Oppenheimer (2023) – Brilliant !

Writer, Producer, Director : Christopher Nolan

Cast: Cillian Murphy. Matt Damon. Emily Blunt. Robert Downey Jr. Josh Hartnett. Florence Pugh.

Let me say that I went to the theatre purely by the hype surrounding the movie. I was also hesitant in that this is a Christopher Nolan movie where you spend most of the time wondering what happened earlier than now. Mind benders. Most of his films left me with “What was that”. Even Dunkirk took me some time to process, and then it was, “Oh – he is showing the same half an hour – or whatever duration – from different points of view”. Phew. 

My expectation was that Oppenheimer wouldn’t be any different, and it would tax my brain in telling the story of the tortured genius that Oppy – as he was popularly known – turned out to be. I couldn’t have been more wrong and way off the chart. 

So, how do you tell the story on screen when most facts are already well-known, documented and available for public scrutiny? Simple. You dumb it down to the level where anyone unfamiliar with Oppy’s story (and doesn’t want to Google or Wiki_) can easily follow what is happening – even though the onscreen storytelling is in Christopher Nolan’s non-linear fashion. 

Since the film was written, produced and directed by Nolan, he has absolute control over every aspect of the film. Though it is a film with many dialogues that tell Oppy’s story, there is no confusion whatsoever. How is this achieved?

Before we go ahead, here is a quick look at J. Robert Oppenheimer’s life: 

• Born to German-origin Jewish parents in 1904
• Became a theoretical physicist through the route of Harvard, Cambridge (England) and Gottingen (Germany)
• Actively involved in Left Wing politics though never a member of the CPUSA – Communist Party of USA (It still exists – check this link https://www.cpusa.org/)
• Was handpicked to lead a galaxy of scientists in the Manhattan Project – code name for the development of the Atom Bomb – from 1939 – 1945 
• Considered the Father of the Atom Bomb
• Despite being married, he had affairs, one of which haunted him as his mistress Jean Tatlock committed suicide
• Continuously under FBI surveillance
• His security clearance was revoked, after which he was not the “Rock Star” of science that he was. 
• Died of cancer in 1967

 All these“touch points” – and more – are covered in the clever script that takes you on two tracks.

The main track is the 1954 closed hearing, where Oppenheimer’s entire past was flipped over. He was repeatedly asked about his various associations with Communists and what he had done to compromise the security of the A-Bomb project. Simultaneously Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr), who had been the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, is in a hearing for being confirmed in a Cabinet position, and his past with Oppenheimer is dug up by the Senators. 

These two tracks go back and forth with the story. Yet, there is no confusion in our mind as to what’s happening as we see both a first-person perspective – in the closed Security hearing – and a third-person perspective – in the Senate hearings, about Oppenheimer’s life. We, the viewers, have no trouble fitting the pieces, as these two “parallel flashbacks” tell Oppenheimer’s life story. His affair with Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh thoroughly wasted) is the one that really casts a long shadow as she was a committed Communist and committed suicide after Oppenheimer met her for a romantic tryst and went back to Los Alamos. Simultaneously he is also under pressure from General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon – IMO miscast) to deliver the goods and get rid of all “communists and left-leaning troublemakers) though the two finally end up with a working equation. 

What is more absorbing is how Los Alamos is created right before our eyes, from flat lands in New Mexico to a rush of building activity. Also, Oppenheimer developed from a pessimist to a leading-edge scientist in Quantum Physics. THE moment in his life as Father of the A-Bomb, From hope to disillusionment and finally oblivion. 

Naturally, since the film is about Oppenheimer and his life, his character dominates the film through and through. It is one of the finest biographies without being hagiographic. It shows his somewhat naïve beliefs about “science for all”, which was soundly disproved later, resulting in a new arms race, the effects of which we still feel today. 

Some statistics: At last count, there were approximately 12,512 warheads worldwide (https://www.statista.com/statistics/264435/number-of-nuclear-warheads-worldwide/). If we consider the world population as 8 billion ( https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/, ), then there is enough mega-tonnage to kill the world’s population five times over, the very thing Oppenheimer and his supporters feared would happen – a Nuclear Arms race. Naturally, he was overruled by the powers who saw his opposition to the H-Bomb as yet another proof of his communist tendencies, aided and abetted by the “Father of the H-Bomb”, Edward Teller (Benny Safdie). 

All these and more about his life are covered superbly in this three-hour-long film which will keep you riveted to your seat. Smartly the “hard science” is kept to a bare minimum, and it is all about Oppenheimer and his life. Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer, Emily Blunt as his wife Kitty, Matt Damon as General Groves, Robert Downey and a host of others give exceptional performances, and there is not a single scene out of place.  Murphy aces Oppenheimer’s inner angst and jubilation 

As mentioned earlier, this is one of the finest onscreen biographies of a great yet disillusioned scientist who knew that once the genie was uncorked, there was no way to put it back in the bottle. 

And that perhaps is the greatest lesson of the film. Mankind has – and continues to – uncork many genies but cannot put them back in the bottle. Oppenheimer, the film, is as much a cautionary tale as a biography told entertainingly.  

Oppenheimer talking later about the explosion and everyone’s reactions and his own

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb13ynu3Iac&pp=ygUWZmF0bWFuIGFuZCBsaXR0bGUgYm95IA%3D%3D

 Real History – 5 out of 5

Equipment and Kit – 5 out of 5

Locations or substitutes – 5 out of 5

Script – 5 out of 5

Overall Rating – 5 out of 5

Coda:  Technically speaking, this is not the first film about the development of the A-Bomb. Fat Man and Little Boy (1989) tells the story of three years in the New Mexico desert, and the film ends with the detonation on July 16, 1945. Paul Newman as Groves dominated the movie so much that I wondered whether he discovered the A-Bomb, not Oppenheimer, played by Dwight Schultz (huh ? who ?). Kitty had only two or three scenes, played by the gorgeous Bonnie Bedelia, known to everyone as Holly McLane. Natasha Richardson played Jean Tatlock. It was a yawn fest, even if the talented Roland Joffe directed it.

Last but not least, this is a personal note as to why I find this film fascinating. I visited Los Alamos and the Bradbury Science Museum in June 2015 but couldn’t go to the original scientists’ quarters, which were under some renovation. So I settled for the Bradbury Museum in Los Alamos and stared with an equal degree of horror and fascination at the replica of Little Boy and Fat Man and their modern sleek equivalent, the W68. Hmm. That’s progress.