japan as ignorance of realpolitik.

A major question at the time of the development of the Bomb at Los Alamos was the actual urgency of its need. It has been presumed by politicians and military figures, and fed to the public for consumption, over the decades that the Bomb Chase was to get there before the Nazis did; that the prospect was real that if the Germans developed and used the device first it could have taken out the British and the Russians, ending the war a different way and leaving the world with the prospect of rule by super-fascists. Certainly the V2 rockets, already devastating London, were seen as a more terrifying delivery system for any super bomb.

In The Doomsday Machine, Ellsberg actually paints a different picture and suggests that he opposed its immediate development, in part, due to the safety concerns that were being reflected in droll bets being made before the test of Trinity. In June 1942, Ellsberg writes, Albert Speer and Hitler were discussing the feasibility of the Bomb and whether it could done safely:

Actually, Professor Heisenberg had not given any final answer to my question whether a successful nuclear fission could be kept under control with absolute certainty or might continue as a chain reaction. Hitler was plainly not delighted with the possibility that the earth under his rule be transformed into a glowing star. [Following this discussion, Speer reported,] “on the suggestion of the nuclear physicists we scuttled the project to develop an atom bomb … after I had again queried them about deadlines and been told that we could not count on anything for three or four years.”

Essentially, Ellsberg writes, Hitler saw no urgency, while the US and Oppenheimer forged on with the WMD.

In Heisenberg’s War, author Thomas Powers, discusses the Myth of the German Bomb, and ponders why the project fizzled despite the genius of Werner Heisenberg. In June 1942, would-be Vater of Der Fuhrer Bomb deflated some Nazi bagpipes when discussing a bomb’s likelihood. Powers writes:

If we want to know why there was no German bomb, nor even any serious program to build one, we must decide why Heisenberg gave this advice…Was Heisenberg’s advice no more, no less, than his considered opinion, honestly given in the hope of sparing Germany an expensive technical folly? Or did Heisenberg deliberately take advantage of the moment, his prestige, and the uncertainties of an untried science to prick the balloon of official hopes?

Oppenheimer had met Heisenberg and Teller had taken his doctorate in physics under him. Hmm.

Oppenheimer fails on another front miserably and, now, loudly. Nolan chose to enact the famous Oppie quote from the Bhagavad-Gita in a way that the writers of American Prometheus probably would have found misleading, let’s say, and which, some Hindus were said to be deeply offended by. The quote we have heard over and over from Oppie-mism is: “I am become Death, Destroyer of worlds.” Nice sound byte. But it is a quote from The Song of God, which, in American Prometheus, Oppenheimer describes as “the most beautiful philosophical song existing in any known tongue.” But, in Nolan’s film, Oppie, while screwing Jean Tatlock, his then girlfriend, an aspiring psychiatrist, is forced to read (in translation) the stanza embedding the quote directly, while she rides his meat pony to heaven like Belle Starr and he constellates her firmament with, um, time-stars...Hmph.

Nolan might have explored Oppenheimer’s deeper inner mythopoesis not only by more fully contextualizing “the most beautiful philosophical song,” and showing how it applies to the problem at hand. He was also digging on John Donne. I’ve been there, done that; I understand how that can happen. Oppie was drawn to the Holy Sonnets, to the Trinity (he named his Bomb project after it), and, in particular, the “Batter My Heart” one, which I just love to death. It goes on about the hopelessness of being a sinner and the need to be ravished and bodily owned by the Lord; in short, it advocates consensual moral rape. Nolan’s having none of that. In American Prometheus, we find out that Oppenheimer had read TS Eliot’s “The Wasteland,” too. And while Oppie is shown briefly reading it in the film, it gets no further fob; it’s just a gesture to the more literate in the cinema crowd, who might go, dig it, man. I hate lilacs, too, man. Hell, the authors of America Prometheus even describe how Eliot came to Princeton on a short term fellowship at Oppie’s behest, during which the poet wrote The Cocktail Party (“the worst thing he ever wrote,” opines Oppie, in the book) and avoided such faculty parties while at Princeton. Nope. Too highbrow to explore. Welcome to messy Democracy and its Discontents.

Oppenheimer was nominated for the Nobel Prize for physics three times, in 1946, 1951 and 1967. He was never awarded the prize, but many physicists believe that he should have been. Oppenheimer’s work on atoms was groundbreaking. He was one of the first scientists to understand the nature of positrons, and he made significant contributions to the development of quantum mechanics. His work on black holes was also highly influential. In 1939, he and his student Hartland Snyder published a paper that laid out the basic properties of black holes. This paper was one of the first to describe how a star could collapse under its own gravity to form a black hole. I Am Become Death Twice.

Preceding Oppenheimer’s release by just a couple of weeks was another Oppenheimer film (documentary) that appeared on NBC, To End All War: Oppenheimer & the Atomic Bomb. The PBS Ken Burns-ish feel doesn’t have the manipulative soundtrack, or the wonder-filled moment at how They pulled off that Bomb explosion on film without CGI, or the titty sexual romps of Oppie riding two women (tragic as a molecule fissioning), or the play to the plebs for entertainment rather than factuality. But To End All War does have a nice compact story that unfurls over a mere 83 minutes. And everybody plays themselves. Including, surprise, surprise, Christopher Nolan, brought in to talk Oppie. And I would recommend that shorter doco over the epic tragedy of the Left’s demise.

The Barbieheimer phenomenon is bizarre, as already duly noted. Now I ‘ve just read that Oppenheimer star Cillan Murphy has announced his willingness to be a Ken in the next Barbie movie. More Big Bang for the Buck. Ee-haaa! And what sacred text will he despoil in that one?!'

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