Oppenheimer (2023)

Starring: Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, David Dastmalchian, Dane DeHaan, Alden Ehrenreich, David Krumholtz, Benny Safdie, Matthew Modine, Alex Wolff, Josh Peck, and James Remar
Grade: Classic

Of all the movies about theoretical physicists, this is surely the best one.

Summary

After a quick flashback to J. Robert Oppenheimer (Murphy) to when he was a young student in 1926 staring into a puddle of rain, we cut to an explosion representing the atomic bomb that will define his legacy.

“Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. For this he was chained to a rock and tortured for eternity”.

1. Fission

Years after the fact in 1954, an aged Oppenheimer is now being questioned by the security board, and he reads off his own statement about how their derogatory comments about his work is unjustified if it’s not taken into context with his life.

2. Fusion

In 1959, Rear Admiral Lewis Strauss (Downey Jr.) is asked how long Oppenheimer testified by a Senate aide (Ehrenreich), but he says he doesn’t remember but the whole hearing took a month. Strauss wasn’t allowed to be there since he was chairman and is weirded out why this is still a big deal since it was five years prior, but the Senate aide explains that Oppenheimer “still divides America” and the committee will want to know where he stood. As the two walk together, the aide explains on orders of Senator Thurmond that Strauss shouldn’t feel like he’s on trial. Strauss didn’t feel that way until the aide says this. Even so, the aide explains how this is all just a formality. President Eisenhower wants Strauss in his cabinet and the Senate has no choice but accept it. When they bring up Oppenheimer, Strauss is to answer honestly because no Senator can deny he did his duty.

Going back to Oppenheimer being questioned in 1954, he is asked why he left the United States when he was younger. When Oppenheimer says he wanted to study the “new physics”, the committee counters with the fact that Berkley had the leading theoretical physics department. Oppenheimer agrees, only because he was the one who essentially built it. First, he had to go to Europe. He went to Cambridge to study under Patrick Blackett (James D’Arcy). Roger Robb (Clarke) asks if he was happier there than in America, but this was not the case. He was homesick, emotionally immature, troubled by visions of the universe, and was useless in the lab. Going back to his years as a student in 1926 for a moment, Blackett calls him out for his clear lack of sleep. Oppenheimer asks to go to the lecture because his idol is speaking there, Niels Bohr (Branagh). Realizing it’s time for the lecture, Blackett takes the class to see Bohr, though he tells Oppenheimer specifically to stay to finish his assignment. While in the classroom alone, Oppenheimer looks around some cabinets and finds a bottle of potassium cyanide. He takes the poison and uses a syringe to inject the apple on Blackett’s table with it, exiting the room right after to go to Bohr’s lecture, even asking a question. When he goes to sleep, he slips in and out of a dream involving physics and feeding a horse an apple. Immediately upon waking up, Oppenheimer realizes he made a mistake and runs straight to Blackett’s classroom. He gets in and sees Blackett and Bohr are already there, with Bohr introducing himself and complimenting Oppenheimer on being the only one in the lecture to ask a good question. As Blackett gives him shit for his labratory work and Bohr grabs the apple off Blackett’s table, Oppenheimer admits Bohr gave the same answer to the question Oppenheimer asked.

When Bohr inquires why he would ask the same question again, Oppenheimer responds with, “I hadn’t liked your answer”.

