Barbie vs Oppenheimer: What is Oakmont watching??

Lily Harris, Reporter 

Everyone knows about the iconic two movies that both came out on July 21st 2023, but what are the students and teachers watching? Are we dolling ourselves up in pink and high heels and seeing Barbie or are we grabbing our porkpie hats and history books and watching Oppenheimer? Only one way to figure it out.

To start off, we sent a hardcopy survey to randomly chosen homerooms for freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, and staff to ask the question of what the students watched, and if they watched both, which one did they like more? And, the results were that the iconic Barbie was most watched by all grades, with the sophomores watching it the most, but to my surprise, the seniors seem to prefer the serious Oppenheimer. 

Faculty, however, seemed to be less on the hype train of the movies, 4 out of 5 not seeing either, and most of those watching prefered Oppenheimer, maybe because of its link to real history. To add on, we interviewed our school’s librarian, Mrs. Jenna Morin, to look more into the connection to the library and viewed the beautiful display of books and the “Barbinheimer” display that shows off books from both movies. Barbie books seem to be the most popular for students. We asked her what was her inspiration for the display.

 “The process of confusion when a kid walks in and sees the Barbie display and then the dark-themed books are fun to watch, then it dawns on them about the reference it makes,” stated Morin.

According to the survey, Barbie seemed to be more enjoyed by its audience, 4 out of 5 students said they either would watch it again and that it was really great,  “I went into Barbie expecting a super fun and girly movie, but I realized while watching that it was a good commentary about what women in America go through. It made me pretty emotional. #Ilovemymom” stated a student who chooses to be anonymous.  

Oppenheimer’s audience seemed to have fewer fans of the movie, with 2 out of 5 people saying it was the worst and they wouldn’t watch it again.

 “[I] Couldn’t follow Oppenheimer well and it was too much talking and was boring,” said another student, but that’s not to say Oppenheimer didn’t have its fans.  “I found Oppenheimer to be Christopher Nolan’s greatest film” was a quote from an anonymous teacher. 

And so we have our answer, what is Oakmont watching? Looks like most of us “younger” students, including me have Barbie fever, while the “older” people, seniors and teachers, seem to enjoy the history and compelling story of Oppenheimer. 

“I hope both would appeal to everyone because of the differences…someone interested in atomic bombs won’t be interested in dolls,” stated Morin, and she is right, that’s what is so great about both movies, some people want to watch a fun pink movie with hidden meanings but others want a dark gritty true story, and some like both! Maybe they don’t even want to watch either, but that’s just Oakmont’s opinion.