Summary
Christopher Nolan’sOppenheimeris a brilliant biopic of the father of the atomic bomb, but a year on from its release, there are a few things that stand out.Oppenheimerfaced several controversiesupon release, but many of these have been summarily dismissed as Nolan’s movie has been received favorably. For example, there was some controversy over the movie’s omission of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, but this would not have fit in with the plot, and it could even have come across as insensitive if handled poorly.
Oppenheimerhas stood up to most criticisms, and its awards-season success underlines its positive reception. Nolan’s unconventional blockbuster has its issues, however, as any movie with such lofty ambitions does. Some of these issues aren’t necessarily faults, but each decision that Nolan made withOppenheimerclosed the door to countless other possibilities. While it should still be considered a worthy Oscar-winner,Oppenheimerwill continue to be dissected and re-evaluated for many years.
10Oppenheimer Is Far More Interesting Than It Is Emotional
Nolan keeps a barrier between the audience and the protagonist
Like most of Christopher Nolan’s other movies,Oppenheimertells a fascinating story, and Nolan’s script is designed for maximum dramatic impact. However, while the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer is compelling and richly symbolic,Oppenheimerchooses to maintain a safe distance from speculating on the scientist’s emotional state. This allows Nolan to respect the historical context of the story without inventing too much drama out of thin air.
While the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer is compelling and richly symbolic,Oppenheimerchooses to maintain a safe distance from speculating on the scientist’s emotional state.
Cillian Murphy’s Oscar-winning performance as Oppenheimer is powerful due to its restrained lack of observable emotion. While Kitty and some of Oppenheimer’s colleagues urge him to show some fight, he remains a stoic victim in the eye of the storm. Nolan often lets Murphy’s gaunt visage fill the frame, but this is a cunning subversion of the Kuleshov effect, wherethe audience have to make up their own minds about whether he is feeling fear, rage or sadness.
9Oppenheimer Doesn’t Have Time To Explore Each Character
Some enormous historical figures deserve their own biopics
Thecast of characters inOppenheimeris filled to the brim with some of the most fascinating figures from the Second World War. As a biography about just one man,Oppenheimerdoesn’t have the time to explore them all in depth. This is no weakness, since attempting to do so would be to overstuff the movie to the point of exhaustion, butit’s excruciating to see so many potentially interesting stories going to waste.
History buffs and science enthusiasts alike would no doubt be interested to see a little more from characters like Richard Feynman or Lilli Hornig.
History buffs and science enthusiasts alike would no doubt be interested to see a little more from characters like Jack Quaid’s Richard Feynman, the prankster of Los Alamos, or Olivia Thirlby’s Lilli Hornig, one of very few female scientists working on the Manhattan Project. In some cases, Christopher Nolan expects the reputations of these figures to do some of the heavy lifting. Audiences are meant to have preconceived notions about Albert Einstein and President Harry Truman, so the script doesn’t need to provide any more information.
8Nolan Lets The Score Overpower The Dialogue
Nolan prefers to give a sense of a scene, rather than risking a lesser impact
One of the most divisive elements ofTenet,and a few of Christopher Nolan’s other movies, is that the music can sometimes make the dialogue harder to hear. This is also true ofOppenheimer.Ludwig Göransson worked on bothTenetandOppenheimer,and his score here has been rightly recognized for its importance and impact. There are times, however, when Nolan puts this lustrous score on full blast, to the detriment of the dialogue.
One of the most divisive elements ofTenet,and a few of Christopher Nolan’s other movies, is that the music can sometimes make the dialogue harder to hear. This is also true ofOppenheimer.
This is no fault of Göransson’s; it’s simply Nolan’s decision-making about his priorities. Nolan famously eschews ADR, meaning that the dialogue in his movies is more organic, even if it isn’t always crystal-clear. Nolan always gives audiences enough detail to be able to follow the plot, but he prioritizes the emotion and the atmosphere of a scene rather than ensuring that every single word is audible.
7The Movie Fails To Dig Into The Antisemitism That Oppenheimer Faced
Nolan may have been wise to omit this
Christopher Nolan pays close attention to thetrue story behindOppenheimer,but he does make one or two changes for the purposes of the movie. One thing that is glossed over inOppenheimeris the ugly history of antisemitism that he had to deal with. While Oppenheimer became a more controversial figure in the years after the war,some of the attacks against him were fueled by hatred, and his Communist associations were merely used as a veil for antisemitism.
Nolan is certainly not the director for this side of Oppenheimer’s story, and Cillian Murphy is not the actor for it.
Nolan is certainly not the director for this side of Oppenheimer’s story, and Cillian Murphy is not the actor for it. Ultimately,Oppenheimerdoes a fantastic job of showing the way that the American political machine turned against the scientist without needing to focus on his Jewish heritage. It’s just one more side that shows the abject hypocrisy in the system, as the United States fought a war against Nazi Germany, but didn’t embrace the principles of racial equality.
6The Monochrome Scenes Can Come Across As A Gimmick
Oppenheimer’s black and white scenes require some insight
Oppenheimeruses a non-linear structure, so that the Manhattan Project is inextricable from its effects.Nolan shows the audience the victory and the disastrous fallout, the theory and the practice, all at once. For as much as the scientists wanted to approach their work like any other science project, Nolan seems to suggest that they cannot wash their hands of the destruction that their weapon caused.
It’s an interesting storytelling technique, but it’s hardly intuitive. If audiences aren’t clued-up to the meaning, it could be a jarring shift.
