The Battle Of The Flicks — A Reblog By Roger

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, Racism & Bigotry, Re-blogs, Social commentary
Barbie or Oppenheimer (The Films) . Choose!….. Why? (And keep out of IT Right-Wing Commentators)

I have studiously avoided the broo-ha-ha over the two movies that were released on the same day … each of the hundreds of times I saw mention of either (or both, as they have typically been consolidated in the cultural media), I rolled my eyes and moved on.  There are more relevant things to occupy my attention in the news.  However, our friend Roger convinced me not to be so hasty and to think about it in a different vein … and his post today makes the case.  Thanks, Roger … I probably still won’t watch the Barbie movie, but like you, I will almost certainly rent the Oppenheimer one if it comes to Amazon Prime before my demise!

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52 thoughts on “The Battle Of The Flicks — A Reblog By Roger”

  1. So funny! I was sure not to watch the Barbie movie but Oppenheimer (although I don’t know how to make it through three hours with my currently acute sciatica). Then my daughter said, she will go to see it, even if no one joins her. Then I thought, why not, let’s make it a fun evening and see it from the humorous side… lol. But what surprised me even more was my middle one. When he visited us last Sunday he said, he went to see the Barbie movie (Whaaaaat?You?), and directly following, he watched Oppenheimer… a long movie afternoon/evening at the theater… lol!

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    • WHOA!!! Your son has much more tolerance for sitting still than I do! I only watch movies on my computer, partly because of my deafness and the need for closed captioning, but partly so I can pause it and move around for a while and then go back to it, sometimes a day later! So … did your son enjoy Barbie and/or Oppenheimer? And did you and your daughter go see Oppenheimer yet, and if so, what did you think?

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      • I think, he said that Barbie was … amusing and that Oppenheimer was worth watching. But I am not sure, I was so surprised about him watching both and that in one afternoon/evening. My daughter and I will go to see the Barbie movie. The Oppenheimer movie I will go see with my husband. But since I have problems with my sciatica I cannot sit for too long. So, I hope the movies still play when I am doing better again.

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        • Yes, I can only imagine your surprise!!! I’m so sorry to hear about your sciatica … and I hope you feel better soon, especially before trying to sit through a 3-hour movie! When you do go see it, be sure to let me know what you thought of it!

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              • I did, Jill! And I can recommend it. The movie is told from the perspective of Oppenheimer being questioned a committee. First it was not clear to me what commitee and what the issue was. But the movie was perfectly orchestrated with retrospects that you get led there along well. Actually, that way the reason for the questioning got shown even more profoundly. I don’t want to tell you too much about the movie but I can say that it leaves you pondering after a lot of thought-provoking developments and a prophetic ending that could not be timelier. It also shows that nothing has changed: the government will push its plans through, regardless of reason and people.
                I think you might like it, Jill!

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  2. I was never into dolls. I was a tomboy too. I’d see Oppenheimer just to see the acting. The guy who plays him is a marvelous British actor. But I’ll wait when someday I can stream it in the comfort of my home with a pause button.

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    • I haven’t been to a movie in a theater for at least 30 years! Being nearly deaf, I much prefer to watch it at home on my computer with closed captioning! Maybe in a year or so!

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  3. I wasn’t allowed to have Barbie when I was a kid. I did have a Skipper doll (which I think don’t even exist anymore, although I still have my Skipper doll). But I hate the all-pink version of Barbies nowadays anyway … when we were kids, Barbie wore ALL colors. She had a BLUE car. Her house was yellow & brown & had colorful flowers & furniture of different colors. I see this as one more of the patriarchal “girls are pink & boys are blue” BS that are pushed on kids nowadays, which is one of the reasons why kids get confused about their sex … when we were kids, we played with EVERYTHING … we knew what a girl was & what a boy was! It had nothing to do with the clothes you wore or the toys you played with or how you “felt”. Whatever. I am SO not impressed with the 21st century …. end of my morning rant LOL

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    • Really? They wouldn’t let you have a Barbie? My family tried to shove them at me, but I had zero interest! I fully agree with you about the “pinking” of Barbie … I always thought it was because I don’t care for the colour pink, but you’re right … it is another way of stereotyping. As to the rest … I’ll take the fifth. 😉

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      • We weren’t allowed to have Barbies because they were too grown up. Skippers were little girl dolls so they were OK. My cousins had Barbies so we played with them when we were at their house (they lived next door to my grandparents, so we were over there all the time). They had all the cool trendy toys. We had all the educational toys.