Bohr smiles and asks if he liked it better yesterday, with Oppenheimer confirming so. As Oppenheimer’s eyes follow the apple in Bohr’s hand, Bohr encourages him to go to a university that allows him to think and explore if he doesn’t like the lab work that he’s doing currently. He tells him to go to Germany to study under Max Borne to learn the ways of theory. He’ll even send for it. When Bohr goes to eat the apple, Oppenheimer snatches it out of his hand on account of a “wormhole” and throws it away. Changing the subject, Bohr asks about his mathematics skills, but Blackett chimes in and says it’s not good enough for the physicist he wants to be. Staying positive, Bohr explains it as sheet music. It’s not about can you read music, but rather can you hear it. Oppenheimer is confident he can hear it, and we see him start to progress as he explores more through life. Next, we transition back to the Strauss hearing in 1959. The Senator from Wyoming asks Strauss directly about his relationship with Oppenheimer. He admits to meeting him in 1947, and he admits to being commissioner of the Atomic Energy Commission, though he adds that he met Oppenheimer when he was just a board member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. After the war, Oppenheimer was world-renowned, and Strauss was determined to get him to run the institute. This leads us to when the two first met, and Oppenheimer travels to visit Strauss at the institute. Right away, Strauss tries to sell him on the position, pointing out how it comes with a house visible from where they are standing for his whole family. Strauss shows Oppenheimer all of the rooms including what would be his office. While there, Oppenheimer looks out the window and sees Albert Einstein (Tom Conti) by the lake outside, with Strauss saying that he’s told Einstein is there most afternoons.

He inquires why Oppenheimer didn’t involve Einstein, “the greatest scientific mind of our time” in the Manhattan Project, but Oppenheimer corrects him, saying “Of his time”. He talks about how Einstein’s theory of relativity was published more than forty years ago now, but “he never embraced the quantum world it revealed”. Since he knows Einstein, Oppenheimer goes out to talk to him, with Strauss watching in the distance. Eventually, Strauss walks towards the two once Einstein walks away. Strauss greets Einstein, but he doesn’t acknowledge Strauss whatsoever, walking right past him. He asks Oppenheimer what he said, but he insists everything is cool. Then, Oppenheimer explains how there are things from his own past that Strauss should be aware of. As chairman of the AEC, Strauss has access to his security file and has already read it, so he’s fine with everything because he knows how much Oppenheimer has done for his country. The purpose of this institute is to provide a haven for independent minds, which is why Oppenheimer is the man for the job. He appreciates it and will consider the offer, telling Strauss he will see him at the AEC meeting the following day. Strauss seems bothered that Oppenheimer isn’t floored with the opportunity and reminds him how “This is one of the most prestigious appointments in the country”. Oppenheimer agrees and says this is why he’s considering it. Going back to the hearing, Senator McGee brings up how Oppenheimer told Strauss about his past exploits and asks why it didn’t concern Strauss. Strauss argues he was entirely consumed with what Oppenheimer said to Einstein to sour him on Strauss, which gets a laugh from everyone except the Senators questioning him.

Back with the questioning of Oppenheimer in 1954, Robb brings up the topic of him meeting with a wide range of other countries’ physicists in Europe and if he ever met with any Russians. Oppenheimer says he didn’t and tries to go back to his statement, with the others in the room telling Robb he will have the opportunity to cross-examine later. Moving along, Oppenheimer talks about when he went to Holland and met physicist Isidor Rabi (Krumholtz). There, Oppenheimer leads a lecture on molecules that Rabi attends since they’re both Americans, only for Rabi to be confused since Oppenheimer does the lecture in Dutch. On a train to Zurich, Rabi enters his train car to introduce himself to Oppenheimer. He brings up how they’re both Jews from New York, so he wonders how Oppenheimer knows Dutch. Oppenheimer simply states he thought he should learn it going into the semester. This amazes Rabi after he points out how Oppenheimer learned enough Dutch in six weeks to give a lecture on quantum mechanics, which prompts Oppenheimer to pass it off as a way of “challenging” himself. They talk about how a lot of his colleagues are Jewish, and how there is a German that Oppenheimer should seek out, Werner Heisenberg (Matthias Schweighöfer). Oppenheimer and Rabi go to a Heisenberg lecture and introduce themselves afterwards, with Heisenberg complimenting Oppenheimer’s paper on molecules. Oppenheimer admits Heisenberg inspired it. Heisenberg suggests they publish something together, but Oppenheimer still has to go back to America. This surprises Heisenberg because no one there is taking quantum mechanics seriously. However, this is the reason why he’s going back. Then, he talks about how him and his brother Frank (Dylan Arnold) have a ranch in New Mexico, so Heisenberg encourages him to go back.

