SojoMail - Creation and sin in 'Barbie' and 'Oppenheimer'

The Question of Sin at the Heart of ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ This week film columnist JR. Forasteros explores how the biggest cinematic event in years — the premiere of both 'Barbie' and 'Oppenheimer' — forces us to wrestle with individual responsibility in a world shaped by systemic sin: Both Barbie and Oppenheimer are terrific films in their own rights; each has already launched a thousand think-pieces. But the magic of Barbenheimer is that the whole is perhaps even greater than the sum of its parts. Because these two blockbuster films opened the same weekend, and because so many of us decided to watch them back-to-back, Barbie and Oppenheimer became unlikely dance partners, setting up strange and poignant cinematic juxtapositions. Consider these two scenes side-by-side: In a scene that seems to draw directly from history, Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) sits in the Oval Office pleading with then-President Harry S. Truman (Gary Oldman). We’re in the wake of World War II and Oppenheimer begs Truman to help him unring the bell of the atom bomb that has begun the global nuclear arms race. Meanwhile, Barbie (Margot Robbie) stands before the (all-male) Mattel board of directors, demanding to speak to the CEO, who Barbie assumes must be female. Barbie has escaped from Barbieland and is looking for the troubled girl who plays with her in the real world; Mattel’s CEO (Will Ferrell) fears her escape could cause reality itself to crumble. Both movies urge us to consider what responsibility a creator has for their creations. In the Oval Office, Truman castigates Oppenheimer for his worry about his own legacy, insisting somewhat bitterly: “You didn’t drop the bomb — I did. Hiroshima isn’t about you.” Similarly, Mattel’s CEO tries to assure Barbie that, while she is the only female in the room, he himself has a daughter and is the mother of a son — and, as such, Barbie (and by extension, Mattel), is a force for female empowerment. Oppenheimer the movie ensures we will in fact remember Oppenheimer the man; Barbie the movie celebrates Barbie the toy. Both films are sympathetic to creators, but neither film lets their creations off the hook. Oppenheimer worries aloud how the nuclear power he unleashed will shape the atomic age. Barbie faces a lunch table of schoolgirls who tell her exactly how the Barbie beauty standards made them feel un-feminine. But both films ultimately move beyond the myth of the single creator and focus on the forces that shape that creation’s ongoing impact on the larger world. Is Barbie a feminist icon, or does she set unrealistic beauty standards and hold feminism back? Does the government have a responsibility to maintain the biggest arsenal of nuclear weapons to ensure citizens’ safety or does it have a greater responsibility to ensure the safety of its citizens by other means? READ THE FULL ARTICLE Forward Share

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