Have you had your Barbenheimer moment?

 I had my own Barbenheimer moment as I had the opportunity to watch both the Barbie movie and Oppenheimer. I didn’t watch them back-to-back as that would have been almost five hours of movie watching. But I’ve seen both, and I’m glad that I did. Both have important spiritual themes. 

Barbieheimer, of course, is the phenomenon of watching both the Barbie movie and the Oppenheimer movie. The term came from the suggestion to watch both movies as a double feature. 

I saw Oppenheimer at the AMC theatre in Roseville. Both Amy and Hannah were busy, so I drove down by myself to the theatre. The line to purchase tickets wasn’t long, but I was surprised by the cost of the ticket. $18? I go to movies all the time, but I hadn’t paid that much for a movie. I walked into the movie at the start time. And then watched previews for twenty-three minutes. Twenty-three-minutes! I only know because the previews became so long that I started wondering myself how long they were going to last. It got to the point of when a movie preview came on, I thought, “another one?” 

The movie is an excellent description of the process through Oppenheimer’s eyes of building and then exploding the first atomic bombs. I’m interested now in reading “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer,” the book on which the movie was based.  The movie brings out all sorts of ethical questions. Was the death and damage of those two bombs worth it? How were the Russians able to get the bomb themselves? Why was Oppenheimer targeted for security lapses and then denied a security clearance? 

A surreal part of the movie happened after the successful test of the bomb. Oppenheimer was applauded by everyone he encountered at Los Alamos, the place where the scientists and their families lived as the bomb was being developed. The applause came because the project was a success. But that short-term revelry quickly led to the sobering reality that the weapons which had been created could literally destroy the world. 

Another sobering scene was where Leslie "Dick" Groves, the character Matt Damon played, asked Oppenheimer if it was true that the chain reaction set off by the explosion of the bomb would go on indefinitely. The explosions would literally never stop. Oppenheimer said that the reality was quite unlikely—close to zero. Groves said that this wasn’t good enough. He wanted zero. 

We all want zero. And no one in their right mind wants to see an atomic bomb exploded. And fortunately no atomic bombs have exploded since those two brought such terrible destruction to the people of Japan.  The sobering reality is that approximately 12,500 of these bombs exist now in the world with nine countries having them.   

I remember the passionate debates in the 1980’s that the nuclear freeze movement brought up. And the logic of those who opposed the nuclear freeze movement that argued that a leader would  never explode one of these bombs because the retaliatory destruction is so high. The world depends on rational leaders who won’t unleash such destruction. 

Does that make you feel safe? It certainly makes me uneasy. The world would be a safer place without these bombs. Getting there might be impossible. 

The Barbie movie was much more fun to watch. And less expensive. I saw it twice—once at the East Bethel theatre and another time at the White Bear Lake theater. At those two theaters I paid $10. 

Barbie was a delightful movie that shared a vision of what would happen if Barbie and women like her was in charge. The first part is just fun and sugary. But then thoughts of death pop into Barbie’s mind and she has to go out of Barbie land and into the real world. 

The movie shares the idea of what would happen if women were in charge. And though some conservatives have sharply criticized the movie for being feminist, the question is worth asking. Do we think we would be in the place that Oppenheimer found himself if women were running the world. 

The movie has been very successful. Barbie has already had over a billion in ticket sales. 

Towards the end of the movie the character Gloria shared a spot-on speech on the double standards of being a woman that is worth reading and re-reading. I found the text of the speech on the town and country magazine web site.  It’s worth reading. The movie is worth seeing just for this speech. 

“It is literally impossible to be a woman. You are so beautiful, and so smart, and it kills me that you don't think you're good enough. Like, we have to always be extraordinary, but somehow we're always doing it wrong. 

You have to be thin, but not too thin. And you can never say you want to be thin. You have to say you want to be healthy, but also you have to be thin. You have to have money, but you can't ask for money because that's crass. You have to be a boss, but you can't be mean. You have to lead, but you can't squash other people's ideas. You're supposed to love being a mother, but don't talk about your kids all the damn time. You have to be a career woman but also always be looking out for other people. 

You have to answer for men's bad behavior, which is insane, but if you point that out, you're accused of complaining. You're supposed to stay pretty for men, but not so pretty that you tempt them too much or that you threaten other women because you're supposed to be a part of the sisterhood. 

But always stand out and always be grateful. But never forget that the system is rigged. So find a way to acknowledge that but also always be grateful. 

You have to never get old, never be rude, never show off, never be selfish, never fall down, never fail, never show fear, never get out of line. It's too hard! It's too contradictory and nobody gives you a medal or says thank you! And it turns out in fact that not only are you doing everything wrong, but also everything is your fault. 

I'm just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie herself into knots so that people will like us. And if all of that is also true for a doll just representing women, then I don't even know.” 

Which vision of the world will eventually prevail? Oppenheimer’s? Where the possibility of incomprehensible destruction ironically saves us from that destruction. Or Barbie’s sweet, laugh-out-loud vision where people have fun? The colors of the movie reveal the choice. The colors of Oppenheimer were dark; Barbie’s were pink and very bright. 

I’m glad I had my Barbenheimer moment just to reflect on these choices.