Going back to the questioning of Oppenheimer in 1954, they ask if he ever encountered Heisenberg again. He says no, but their paths did cross. He goes back to his statement, saying that upon returning to America, he accepted positions at Caltech and Berkeley. Upon getting to Berkeley to start his classes on quantum theory, he enters the radiation laboratory to talk to nuclear physicist Dr. Ernest Lawrence (Hartnett). They discuss Oppenheimer’s quantum theory classes, and how he asked for his classroom to be near Lawrence’s lab because it’s near the “experimentalists”. Lawrence shows him how they are building a machine to accelerate electrons. When asked if he would like to help in its construction, he declines, though he is working on theories he’d like to test with it. Following this, Oppenheimer says his first class is in an hour, but he only has one student. He chalks up to the fact that he’s teaching something “no one here has dreamt of” but once people start hearing what you can do with it, there’s no going back. At Oppenheimer’s first class, lone student Giovanni Lomanitz (Josh Zuckerman) attends. He tries to leave at first because he thinks he’s in the wrong class, but Oppenheimer invites him to stay after explaining he’s at the right place. He asks Lomanitz what he knows about quantum mechanics, and he has a grasp on the basics. With this, Oppenheimer excitedly tells him he’s doing it wrong. He begins by saying how quantum mechanics says light is made up of both particles and waves. How could it be both? It can’t, but it is. It’s paradoxical, but it works. He turns to the chalk board and gets to work. Slowly but surely, Oppenheimer’s class grows and his interactions with his students are both encouraging and exploratory. Lawrence sits in on a couple of lectures and takes notice of Oppenheimer’s style.

At the Strauss hearing in 1959, Senator Bartlett asks why they would start a file on Oppenheimer’s activity before the war during his activities at Berkeley. Strauss suggests they ask Hoover, but Strauss is asked directly, so he assumes it had something to do with his left-wing political activities. In a flashback, Lawrence sees how the chalkboard in Oppenheimer’s classroom is emblazoned with the words “Saturday 2PM Rally for Loyalist Spain” and tells him to not let the students bring up politics. Oppenheimer explains he wrote it, adding that Lawrence sees the revolution in physics but he doesn’t see it anywhere else. As he brings up thinkers like Picasso, Stravinsky, Freud, and Marx, Lawrence explains they’ve already had their revolution in America and for him to keep it out of the classroom. Oppenheimer brings up how his landlady is having a discussion tonight and asks if Lawrence is interested, but he isn’t. He has sampled the Berkeley political scene and it’s all “just philosophy post-grads and Communists talking integration”. Oppenheimer wonders if he doesn’t care about integration, but Lawrence says he’s down to vote for it, just not to talk about it. Even so, Oppenheimer is meeting his brother Frank there. At the Strauss hearing in 1959, Bartlett asks Strauss how these activities would come to the attention of the FBI, so Strauss recalls the FBI taking license plates outside suspected Communist gatherings and Oppenheimer’s name popped up. Going back to one of these nights when he was teaching at Berkeley, Oppenheimer sees an unknown man by his car before his brother Frank surprises him. He introduces him to his wife Jackie, and the three attend a house party together. There, Oppenheimer is introduced to Dr. Haakon Chevalier (Jefferson Hall), who asks if he’s a member of the Communist Party.

He admits he’s not, but Frank and Jackie are considering it.

