By: Cameron Tyo
July 24, 2023
On July 21, 2023, the cinema made way for two movies that many people thought would be a few of the best-grossing films and summer blockbusters to date, and boy, were they not wrong. Out of these two movies was “Oppenheimer”, directed by Christopher Nolan. The movie is based on the book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, written by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin. Throughout the film, two parts of Oppenheimer’s life are shown. The first part details growing up of Oppenheimer as a young adult, like attending Cambriage, his life as a teacher at Berkley, and ultimately his scientific work created in his job as the director of the Manhattan Project, where he and his team of physicians like Edward Teller (Benny Safdie) and Isidor Rabi (David Krumholtz) constantly thought of ways to build the perfect bomb, which would end up being the atomic bomb. It details how Oppenheimer discovered the notion of the atomic bomb showing how it was proven for atoms to get broken down into smaller particles that would eventually compact with each other, which is the idea of nuclear fission and his personal life and interactions with people when it came to living in Los Alamos to complete what would be known as the “Trinity” project. This part details his love affair with communist Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh) and eventual wife, Katherine “Kitty” (Emily Blunt). The second part set in the present details the hearings of Oppenheimer in regards to his supposed role as a communist as persecuted by Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr), head of the U.S Atomic Energy Commissions, who is shown to have despised Oppenheimer for many different quarrels they have had in the past.
The actors do a good job at portraying their characters in an authentic way. For example, Cillian Murphy stands in a very typical matter, looking of an astute, almost intelligent manner as one might expect from a scientist in comparison to Matt Damon’s Lt. Leslie Groves, who stands more matter-of-factly and in a more brutish and solid way as a soldier should. The acting doesn’t just give the characters a sense of realness because of how their height is portrayed but because of how the emotions are shown. The story does a good job of portraying how Oppenheimer felt after the atomic bomb he made were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in an attempt to get Japan to surrender the war showing Oppenheimer in a dazed state as visions of dread periodically rush through his head like for example when he is attempting to give his victory speech to his employees who helped him make the bomb. The scene’s filmography further implies Oppenheimer is feeling guilty for his actions. Throughout the film, sound and visuals are used exceptionally well. From the scene of the atomic bomb going off to just scenes of Oppenheimer spending time with his students or brother Frank (Dylan Arnold), the scenes always seem alive and fit the mood nicely.
One last thing I like to mention is the complexity of the chronology of the film. In the movie, the scenes change from color to black and white. Most of the black and white scenes are shown in the courtroom scenes of Oppenheimer’s hearing or in most flashbacks revolving around Oppenheimer’s meetings with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. These scenes go back and forth like a DNA strand which is ironic as the film is a biopic of a man’s life. Also, throughout the film, the idea of conceit is shown as in the first part of the movie, the words fission which is the breaking of atoms, appear, signifying the breaking down of Oppenheimer’s life that would cause him to do the things he does appear but in the final part of the movie, fusion shows up which is a merging of elements showing that everything that Oppenheimer has worked for is all coming into fruition wheter it is good or bad.
As sort of mentioned, “Oppenheimer” gradually gives more and more information about Robert Oppenheimer, whether they be of great importance or not, such as hinting that a spy is working at Los Alamos or giving an idea that Robert is trying to protect someone who is a communist, etc. The three-hour run time lets readers digest all the information before adding more bits to the story as they can understand what is going on with Oppenheimer at any point in time. With all this being said, I think “Oppenheimer” is an excellent movie whose runtime is warranted and in which the actors easily portray characters in realistic and un-overexaggerated ways. The cinematography of the film is breathtaking, not to mention the soundtrack that plays.