There are moral dilemmas and then there are existential crises. For Robert Oppenheimer, ethical certainty over the wisdom of developing a doomsday weapon of mass destruction to extinguish a rampantly out of control fascism gives way to haunting trepidation after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Coupled with the death of Hitler and subsequent German surrender, the more than 100,000 deaths and 100,00 injuries that occurred in the immediate wake of the bombs dropping presented additional complexity and eventual arms control activism from the “father of the atomic bomb.”
In the lusciously opulent yet persistently cultured Oppenheimer, director Christopher Nolan intertwines Oppenheimer’s mad rush to deploy an atomic bomb with flash-forwards depicting his post-war adamant skepticism over these unacceptable deadly weapons ever being used again. Further hampering Oppemheimer’s deep concern to make his voice heard on nuclear arms agreements is a lurking persecution made workable by the prevalent Red Scare paranoia of the 1950s.
Cillian Murphy masterfully portrays Oppenheimer as both charismatic and frustrated, alternately bold and introspective. We encounter him engulfed in a myriad of quantum physics when he’s not conversing in multiple languages or reading Hindu scripture in Sanskrit or promoting greater justice for trade unions and Spanish Civil War rebels. In an early scene he meets Albert Einstein, who he has known for some time and while dismissing Einstein as more or less a relic of the past, he has a dialogue with him that is left silent yet will be addressed in one of the film’s closing scenes
The film’s most impactful moments border on the surreal: Oppenheimer receives a roar of approval from a crowd he awaits to address upon the successful deployment of his creation. Suddenly the base of his podium transforms into a pile of smoldering nuclear ash as the same group of onlookers now weep and moan in pain.
In another scene Nolan builds menacing background music as Oppenheimer is being grilled by his hearing inquisitor, Roger Robb (Jason Clarke), until the thundering dissonant music overwhelms any conversation.
Such eloquent scenes along with a bracing depiction of the launching and explosion of the bomb’s climactic test, alternate with a sometimes dialogue-heavy account of Oppenheimer’s political oppression. Figuring as a key player here is Lewis Strauss (he insists on pronouncing it “Straws” ) who Robert Downey Jr. portrays as a relentlessly smooth politician who at first as commissioner of The Atomic Energy Commission butts heads with Oppenheimer during the Manhattan Project over development of the still more lethal hydrogen bomb. After the war Strauss inveigles Oppenheimer into accepting a post as director of Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study and then eventually rankles Oppenheimer into personal turmoil with an ego-derived manipulation.
Downey isn’t the only heavyweight included in this all-star cast. Matt Damon is here as Lt. Col. Leslie Graves, the breezy yet flinty military authority who both selects and supervises Oppenheimer throughout the top secret Manhattan Project in secluded Los Alamos, New Mexico. The ever-resilient Gary Oldman provides a short yet riveting scene and I’d consider it a spoiler if I told you who he portrays. Emily Blunt, as Oppenheimer’s rundown, unhinged yet loyal wife who by the fifth or sixth time she implores him to fight back against his tormentors, finally throws a glass at him.
And then there’s Florence Pugh, Oppenheimer’s headstrong yet brittle communist mistress, who later appears in a compromising position in another of those compelling surrealistic scenes. Kenneth Branagh, Rami Malik, Benny Safdie, and Matthew Modine are also aboard.
Nolan is to be commended for illustrating one of the most insane times in history with these side excursions into a magical realism of sorts. Whether he reins in the side trips a little too soon in a nod to tastefulness is a matter of interpretation. My take is he could have elaborated on these more symbolic representations that plumb the depths of this grim and vital subject matter and concurrently spared us some of the bordering-on-tedious talking heads scenes.
Getting into the weeds with both nuclear physics and the intrigues of political ones-upmanship may be unavoidable here, but I came away wishing for more on the large scale end, and less chit chat. Nonetheless, Oppenheimer is a whale of an achievement, even when it finally arrives against a backdrop of hype greater than that awaiting any movie in some time.