Chevalier brings up Oppenheimer’s public support of the Spanish Civil War, but how can he not support it? A democratic republic overthrown by fascist thugs is something he just can’t ignore, though Chevalier mentions how the U.S. government doesn’t support it because they think socialism is a bigger threat than fascism. Oppenheimer doesn’t think this will last because of the Nazis and he talks about how he’s sent money to colleagues in Germany to emigrate. Changing the subject, they discuss Oppenheimer’s current studies of what happens to stars when they die, and how the math says a star’s collapse, especially if its bigger in size, can be more violent in its demise. The gravity gets so concentrated, it swallows everything, even light. It’s not published right now though. It’s only a theory. Regardless, Chevalier asks that if Oppenheimer were to send money to Spain to do so through the Communist Party because they can get it through the front lines. Just then, psychiatrist Jean Tatlock (Pugh) interrupts with drinks and they introduce themselves. Chevalier outs Oppenheimer as a non-Communist, but Jean thinks it’s just because he doesn’t know enough about it. Even so, Oppenheimer has read all three volumes of Karl Marx’s Das Kapital. Chevalier gives him credit, saying he’s more well-read than most party members. Jean is quick to correct Oppenheimer on one of Marx’s main points of property being theft instead of ownership, which is what Oppenheimer says. He apologizes because he read it in the original German, and all three can tell he got her there. Chevalier leaves the two, and Jean and Oppenheimer discuss how he’s uncommitted, how Oppenheimer remains committed on how to improve the world, his work as a physicist, and Jean towing the party line. Following their intellectual flirting, they have sex that night. In the middle of it though, Jean gets up to look at the books on his bookshelf.

This snowballs into the two discussing Oppenheimer almost poisoning Blackett, with Jean chalking it up to Oppenheimer just needing to get laid, which is probably true. She pulls out a book written in Sanskrit, and he admits he’s learning it, so she gets closer to him and asks him to read a specific stanza to her. It’s the quote most closely associated with Oppenheimer:

“And now I am become Death. Destroyer of worlds.”

Sometime later, Oppenheimer, Frank, and Lawrence ride horses into the desert. A storm is coming, so they decide to camp out for the night. They share a drink in the tent, and Frank tells the others he’s getting married to Jackie. Lawrence exits to look at the stars, and Frank argues with Oppenheimer because he’s noticeably bothered by Frank marrying Jackie of all people. He talks about how they joined the Communist Party, but Oppenheimer hasn’t and says Jackie shouldn’t have convinced Frank to join either. When Frank brings up how half of the faculty is communist, Oppenheimer notions that the half Lawrence is a part of isn’t. Even so, they calm each other down and both agree they are happy for each other. Oppenheimer joins Lawrence outside by the fire. They discuss his work regarding the stars and how as a kid, Oppenheimer thought if he could find a way to combine physics and New Mexico, his life would be perfect. Then, he says the mesa Los Alamos is one of his favorite places in the world and they’ll climb it tomorrow. Later, Oppenheimer walks with Jean and tries to hold her hand, but she brushes him off because she didn’t expect to see him today. They are interrupted by physicist Luis Walter Alvarez (Wolff) running out of the barber and straight to Berkeley. Oppenheimer follows and meets with Alvarez and Lawrence, where Alvarez says that Hahn and Strassmann in Germany split the uranium nucleus. Lawrence asks how, but Oppenheimer answers saying they bombarded it with neutrons. It’s nuclear fission. They split the atom. Oppenheimer is in shock. He doesn’t see how this is possible, going straight to his chalkboard to write out some equations. Alvarez exits to try to reproduce it. Later in the day, Lawrence comes back into Oppenheimer’s room, and he makes it clear to Lawrence that it can’t be done. However, it can be done, and Alvarez has done it next door.

Alvarez shows the two his findings, which leads Oppenheimer to an interesting conclusion. During the process, extra neutrons boil off, which can be used to split other uranium atoms as a chain reaction. It can be used to create a bomb.

