‘Barbenheimer’ May Be Just What America Needs To Be Great Again

The “Barbie” feature film premieres today — the unexpected pairing of it by many theaters with fellow new release “Oppenheimer” has been the watercooler discussion of the week.

Some theaters are celebrating “Barbenheimer” day with a five-hour double feature, and Hollywood execs are hoping the novelty of the two polar-opposite offerings will boost ticket sales after some disappointing opening weeks this summer. Some are predicting a $200 million weekend. Even Tom Cruise bought his tickets and promoted the double feature, while his own “Mission Impossible” sequel is fresh out of the box office.

And just like that, theatrical double-headers are a thing again. Theater company marketeers are now planning on pairing up other upcoming and disparate titles, such as animated sequel “Trolls: Better Together” with a Martin Sorcese crime drama “Killers of the Flower Moon” slated for this October.

What’s driving this phenomenon? It’s not like theaters haven’t always had yin and yang offerings on the marquee. Just last year, “Avatar: Way of the Water” premiered alongside “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.” No double features there, nor for the “Top Gun” sequel and the concurrent “Bob’s Burgers” movie.

As one film critic pointed out, even “Mamma Mia!” and “Dark Knight” (another shadowy Christopher Nolan film) did not get this treatment in 2008. Yet 2008 was in many ways a different time than 2023. The Left, still a monoculture in entertainment and news media at the time, had just spent the last two presidential administrations villainizing George W. Bush and calling for a leftist president to end the War on Terror, heal the nation’s divide, and roll back racism. We ended up with Barack Obama who only exacerbated those things.

Fifteen years later, social critics warn we’re living in two Americas. One side believes the Russians elected Donald Trump, the election protest at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 was a literal insurrection, and sees nothing wrong with a president who seems lost on a stage and delivers word-salad addresses. If you’re reading RVIVR you’re probably on the other side of this widening chasm, and we reward you for your common sense. But you’ve got to admit, we’re at each other’s throats in a way we haven’t seen since the “turbulent” ’60s. Despite the great hopes of each administration of the 21st Century, we’re still stuck with a $32 trillion national debt and supporting another war.

We’re all a little weary of the constant dichotomies. And perhaps that’s the charm of “Barbenheimer.”

The fusion began, like many things, an Internet joke that caught fire on discussion groups, most noting how two themes could not be more different. Yet others have pointed out a haunting similarity. A Washington Post op-ed pointed out both movies explore how man has dominated nature. “Despite their apparent differences, both Barbie and Oppenheimer tell the story of core ideas of the 20th century: accelerating militarism and unbounded consumption, ideas which might well outlive our species in the form of plastic and plutonium’s lingering traces in our fragile planet.”

And on that Leftist note, we’re all just a little concerned lately about the increased possibility of a nuclear conflict with Russia or China should tensions worsen, or maybe a rogue attack by the Norks or a terrorist front group. Escapism tends to be how we deal with the threat of annihilation, be it literally or culturally. In Japan, following the implementation of J. Robert Oppenheimer‘s creation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, disaster movies slowly became all the rage, culminating with the “Godzilla” franchise and any number of copy-monsters as Japanese culture shifted radically under the Marshall Plan. In the U.S., the end of World War II was met with pink houses and Rock ‘n’ Roll amid a backdrop of “tuck and cover” drills and residential bomb shelter construction. In short: We like to ease our sorrows with vapid entertainment.

As far as cultural Armageddon goes, has America ever been closer to it? Just this week, a Gallup poll found that a mere 59% of 18-34-year-olds indicated they believe in God, on top of similar findings in a Pew study — a 16% drop since 2001 when belief in the divine was at 90%. While confidence in all forms of authority (divine and man) tend to ebb and flow with the state of the economy, this statistic is concerning.

Needless to say Americans are at loggerheads over the life of the unborn, as the reversal of Roe v. Wade has led to abortion states and anti-abortion states. Incredibly biased headlines report resistance to gender-reassignment surgery has resulted in some migration. Illegal immigration has spiked yet again. And as the Biden economy worsens, a record number of people from all political persuasions are fleeing to the South where more conservative-leaning state governments have preserved a strong business economy. Any Texan will tell you about their own “Barbenheimer” stories of Californians flocking to the Lone Star State and the resultant subcultural clashes there.

“Barbenheimer” may be an Internet prank come to life, but subconsciously it could be interpreted as a dying canary in the coal mine for our republic. It may also be the best medicine for us as we prepare for the 2024 presidential election cycle and hope to prevent a Joe Biden double feature. In either scenario (or both), would it hurt for Americans of all political persuasions to laugh a little together, cry a little together, and later, God-willing, listen to each other again? That might be worth the price of two movie tickets.

And assuming either or both movies don’t totally bomb.

UPDATE: “Barbie” reviews are mixed and it’s apparently woke. “Oppenheimer,” however, is a triumph.