Barbieheimer: Which is your choice?

Next week on July 21st, 2023, two highly-anticipated films with award-winning directors are debuting on the big screen: Greta Gerwig's Barbie and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer. Barbie is based on Mattel's popular doll discovering the 'real world' while Oppenheimer tells the story of the creator of the atomic bomb. While the films have completely different genres, they are both stacked with A-list casts and crews and are both expected to be hits at the box office. For Barbie, Margot Robbie stars as the titular character with Ryan Gosling as Ken; Oppenheimer's titular character is played by Cillian Murphy with Emily Blunt playing his wife, Kitty.  For many movie-goers, the choice has been quite difficult to make. Which film should you see first, when both are going to be fantastic? Below, we have highlighted some titles to help you learn more about both topics and make your decision. 

Barbie:

1. The good, the bad, and the Barbie : a doll's history and her impact on us by Tanya Lee Stone. Examines how the Barbie doll became the icon that she is and the impact she has had on our culture through passionate anecdotes and memories from a range of girls and women.

2. Dressing Barbie : a celebration of the clothes that made America's favorite doll, and the incredible woman behind them by Carol Spencer. Illustrated with more than 100 full-color photographs, including many never-before-seen images of rare and one-of-a-kind pieces from Carol Spencer's private archive. A treasure trove of some of the best and most iconic Barbie looks from the early 1960s until the late 1990s.

3. The story of Barbie and the woman who created her by Cindy Eagan. After noticing how her daughter played with “grown-up” paper dolls, Ruth Handler wanted to create a doll that would inspire little girls to use their huge imaginations and big dreams about their futures. While others told her it wasn't possible, Ruth Handler proved them all wrong by creating the most famous doll ever.

Oppenheimer:

1. Bomb : graphic novel : the race to build--and steal--the world's most dangerous weapon by Steve Sheinkin. Recounts the scientific discoveries that enabled atom splitting, the military intelligence operations that occurred in rival countries, and the work of brilliant scientists hidden at Los Alamos.

2. The making of the atomic bomb by Richard Rhodes. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the bright glare of Trinity there was a span of hardly more than twenty-five years. What began as merely an interesting speculative problem in physics grew into the Manhattan Project, and then into the Bomb with frightening rapidity, while scientists known only to their peers - Szilard, Teller, Oppenheimer, Bohr, Meitner, Fermi, Lawrence, and yon Neumann - stepped from their ivory towers into the limelight.

3. Countdown 1945 : the extraordinary story of the atomic bomb and the 116 days that changed the world by Chris Wallace. Wallace tells the gripping true story of the turbulent days, weeks, and months leading up to August 6, 1945, when Truman gives the order to drop the bomb on Hiroshima. He takes readers inside the minds of the iconic and elusive figures who join the quest for the bomb, each for different reasons. Truman's journey during these 116 days is a story of high drama: from the conflicting advice he receives from generals, to wrestling with the devastating carnage that will result if he gives the order to use America's first weapon of mass destruction.

Which film are you going to see first, if you're going to go watch one (or both)? Leave a comment letting us know!