Christopher Nolan is a talented movie maker. He pours a lot of passion and intelligence into his movies. For this, we are rewarded with some genuinely captivating movies such as The Prestige, Inception, and Dunkirk. Christopher Nolan is also a pretentious pontificator. He pours a lot of pseudointellectual prattle into his works. For this we are punished with some genuinely ponderous piles of poo, such as Interstellar, Tenet, and the Dark Knight Trilogy.
The story of Robert Oppenheimer, aka The Father of the Atomic Bomb, is about as American as you can get. So, of course we need British people to explain it to us. We see a brilliant man who works hard to rise to the top of his field. His country taps him for a project of earth cratering importance. Despite enormous odds, our hero succeeds, only to have his peers and his government turn on him and accuse him of having the unmitigated gall of caring about people (aka communist, liberal, Nazi, Antifa, woke, insert your hate-filled tagline of choice.)
Sigh.
Nuclear weapons were going to happen one way or another. If the USA did not build it, then somebody else would have. Moreover, World War II was never going to end with a giant hug. Dropping the atomic bombs on Japan was horrific. However, it was no more or less horrific than the other fates for Japan at that point. Yes, I am trivializing the moral ickiness of this. That is because I do not believe I am qualified to moralize about the bombings after the fact.
Nolan deftly does something similar. He avoids the moral trap of “was it right” to look inside the people who did it. This is far more engrossing. I applaud Nolan for not dragging us through the horrors of nuclear bombs. That would have been an easy way to get shock value. Rather, he shows us Oppenheimer’s reaction to that horror, which is immensely more impactful.
Moreover, Nolan shows us an Oppenheimer that was like every other person in history: deeply flawed. He was selfish, charming, generous, lustful, arrogant, regretful, and insecure. He is a man who can be equally admired and reviled depending on how you want to look at him and his accomplishments. Oppenheimer is neither a hero or a villain. He did what he thought was right only to realize after the fact that he may have set in motion something horrible. He was kind of like one of those quantum particles where the moment you observe him, you cannot determine his exact position.
With all that preamble out of the way, where does Oppenheimer the movie land? Somewhere in the New Mexico desert: it is beautiful, serene, haunting, hectic, terrifying, and meloncholy all at the same time. Nolan did not hit a home run with Oppenheimer. He stopped the game and makes us look around at what we have created.
There is a good reason to place the Barbie movie and Oppenheimer in the same space. They both tackle extremely complex concepts creatively.
Oppenheimer is an instance where Nolan’s pontificating works, primarily because the story is devastatingly real and morally intricate. Hiring Cillian Murphy for Oppenheimer was equally brilliant. Murphy is an underappreciated actor who sizzles in this role like a shaped charge about to detonate.
As for the rest of the movie, its all good. All the actors fully commit themselves to their roles. Even the small roles felt well developed. Great music from Ludwig Göransson. If I had to pick apart one aspect of the movie, it would be the editing. It feels quick and choppy at times. The pacing is brisk, which is impressive for a 3 hour movie. However, some of that briskness feels disjointed. That can be attributed to Nolan’s insistence on jumping back and forth in time.
I did not leave Oppenheimer feeling patriotic, entertained, or inspired. I left the movie sad. I felt badly for almost everybody involved in the story. Mostly, it made me realize how control is merely an illusion. Once something hits a critical mass, you cannot control it. Rather it controls you. This is true of all unstable elements, such as plutonium, mistrust, and hatred.
If you watch Oppenheimer for nuclear explosions, Florence Pugh’s boobs, or a rah rah USA chant, you will get that and may feel satisfied. However, you will also miss the entire story.
Oppenheimer is an enlightened sadness. That is an amazing accomplishment for a summer blockbuster.
