cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2026007

Excerpt:

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A movie “based on” the life of a real person is a tricky proposition, especially when that person is already the subject of much historical study. How can the ambiguities, contradictions, ironies, paradoxes, and other complexities—not to mention sheer unknowability—of a person be fitted into narrative coherence? Entertainment, story, spectacle, and celebrity/star power have often taken precedence over historically verifiable facts.

A “biographical picture” or biopic is supposed to be distinct from a documentary. Documentaries purport to be nonfictional, but they may include dramatized recreations. Biopics are fictional but purport to avowedly dramatize real lives, or at least parts of lives. Do an internet search for “biopic lawsuits” to get a taste of the resulting controversies, going back to, at least, Lawrence of Arabia (1962)—individuals and relatives have taken serious exception to their cinematic portrayals.

Just as the movie version of a classic novel may be a bad way of studying for an English literature exam, biopics may not be the best biographical sources. This is not to suggest that these can’t be good movies. Last year’s Napoleon isn’t a good example, as it’s made with what seems complete contempt for biography and history. Oppenheimer is a better example: it’s relatively accurate. Critics have generally been affirmative. The box office has been especially boffo. Thirteen Academy Award nominations, including for all the major awards, highlight the industry’s own approval.

Oppenheimer is a rich, complex, impressive entertainment that whets the appetite for more: more biography, more history. I doubt I was the only one wondering about Lewis Strauss (pronounced “straws”), who is played by Robert Downey Jr. Luckily, there’s a much more about Oppenheimer and his times to dig into.

If you haven’t seen the movie, this is your SPOILER ALERT. Of course, history is nothing but spoilers, giving real impetus to the proverb “forewarned is forearmed”…

An iconic twentieth-century figure celebrated and damned as the “father of the atomic bomb,” J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–67) has often been described as a Hamlet-like enigma torn between his pride and guilt over the A-bomb, his celebrity, and his governmental humiliation. This clearly presents a challenge to historians, biographers, and dramatists.

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I had heard about this from other CPUSA members, but wasn’t sure.

Article says so at the end.