It’s Just a Movie

Oppenheimer is a 3-hour film, not an 18-hour documentary series. Why should we expect a comprehensive Ken Burns style docuseries within the framework of a fictionalized movie?

If someone watches Argo, or Bohemian Rhapsody or I, Tonya, and believes what they see on screen to be accurate, whose fault is that?

Fictionalized accounts are meant to entertain. Yes, hopefully, they spark interest in learning more, but that isn’t their goal. Glendalynn discusses a series of recent films that received criticism for doing exactly this, and why that problem belongs squarely on the audience, not the film makers.

The history book referenced in this episode is The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes (1986)

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Intro music: Fairy G, by Dan O’Grady, https://www.patreon.com/danogrady