That night, Oppenheimer tries to give Jean flowers, and she flips out on him. She throws them out and insists she doesn’t want him anymore, which confuses Oppenheimer because she still calls. Her response is for him to not answer her calls. She storms back into her house, refusing to go to the F.A.E.C.T. (Federation of Architects, Engineers, Chemists, and Technicians) rally that night. So, Oppenheimer goes with Chevalier and Barbara. Once they get there, chemical engineer George C. Eltenton (Guy Burnet) introduces himself and asks for Oppenheimer to say a few words about organized labor on campuses. Everyone cheers as he’s brought front and center. Soon after, Oppenheimer is in the classroom after hours asking Lawrence about unionizing professors since teachers already are. Lawrence has a group meeting, so Oppenheimer wants to sit in, but Lawrence isn’t too keen on it. Just then, Richard and Dr. Bush enter and say nothing when Oppenheimer greets them, so he awkwardly leaves. He gets into his own classroom, and his students greet him because his paper on the black hole is in. As Oppenheimer calls for someone to get Hartland Snyder (Rory Keane), Lomanitz says September 1st, 1939, will go down as a day to remember. When Hartland shows up, Oppenheimer happily exclaims their paper is in print. Sadly, Hartland says they’ve been upstaged, as Adolph Hitler has invaded Poland. Going forward to when Oppenheimer is being questioned again in 1954, he talks about how during the Battle of Britain, he found himself increasingly out of sympathy for the “policy of neutrality that Communists advocated”. Robb asks if his Communist sympathies returned when we became allies with Russia after Hitler invaded, but Oppenheimer says “No”, which gets a smile out of Robb because he clearly doesn’t believe him.

Moving along, Oppenheimer talks about a year or two during a previous marriage, his wife Kitty (Blunt) had been a member of the Communist Party. Going backwards to when Oppenheimer was working at Caltech, he’s at Richard (Tom Jenkins) and Ruth Tolman’s (Louise Lombard) house, a place where he stays and where there is a house party going on. He meets Kitty there, and they go inside for a drink. Kitty is a biologist but has “graduated” to housewife. She asks Oppenheimer to explain quantum mechanics to her, and he explains it in a flirtatious way. She’s getting into it, but he does ask about her husband Dr. Harrison. According to her, she’s “not very” married to him per say, and without saying Jean’s name, he talks about being close with her as well. When Kitty asks if Jean feels the same way about him, he admits it’s only sometimes and it’s “not enough”. Changing the subject, he talks about how he’s going to his ranch in New Mexico and invites Kitty to come. Later, they are seen riding horses together in New Mexico. They discuss how she got married to Harrison because she was lost after the death of her previous husband, how Harrison was kind, how she wasn’t ready to be a widow at 28, her first husband was a nobody, and her second husband was union organizer Joe Dallet. Joe fell on hard times after a while. By 36, she told Joe she couldn’t take it anymore and quit the Communist Party. A year later, she wanted him back, but he went to Spain to fight for the Loyalists. Unfortunately, Joe was killed the first time he popped his head out of the trench. She passes this whole thing off as Joe dying for nothing, but Oppenheimer gives the Spanish Republic a little more credit than she does. It leads to the two making out. Later, he breaks up with Jean. On top of that, he got Kitty pregnant, and she’s getting a divorce from Harrison, allowing for her and Oppenheimer to get married before she starts showing.

Just as a teary-eyed Jean tells Oppenheimer to not alienate the only people in the world who understand what he does and how one day he might need them, we cut to a F.A.E.C.T. meeting Oppenheimer heads up in his classroom about unionizing the radiation lab. It is interrupted by Lawrence who demands everyone leave. Privately, he talks with Oppenheimer, who argues they are a trade union. When Lawrence talks about how they’re filled with Communists, Oppenheimer points out that he hasn’t joined the Communist Party, so it shouldn’t matter. Lawrence says they won’t let him bring Oppenheimer onto the project because of this shit. In fact, they won’t even let him reveal what it is, but Oppenheimer knows what it is. He knows they’ve all heard about Einstein and Szilard’s letter to President Roosevelt warning him that the Germans could make a bomb, and he knows what it means for the Nazis to have a bomb. When Lawrence gets offended because it’s not like he doesn’t understand what it means, Oppenheimer reminds him that it’s not his people that are being herded into camps. It’s his. Regardless, Lawrence warns him that some important people are watching him because Oppenheimer is considered to be important, and he needs to keep a much lower profile. Understanding, Oppenheimer agrees and says he will talk to everyone. With this, Lawrence welcomes him to the war. Going back to Oppenheimer being questioned in 1954, he talks about filling out his first security questionnaire where he found out that his involvement with left-wing groups “would not prove a bar to my working on the atomic program”. At the Strauss hearing in 1959, Senator Pastore (Tim DeKay) asks why Oppenheimer’s Communist associations are not seen as a security risk during the war. Strauss can’t answer this because his security clearance was granted years before he met him. At that moment in time, he was the most respected scientific voice in the world.

