The name dropping in Oppenheimer is intense. I recognised a load of them from studying maths and the characters were deriding maths for not being physics. Crazy that they could have such contributions to a field they didn't even respect
I just saw the movie last night and felt the exact same way. I said the first 45 minutes were basically just eye candy for nerds lol. Going through all the famed scientists of that era whom we grew up revering.
Haven't seen the film yet so maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're saying comparing physics to math in that way is like comparing apples to the molecules that make up apples. Physics is applied mathematics used to attempt to explain the physical workings of the universe. You can't have physics with no math.
And this is coming from an engineer, who thinks we're superior to both!