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          • We had those, too. HUNDREDS of them. We also had really great blocks that my dad made for us … he had a carpentry shop in the basement … that’s what he did when he came from from work, workworking (he was an engineer, he worked for the defense industry). We used to make giant towers & hide the matchbox cars in the towers & then have to move the blocks around to find the cars without toppling the towers … If you toppled the tower, you were OUT. Our form of Jenga, years before anyone had ever heard of that game!

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                • AWESOME! We had much in common as kids, then! Yes, our toys encouraged our imagination. Today’s favourite toys seem to be video games and I’m not sure how much kids are really benefiting from those.

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                  • Well, parents don’t have to buy video games for their kids. & they don’t have to buy them tablets or cell phones or allow them very much time on a computer. Parents can set the rules & SHOULD set the rules. I noticed when I was raising my son that every other parent wanted to be friends with their kids & it’s even worse now. You’re not supposed to be friends with your kids. You’re supposed to be a parent, which means a lot of the time, your kids are going to hate you. Honestly, if your kids don’t hate you, you’re doing something wrong.

                    I’m not saying that you can’t have good times with your kids & that there aren’t going to be lots of times that the relationship feels like one that is like friendship. But too many parents give their kids whatever they want because they want their kids to “like” them & to be their “friend” & that’s not the way it’s supposed to be. NO is one of the best words a kid can hear. NO trains them for the reality of the world.

                    There were all kinds of toys I wanted as a kid that my parents wouldn’t let me (or my brothers & sisters) have but I got to play with those toys at my cousins, at my friends, in my imagination. This worked out just fine. Sometimes I realized what I thought I really wanted I didn’t want so much anyway. Kids don’t need everything. They shouldn’t get everything. Nobody should, at any age.

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                    • All very true. I think today’s parents feel guilty and try to replace quality time with gadgets. And I agree that “NO” is an essential part of parenting. But at the end of the day, I’m not sure to what extent our parenting makes a difference. I have two, both now in their 50s, who are 18 months apart in age. Raised in the same household, by the same parents, with the same rules, and they are as different as night and day. My daughter is an RN who works her ass off, cares so much about people, and gives more love and compassion than anyone I know. My son, on the other hand, thinks the world owes him a living and has been in jail more times than I can count. Even today, he believes that he shouldn’t have to work, shouldn’t have to give, but should have everything handed to him.

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  4. Hubby and I won’t watch either. Oppy sounds kinda boring and dragging, Barbs just silly. Prefer to watch some classic anime flicks for the umpteenth time.

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      • Grown up adults watching a movie about Barbie? A dramatic biopic about Oppenheimer? Sorry, I can’t see anything of interest in neither of them.
        When Nolan gave us Dunkirk I found the topic already dull. Fortunately he kept the movie short and put some action and suspense in. But I doubt he’ll have the same success with Oppy. Because there is no suspense in the plot. Can’t stretch the very thin material out for over 3 hours without losing half your audiences to boredom.

        Strangely I just can’t get enough of Black Lagoon and Cowboy Bebop, two of the greatest anime series ever. They have it all! Clever scripts, sexy casts, brutal action. Clearly made for adults.

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          • As long as everybody shares my taste and my opinion I won’t complain. 🙂

            No, but earnestly, these are widespread criticisms, of Nolan’s newer output. So I’m not the lonely caller in the desert. Remember Tenet? Right, nobody does. Coz he went totally extreme Nolan in that confusing mess of an overhyped sci-fi thriller. And now the experts are fearing he’ll repeat the shit in Oppenheimer. One unforgivable movie sin I listed already.: Too long for its story.