To delineate these scenes somewhat,Oppenheimerhas some black and white scenes. Most of the scenes which take place following the war are “black and white” both literally and figuratively, as they represent an objective story which contrasts Oppenheimer’s personal recollection and interpretation of the color scenes. It’s an interesting storytelling technique, but it’s hardly intuitive. If audiences aren’t clued-up to the meaning, it could be a jarring shift.
5Oppenheimer Loses Its Pace Toward The End
The editing keeps the three-hour runtime feeling relatively quick
Although it’s three hours long,Oppenheimerfeels remarkably brisk. Christopher Nolan keeps up a breakneck pace, fusing Oppenheimer’s personal life and his scientific endeavors into a compelling and holistic portrait. However, the entire Manhattan Project builds up to the Trinity test, and the movie can’t sustain its pace after this grand finale. Theending ofOppenheimeris still interesting, but it doesn’t feel as vital as the first two and a half hours.
The entire Manhattan Project builds up to the Trinity test, and the movie can’t sustain its pace after this grand finale.
Oppenheimerwouldn’t work without a detailed third act. This is the moment that knits together the plot lines which take place during the war and those which take place after it. It’s also important for the movie to show that, although the Trinity test and the end of the war felt like a grand triumph, life continued. After being lauded as a hero, Oppenheimer had to watch people turn against him just a few short years later.
4The Female Characters Are Relatively Hollow
Kitty and Jean Tatlock aren’t as developed as some male characters
Emily Blunt deserved her Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Kitty, Oppenheimer’s long-suffering wife, but her character isn’t quite as three-dimensional as his. Kitty often acts as an external conduit for Oppenheimer. She is allowed to feel the injustice that he faces, even as he remains an unmovable martyr. Her passionate defiance at the private security hearing shows everything that Oppenheimer would say for himself if he had the courage.
Kitty often acts as an external conduit for Oppenheimer. She is allowed to feel the injustice that he faces, even as he remains an unmovable martyr.
Both Kitty and Jean Tatlock are only seen via the effects that they have on Oppenheimer, while other characters have more complex motivations and their own stories to tell. Oppenheimer’s relationship with Jean is a microcosm of his work on the Manhattan Project, as it shows him following an intense passion that soon leads to destruction, both for himself and others.
3The “Now I Am Become Death” Sex Scene Is Too Distracting
Oppenheimer misuses the scientist’s most famous quote
Oppenheimer’s most controversial scene when it first came out has not gotten any better. Christopher Nolan’s dialogue uses a lot of genuine quotes from Oppenheimer and his contemporaries, and it seems as though this constraint causes him to inject some more theatricality into conversations which are completely speculated.Oppenheimer’s “Now I Am Become Death” sex sceneis almost laughably distracting, andit seems utterly detached from the grounded tone of the rest of the movie.
Oppenheimer’s most controversial scene when it first came out has not gotten any better.
The scene uses Oppenheimer’s most iconic quote, which is taken from the Bhagavad Gita, but was famously spoken by the scientist in a TV interview years after the war. Even those who know very little about J. Robert Oppenheimer may have heard this quote at some point, so putting it into the sex scene is a strange choice. It foreshadows Oppenheimer’s feelings after the Trinity test, and it provides another link between the Manhattan Project and his relationship with Jean Tatlock, but it sticks out terribly.
2The Chain Reaction Theory Is Blown Out Of Proportion
Oppenheimer manufactures a powerful finale
Christopher Nolan saves one ofOppenheimer’s best quotesfor the very end, as Oppenheimer asks Albert Einstein to recall a conversation they had years ago about the possibility that the atomic bomb could destroy the entire world. It’s an undeniably powerful ending, but it lends more weight to the chain reaction theory than it deserves.In reality, this wasn’t a serious concern for most of the scientists at Los Alamos.
The chain reaction that Oppenheimer mentions in the ending refers to the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The chain reaction that Oppenheimer mentions in the ending refers to the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union, as well as the persecution that he has faced. It also calls back to a theory first proposed by Edward Teller while working at Los Alamos, that the bomb could produce enough energy to ignite the world’s atmosphere. Most scientists, including Oppenheimer, saw this as unfounded.
1Oppenheimer Is Not Nolan’s Best Movie
The British director has plenty of hits to choose from
Christopher Nolan won his first Oscar forOppenheimer,and it was arguably overdue, but that doesn’t mean that it’s his finest work. The debate overChristopher Nolan’s best movieultimately comes down to personal taste, and plenty of people will chooseOppenheimer,but this is far from a consensus.Oppenheimercrystallizes many of the ideas which Nolan has been tinkering with throughout his career, although his other movies each have their relative strengths.
Oppenheimercrystallizes many of the ideas which Nolan has been tinkering with throughout his career, although his other movies each have their relative strengths.
Oppenheimertakes the complex timeline ofMemento,the World War II setting ofDunkirkand the scientific exploration ofInterstellar.One could argue that each of these movies execute certain aspects to a better degree thanOppenheimer,and that’s not to mention the immense success ofInceptionandThe Dark Knight.Oppenheimeris a flawed masterpiece, every bit as complex and untidy as the man who inspired it. Nolan’s ambition is admirable, but his Oscar-winner is by no means perfect.
Oppenheimer
Cast
Oppenheimer is a film by Christopher Nolan, which follows the theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man behind the atomic bomb. Cillian Murphy will play the titular role, with the story based on the book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.
