photo credit: Lincoln Hake
Anywhere people go today, they might see advertisements for the “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” movies, which were released on the same day mid-summer July 21, 2023. According to Gizmodo, the whole “Barbenheimer” obsession resulted in working out extremely well for both films in the West; “Barbie” currently being the highest grossing movie of the year and even in the Warner Bros Studios.
But what’s with all this fascination? The premise of “Barbie” was to touch on things like the patriarchy, feminism and struggles in society; while “Oppenheimer” is more historical and focuses on the creation of the first atomic bomb.
“They’re both very good films and both deserving of all the praise they’ve gotten; while I loved ‘Oppenheimer’, it makes sense why Barbie is getting much more attention,” sophomore Abigail Curry said. “Oppenheimer feels like it’s more made for people who love film and/or history, and ‘Barbie’ is for everyone.”
But these films wouldn’t have all this attention if it wasn’t for their marketing; the countless tweets, releasing both ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ on the same date, partnering with famous brands and more marketing strategies helped make these movies the phenomena they are. And in doing this, it created “sides” of the internet: Team Barbie and Team Oppenheimer.
“I feel like they overuse Barbie; it shouldn’t have been that big of a thing”, senior Asteere Farraj said. “But I feel like the second movie is more important in a way. It’s about something more serious, and it should be more talked about in my personal opinion.”
With the popularity around ‘Barbie’ and its message that was conveyed, it left plenty of people shocked for one, but also offended in a way. Ben Shapiro, a writer and columnist for X Publication, explained that the film failed to recognize “faith and family” and believes that Ken is a prime example of a “beta male”.
“People saying that feel threatened because the movie calls out their way of life,” Curry said. “How I saw it, the movie was very loving towards the Kens and showed how the patriarchy affected everyone.”
Despite the fact that these films have good marketing strategies, some of those tactics were taken offensively, especially with the importance behind the making of the first atomic bomb. Both teams made a tweet where Oppenheimer seems to be carrying Barbie on his shoulders with bombings happening behind them, which is creating conflict with the Asian community because they feel it’s mocking the nuclear bombings from the U.S. military in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.
“I know that people like to talk about dark humor a lot but I feel like it’s not really that funny,” Farraj said. “Even if they’re trying to be funny it’s still insensitive, to them it might be funny to market them in that way.”
Regardless of the controversies, the films did their best with providing their viewers with a cast of various ethnicities to make the story feel more authentic.
“I think the Barbie movie does a great job of having a diverse cast for the Barbie and the Kens,” Curry said. “Oppenheimer is trickier, its cast is not as diverse at all, but it is a historical film and society during World War II wasn’t as advanced and accepting as it is now (we still have a long way to go). Therefore, I don’t think that was the goal there.”