That is why Strauss asked for him to run the Institute and that’s why he advised the Atomic Energy Commission.

Privately, Strauss talks with the Senate aide and asks what they are accusing him of. The Senate aide insists they just want to know what happened between 1947 and 1954 that changed Strauss’s mind on Oppenheimer’s security clearance. Strauss says he didn’t. He was chair of the AEC, but he wasn’t the guy who brought charges against Oppenheimer. It was rabid anti-Communist William L. Borden (Dastmalchian), a former staff member of the Joint Congressional Committee. During the McCarthy Era, Borden wrote to the FBI demanding they take action after reading Oppenheimer’s security file and seeing stuff on his Communist brother, sister-in-law, fiancée, best friend, and wife. That’s even before they got to the Chevalier incident. Strauss admits that the only reason Borden got his hands on Oppenheimer’s security file is that somebody gave it to him because they wanted him silenced. He doesn’t know, but he does know that Oppenheimer “didn’t take care not to upset the power brokers in Washington”. His opinions on the atom became definitive, and “He wasn’t always patient with us mere mortals”. Continuing, Strauss talks about how he dealt with plenty of harsh treatment. For instance, there was an AEC vote on the export of isotopes to Norway, and they drafted in Oppenheimer to make him look like a fool. Going backwards to this vote, a congressman tells Oppenheimer these isotopes could be useful to America’s enemies in the production of atomic weapons, but Oppenheimer makes fun of this notion and gets a big laugh from everyone there. It makes Strauss look bad, but he tries to act like it doesn’t bother him.

Going back to when Oppenheimer is first accepted into the project, he goes home to tell a drunk Kitty, and she hugs him with their baby son Peter noticeably screaming bloody murder in the background. When he brings up Peter, she flips out on him saying she’s been at it all fucking day. Once she leaves the room with a bottle of alcohol, Oppenheimer takes it upon himself to drive Peter to Chevalier’s house. It’s there that he asks Chevalier and Barbara to take Peter for a while. After he says it, he tells him to forget it and he refers to himself and Kitty as selfish and awful people, but Chevalier gives him more credit than he deserves and agrees to help him with his son. Later on, Oppenheimer and Kitty go horseback riding in the desert and discuss the change in the world, with Kitty making it known that Oppenheimer has to be the driving force behind things because Lawrence, Tolman, nor Rabi are the men to get things done. At a luncheon, Oppenheimer sees some military figures present and asks Lawrence who they are, but he thought Oppenheimer would know. Following this, Colonel Leslie Groves (Damon) and Lt. Col. Kenneth Nichols (DeHaan) enter Oppenheimer’s classroom and introduce themselves. Groves has to stay in Washington because he built the Pentagon. The higher-ups liked it so much they made him take over the Manhattan Engineer District, and he’s looking for a project director. Oppenheimer assumes his name came up, but Groves says this wasn’t the case, even though Oppenheimer brought quantum physics to America. It made Groves curious. Asking Groves what he found out about him, Groves calls him a “dilettante, a womanizer, a suspected Communist (which Oppenheimer corrects him by referring to himself as a New Deal Democrat), unstable, theatrical, egotistical, and neurotic”.