            And Barbie isn’t even in the same room with Oppy. Just a shitshow. Margot Robbie should read the screenplays of film projects before applying for some of her really bad roles. She slowly turns from hothot shooting star into Hollywood dumpster fire. 😮

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            • I remain interested in Oppenheimer … wondering how it would affect a man to know that his life’s work was responsible for killing so many people, and potentially more at some point in the future. But Barbie … meh … I have zero interest, but I can understand, I guess, why some do.

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              • “I remain interested in Oppenheimer … wondering how it would”
                … turn out this time around?
                No, honest, I guess he was under a lot of pressure. Isn’t the prez itself on record stating something like: “That dirty jew boy better makes my bomb … before I kill him myself!”
                Also let’s not forget as a scientist you have a natural desire to see your invention functioning, just to have a proof of concept. These people live inside their heads, their science is all. What silly Americans do with it, baah, not Oppy’s concern. At least not in the beginning.

                “Barbie … meh … I have zero interest, but I can understand, I guess, why some do.”
                * Margot * Robbie * in * bikini * maybe? *
                Jeebuz, why do I understand the feeble emotional world of shallow boiz so much better than what and how most my fellow grrls think?

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  5. I shall be at the National Museum of the USAF Wednesday the 9th to mourn with the beautiful bird that was tricked into delivering 2nd of those horrific weapons. It is no justification but since Fat Man exploded at 11 AM that fateful day no one has used one in anger again. I’m looking forward to the actor portrayal of a man who endured such a soul injury. Barbie looks like good clean fun but I’m a mud rather than a beach volleyball fan. I did stand courtside once while Kerri Walsh Jennings & Misty May-Treanor played.

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    • Bockscar. Enola Gay. They had no say in the matter. I am relieved that since then, nobody has used them in anger again, but how much longer can that MAD last? With Putin at the helm in Russia, Kim Jong-un in DPRK, and possibly Donald Trump again in the U.S. … it’s only a matter of time, for those three ‘men’ have no conscience.

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        • I agree … but sooner or later a leader/ruler will come to power who is not pragmatic. In fact, I would suggest that Kim Jong-un is capable of being very un-pragmatic, and we know that Donald Trump would burn it all to the ground rather than give in or give up. Sooner or later …

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      • “With Putin at the helm in Russia, Kim Jong-un in DPRK, and possibly Donald Trump again in the U.S. …”
        LOL. Weren’t you just complaining about my opinion being being like a funhouse mirror?

        Putin made it clear, and super clear: Russia would never ever be the first country to nuke anybody. But no mistake about their rebuttal should any shithead throw nukes on Russian territory.
        So no danger there. And why would the use nukes in the first place? The Russian Federation has by now the strongest and most ready conventional military on the planet. Bar none!

        And Kim Jong-Un? They have a very critical China as their direct neigbour. And the Ping-Pongs are having more than just one watchful eye on their crazy little neighbour. They won’t allow Kim to stir up shit. Believe you me.

        No, really the only wild card among the nuclear countries, the only one in which this impossibility is even discussed, the only one with enough dumkrayzees in govt circle is the USA. 😮

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        • Only one comment here: You say that “the Russian Federation has by now the strongest … military on the planet”. Um … maybe two years ago, but in case you haven’t noticed, they’ve greatly reduced their strength in this war they started against Ukraine!

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          • LOL, I really don’t know from where you get your figures, must be a govt related or close propaganda source. Slowly I’m not wondering anymore how a whole population can be so far removed from reality. 😐

            When the whole shitshow got started, on 24 Feb 2022, in the 9th year of the Ukraine war, the RF just sent a very small task force into the Donbass, 90,000 personnel with outdated material, mainly to the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. It was the “Special Military Operation”. More a show of hands. A rather weak and feeble enterprise that, although successful on the battlefield, caused many Russian casulties and failed to get Ukr/US delegates to the negotiation table.

            We all know what happened instead: Some western aholes (Boris Johnson et al) flew into Kiev and told Zelensky not to negotiate with the Russians, as NATO would stand behind Ukr. “Double down, bro. I got you, bro!”

