The biographical film ‘Oppenheimer’ of American physicist Robert Oppenheimer, who has two opposite nicknames, ‘Father of the Atomic Bomb’ and ‘Father of Arms Control’, was released in Korea on the 15th. This work, which drew attention as the first biographical film of master director Christopher Nolan, was released last month in the United States and elsewhere and is creating a sensation at the box office. Oppenheimer is evaluated on both sides as a hero who ended World War II by leading the ‘Manhattan Project’, which succeeded in developing the atomic bomb for the first time in the world, and a problematic figure who gave mankind uncontrollable weapons. Oppenheimer’s re-examination is actively being carried out in the United States, where the film was previously released. Introducing ‘Oppenheimer knowledge’ that is good to know before viewing.
He was a linguistic genius before science
Born on April 22, 1904 to a well-to-do German-Jewish family, Oppenheimer was a prodigy who stood out from an early age. With a set of ores he received as a gift from his grandfather, he became interested in crystal structure and interaction with light polarization from the age of seven. At the age of 12, a member of the Mineralogy Club of New York, who had been exchanging letters with Oppenheimer without knowing that he was a child, invited him to be a speaker at a seminar. Oppenheimer’s intellectual curiosity was so great that he could speak a total of seven languages, including Greek, Latin, French, German, Dutch, and Sanskrit, in addition to English. He also enjoyed writing poetry.
Nominated for the Nobel Prize three times… can’t win
Oppenheimer was the greatest physicist acknowledged by history, but he never received the Nobel Prize. He was only nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics. He was nominated three times in 1945 , 1951 and 1967 , but was not selected. In order to receive the Nobel Prize, it is usually necessary to focus on one field of research and achieve achievements in that field, but Oppenheimer was a genius at understanding and synthesizing achievements from various fields better than anyone else and presenting another result, so the ‘Nobel style’ It is evaluated that it was not. Meanwhile, 18 of his colleagues who participated in the ‘Manhattan Project’ with him will win the Nobel Prize.
I lived by cigarettes and died by cigarettes
Oppenheimer was famous for being a great smoker. Most of his photos are of him smoking a cigarette. During the Manhattan Project, he did not eat properly and lost 50 kg (height 178 cm). He also testified that he smoked 100 cigarettes a day. The cigarette ‘Chesterfield’ in his mouth became a symbol of Oppenheimer. He eventually passed away from throat cancer.
After he became famous, it became fashionable among young people to follow him and smoke. Actor Cillian Murphy, who plays Oppenheimer in the film, smoked nicotine-free herbal cigarettes during filming. He is also said to have gone on an extreme diet of eating only almonds.
Like Einstein, but on a different path
Oppenheimer met Albert Einstein, the greatest physicist of the previous generation, while studying at the University of Göttingen in Germany in the 1920s. Although Einstein did not directly participate in the Manhattan Project, he is recorded as a person who suggested to President Franklin Roosevelt that the atomic bomb should be developed faster than Nazi Germany안전놀이터.
The two shared views on most issues, but differed in their attitude toward the frenzy of McCarthyism (an anti-communist movement) that hit them in their later years. Unlike Oppenheimer, who was only subjected to political attacks, Einstein showed the appearance of a social activist who rebelled against it.
Jews fascinated by Hinduism
Although Oppenheimer was a Jew, he was not a staunch believer in Judaism. He was rather immersed in Sanskrit and Hinduism, often expressing his reverence for Hinduism and Indian literature. After the success of the atomic bomb test, he is said to have blamed himself, saying, “Now I am death, I have become the destroyer of the world.”
Oppenheimer was immersed in Hindu philosophy while studying Sanskrit as an undergraduate at Harvard University. There is also an evaluation that he is in line with quantum mechanics, the field of physics he majored in, and Hinduism, which considers the creation and origin of the universe.
I liked New Mexico more than New York.
A native of New York, Oppenheimer cited physics and the state of New Mexico as two things he loved most in his life. It is said that the desolate and vast landscape of New Mexico, to which he traveled in his childhood, captured his heart. It was no coincidence that the ‘Manhattan Project’ had its ‘headquarters’ in New Mexico.
The name “Manhattan Project” comes from the fact that many of the research facilities of the Army Corps of Engineers, which gathered a large number of scientists and engineers to build infrastructure and weapons production facilities after the United States participated in World War II, were located at Columbia University in Manhattan, New York. Although the development itself did not take place in Manhattan, early research was conducted in Manhattan at the beginning of the plan, and the code name “Manhattan Project” was used afterwards.
The movie came out before, but it was ‘criticized’
This is not the first time a film has been made about Oppenheimer’s diary. At least two films in Hollywood have featured Oppenheimer. Director Roland Joffe’s ‘Creation of Perdition’ (1989), and the drama documentary ‘The Beginning and the End’ (1947). The two films, which were made before the development of computer graphics, did not receive good reviews due to poor depictions of the atomic bomb and lack of historical evidence. On the other hand , ‘Oppenheimer’, a seven-episode drama aired by the BBC in the 1980s, was nominated for major drama awards such as the Golden Globe and Emmy Awards and received good reviews.