“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds” - a line that crossed Oppenheimer's mind as he witnessed the first detonation of a nuclear fission bomb in the1945 Trinity test.
Truthfully, I’ve never been a fan of historical films (fell asleep while watching Dunkirk, Nolan’s historical war film in cinema). While I appreciate the effort behind in making them, historical dramas with straightforward narratives tend to have a reputation for being overly long, flat and downright boring.
But here, Nolan shows how a story can be approached differently, by not just merely trying to depict history, but to engage the audience by using his signature moves: nonlinear storytelling between pre and post WWII time periods and foreshadowing of plot points in between scenes, to slowly bring out Oppenheimer’s life in detail.
The film has many different story parts interwoven with each other across time, with Oppenheimer being the center of it all: history lesson of his academic and professional years, his romance with Kitty and Jean, against-the-clock nuclear race thriller with the Nazis and Soviet Union during WWII, Lewis Strauss’ political espionage against him, and his morality hangs in the balance after his creation of the atomic bomb.
Nolan’s success in making all these work together is truly a remarkable feat. It’s surprisingly interesting to watch how the story unfolds, connecting the dots and elements of the entire plot together. There’s much tension and anticipation to the eventual buildup of the first successful detonation of atomic (nuclear fission) bomb in the history of mankind, especially the moment where Oppenheimer finally reveals to Groves that the chances the Trinity test detonation will destroy the world are "near zero" from mathematical theory. Oppenheimer: "What do you want from theory alone?" Groves: "Zero would be nice!" The story happens at a fast pace that it doesn’t feel like a 3-hour film.
Oppenheimer is depicted as a conflicted soul, while bearing guilt of causing 220,000 people (Hiroshima and Nagasaki casualties) died due to his creation, dealing with consequences that came out of The Manhattan Project’s legacy - the immense pressure from others (and own desire as a scientist to discover) the further development of nuclear fission into thermonuclear (staged nuclear fission and fusion) bombs that we have today, together with a thought-out political espionage by Lewis Strauss to discredit and silence his political influence by exposing his communist ties at the same time.
Lewis Strauss is a senior Atomic Energy Commission member who resented Oppenheimer for being publicly humiliated before Congress regarding his opposition to the export of radioactive isotopes to other nations, which Strauss believed had military applications. He was also unhappy of Oppenheimer stood in the way for the development of thermonuclear bombs. He’s trying to get approved by the Senate as secretary of commerce within the government.
The film morally examines its characters, while being clear about the far-reaching implications of nuclear weapons and the heavy burden of knowledge that they bear in creating them. This further anchored by solid performances of the amazing talents that involve in this film. Oppenheimer has an impressive A-list cast members such as Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr, Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, Jason Clarke, Dane Dehaan, Alden Ehrenreich, Gary Oldman and many more, not just Cillian Murphy alone. Nolan is smart in choosing who should he collaborate with in all of his films. Oppenheimer will surely be a movie to be remembered for many years to come.
Note: It’s advisable to have basic historical knowledge on WWII, the subsequent Cold War between Soviet union and US prior watching the film to have a full appreciation and understanding on the scientific and political motivations behind the development of the Manhattan project. (Everything can be read from Wikipedia)
Oppenheimer. 9/10
My Ratings of Nolan’s past filmography:
|
Tenet |
8.5/10 |
|
Dunkirk |
6.5/10 - yeah don’t enjoy it,
fell asleep |
|
Interstellar |
8/10 |
|
The Dark Knight Rises |
9/10 |
|
Inception |
9/10 - one of my favourite
movies of all time |
|
The Dark Knight |
9.5/10 - one of my favourite
movies/trilogy of all time |
|
The Prestige |
8/10 |
|
Batman Begins |
9/10 |
|
Insomnia |
7/10 |
|
Memento |
8.5/10 |
|
Following |
8/10 |