            Anyhoo, Putin, desillusioned, called for a mobilisation, stocked up the troops, sent more and better material and ammunition, liberated also oblasts outside of Donetsk and Luhansk. For example Mariupol, another mainly Russian city in the Donbass. Yeah, exactly that Mariupol where Russian construction firms are busy building new houses where the Ukrainian army had bombed the civilian population.

            Right now there are, what, 700,000 Russian troops in Donbass. And many more in surrounding countries like Belarus. End goal 1.2 mio! And make no mistake: If you like it or loathe it, they have the bestest, most modern shit, and ammunition galore, while NATO’s stocks are depleated. Apart from having not enough personnel, they struggle to find anything to shoot with or get planes in the air. I only know that Germany for example can’t even get a single panzer company ready, or jets up.

            And … now it’s getting really tragic: With every day the western alliance wastes, many Ukr toops surrender without order, and many more die uselessly. It’s a fuxn tragedy, a legend of human hubris and the will to destroy the most powerful country on earth. The story of human hubris, broken promises, and cowardice. And you, Jill, and me and all your readers, we are in the thick of it. Not on the battleground but we’ll be getting to suffer the economical consequences of our leaders’ failures. It has already started.

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  6. I keep hearing about Barbie, but nothing here about the other one. I seriously doubt either of them would interest me much even if they do make it to Amazon Prime at some future date. I do make loads of Barbie clothes but unless they have copied some of them to use in the movie – sorry. Just not all that interested

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    • Wow, really? To me, Oppenheimer is the more interesting of the two. I’m pretty sure I would be asleep after 5 minutes of the Barbie movie, but I am laughing over all the cultural warfare it is causing!

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      • I just haven’t been keeping up with movies since I never go out to one so jut don’t know that much about Oppenheimer. Most of the time I don’t even watch any unless they are on Hallmark. All the same story and all the same actors but since my way of watching is just to look up from what I’m working on at the moment I seldom even see one. Just want the background noise rather than something to watch. The last movie I saw in a theater was Titanic and then only because my grandkids wanted to see it. I like movies but never really pay attention to them.

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        • I don’t go to movies, either … if I want to see one, I watch it on my computer with closed captioning, since otherwise I have no idea what is being said. But the news feeds have all been abuzz with the Barbie and Oppenheimer movies, so I’ve gotten a good idea what they’re each about. You are like my daughter! Whether she’s working on work she brought home, or knitting, or answering emails, she has to have the television on for noise! Drives me batty, for I can’t concentrate with a constant blur of noise, but we manage not to kill each other!

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            • Heh heh … I do the same, but many of my blog posts are born of those long conversations with myself, so it’s all good! The girls rae used to me chattering to myself and they don’t have butterfly nets, so I’m safe … for now!

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              • At one time I was humming a lot and made the mistake of doing it in the car with my daughter. She advised me to seek help because it is unnatural to hum all the time. I wonder if that’s why I don’t do that any more. Now I just carry on conversations with myself because sometimes I need an expert opinion and I think I know more about myself than anyone else.

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                • What a terrible thing for your daughter to say!!! Good grief … I’m either talking to myself, whistling, or humming all the time! Conversations are good too, though … that’s how I often work through things I don’t understand, or come up with ideas for posts.

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  7. Pingback: The Battle Of The Flicks — A Reblog By Roger | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

  8. Jill, Roger, “Oppenheimer” is excellent, although a tad long. My sister-in-law gives “Barbie” a thumbs up. Folks trying to make movie going political don’t have enough to do. I could share more than a few things they could work on – climate change, water crisis, debt, job retraining, health care, et al. Keith

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    • I think Oppenheimer would be educational, and I would like to know more about the man, his motivations, his afterthoughts, etc. Barbie just sounds rather boring to me … heck, I didn’t even like Barbie dolls as a kid … I much preferred climbing trees and playing with matchbox cars! Yes, those who want to turn these movies into a cultural issue should wake up and smell the coffee … if a movie is all I’ve got to argue about, I’ll go … I’ll go climb a tree!

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