Oppenheimer Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Christopher Nolan
Stars: Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon, Robert Downey jr, Emily Blunt, Kenneth Branagh, Jason Clarke, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, Dane De Haan, Alden Ehrenreich, Florence Pugh, Alex Wolff, Tony Goldwyn, Matthew Modine, Gary Oldman.
From Christopher Nolan (the Batman trilogy, etc) comes this epic biopic of J Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist often referred to as the “father of the atomic bomb”. It’s a complex film about a complex man, but it gives us plenty of insight into the man who is depicted here as a flawed genius. Nolan handles the subject matter well and he makes the complex science and politics readily accessible for the audience. And the film features one of the best ensemble casts assembled for a film this year, including five Oscar winners.
Because of his reputation Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy, in his sixth collaboration with the director) was approached by Lt General Leslie Groves (played here by Matt Damon), the army engineer who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon, to head up the project to develop the atomic bomb. The US was in a race against the Nazis to develop the bomb, but German scientists had an 18-month head start. Oppenheimer insisted that the project be centralised at a remote location in Los Alamos New Mexico where all the various scientists and their families could be housed in the one secure location and their work would be focused. Oppenheimer and Groves sought out the brightest and best scientific minds in the US and brought them together to work on the project. This portion of the story would be familiar to audiences who recall the 1989 film Fat Man And Little Boy (in which Paul Newman played Groves and Oppenheimer was played by Dwight Schultz, who is best known for playing Howling Mad Murdock in the 80s tv series The A Team).
But Nolan’s film also explores Oppenheimer’s life after the bombing of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki which ended the war against Japan and his crisis of conscience about what he has wrought. Nolan uses some superb visuals to give us insight into his conflicted thoughts as he imagines the destruction wrought by the bomb. After the war he came into conflict with Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey jr), the ambitious but conniving and vindictive head of the Atomic Energy Commission over the development of the hydrogen bomb. Strauss, who was also being considered for a cabinet post, used his political connections to try and destroy Oppenheimer’s reputation. Oppenheimer’s loyalties were called into question, and he was regarded as a security risk because of his earlier affiliations with people who had links to the communist party. This was the height of the McCarthy era with paranoia and suspicion running high.
Oppenheimer is based on the 2006 Pulitzer Prize winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of Robert Oppenheimer, which was written by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin, a nuclear weapons historian who has long held a fascination in the scientist, and it has been adapted for the screen by Nolan. The film follows Oppenheimer’s early career in the world of academia through to his work as head of the Manhattan Project and the subsequent hearings to determine whether he was a security risk during the notorious McCarthy Era of 1950s America. The film covers a lot of territory and spans some three decades of US history in its 180-minute running time.
The film has been shot in the huge IMAX format by Nolan’s regular cinematographer Hoyt Van Hoytema, and a couple of sequences use the format superbly, especially the scene in which we witness the testing of the bomb, which makes full use of the big screen and its immersive sound design. The action is accompanied by an evocative score from Ludwig Goransson. There is some great period and production design from Ruth De Jong (Nope, etc) that adds to the authenticity of the experience.
Nolan uses a non-linear narrative structure to tell the story and it leaps back and forth, jumping between different time frames, and this may lead to an initial sense of disorientation amongst audiences. Only the use of different colour palettes, including black and white for some scenes set during the 50s, delineate the various eras. (This is the first IMAX film to use black and white film.) It has all been deftly edited together by Jennifer Lame (who edited Nolan’s earlier Tenet, etc). There are also a lot of characters, and it is sometimes difficult for the audience to keep up with who everybody is and where they fit into the story, further adding to a sense of confusion for those who know little about the history. Oppenheimer is very dialogue driven, and delivers, of necessity, lots of complex scientific information and terminology. Much of the dialogue unfolds at a rapid pace requiring a lot of concentration from the viewer.
Nolan has assembled a stellar cast to bring the story and these historical figures to life, led by a steely eyed Murphy, who is excellent as he portrays Oppenheimer’s complex nature, capturing his arrogance and his genius but also conveying the crisis of conscience that followed the successful testing of the bomb at Los Alamos. He brings a vulnerability to the character as well. An almost unrecogniseable Downey jr has rarely been better than his performance here as Lewis Strauss, the ambitious and conniving businessman, and he deserves an Oscar for his superb work here as the villain of the piece. Tom Conti is effective in his brief role as Albert Einstein, while Kenneth Branagh also pops up briefly as Nobel prize winning physicist Niels Bohr; Gary Oldman is memorable in a cameo as President Harry S Truman; Emily Blunt makes her mark as Oppenheimer’s trusting wife Kitty; and Damon brings gravitas and authority to his role as Groves. There are also solid contributions from the likes of Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, Dane De Haan, Alden Ehrenreich, Florence Pugh, Alex Wolff, Tony Goldwyn, Matthew Modine, and Australian actor Jason Clarke, who portrays Roger Robb, the government lawyer questioning Oppenheimer in what was little more than a kangaroo court hearing.
★★★★