The only person who had anything good to say was Richard Tolman who said Oppenheimer has integrity, but Groves sees Tolman as a guy who knows more about science than people.

Groves asks why Oppenheimer hasn’t won a Nobel Prize, but he counters by asking why Groves isn’t a general. Apparently, they’re making him one for this, so Oppenheimer argues he may have the same luck. When Groves asks if he’s going to do it by making a bomb, Oppenheimer brings up how Alfred Nobel invented dynamite. Pivoting, Groves asks how Oppenheimer would proceed. They’re talking about turning theory into a practical weapons system faster than the Nazis, who have a 12-month head start. Oppenheimer is confidant they actually have an 18-month head start because their fast neutron research took six months. The man the Nazis undoubtedly put in charge, Werner Heisenberg, will have made that leap instantly. According to Oppenheimer, Heisenberg as the most intuitive understanding of atomic structure he has ever seen. In a straight race, the Germans win. The Americans have one hope: Anti-Semitism. Hitler called quantum physics “Jewish science” and said it straight to Einstein’s face. Oppenheimer argues that there one hope is that Hitler is so blinded by hate, he’s denied Heisenberg proper resources because it’ll take vast resources to accomplish their goals. It’ll take America’s best scientists working together, but they’re currently scattered. This gives them compartmentalization according to Groves, but Oppenheimer argues that all minds have to see the whole task to contribute efficiently. Poor security may cost them the race, but inefficiency will. The Germans know more than them. Continuing, Groves says the Russians don’t and he doesn’t want them involved. Oppenheimer doesn’t care because they’re not at war with the Russians, but Groves reminds him that someone with his past should not want to be seen downplaying the importance of security from America’s Communist allies.

Though Oppenheimer sees his point, he tells Groves he’s wrong, but he will consider the offer of project director. Groves laughs at a certain quote he got from his research saying that Oppenheimer couldn’t run a hamburger stand. Oppenheimer laughs and agrees, but he’s positive he can run the Manhattan Project. Using his chalkboard, he explains how to balance things. He says to keep the Red Lab at Berkeley under Lawrence, the Met Lab in Chicago under Szilard, large scale refining in Tennessee and Hanford. Then, have all of America’s industrial might and scientific innovation connected by rail to meet in the middle where a secret laboratory will be placed. It will be in the middle of nowhere, secure, self-sufficient, equipment, housing, the works, and it will keep everyone there until it’s all done. It will need a school, stores, and a church because if they don’t let scientists bring their families, they’ll never get the absolute best. They build the town in Los Alamos. For the most part, there’s nothing for forty miles in every direction. Groves agrees and tells Nichols to build Oppenheimer a town and fast. Then, he grabs Oppenheimer to go find his team of scientists. Right away, he’s met with a lot of uncertainty from the minds he meets with, mostly because he can’t go into detail until they agree because it’s all classified. On a train, Oppenheimer asks if it’s possible to get Bohr, but Groves said it isn’t until they have Allied boots on the continent. He asks if Bohr is really that important to which Oppenheimer asks if he knows anyone else who’s proved Einstein wrong.

Fair point.

On the site at Los Alamos, Oppenheimer is told that the building they built is too small for the cyclotron, so he has the group meet with the architects. Rabi asks Oppenheimer when the place is going to open, and he says two months. Rabi calls him the great improviser but says he can’t do this in his head. In one of the buildings, Oppenheimer explains his plan to Rabi on a chalkboard. There are four divisions: experimental, theoretical, metallurgical, and ordnance. He would take theoretical. When Rabi explains his issue with this, Oppenheimer is cool with Rabi having it instead, but it turns out Rabi isn’t coming. He talks about how when you drop a bomb, you hit the just and the unjust. He doesn’t want the culmination of three centuries of physics to be a weapon of mass destruction. Oppenheimer admits he’s not sure if America can be trusted with such a weapon, but he’s positive the Nazis can’t. They don’t have a choice. Realizing this, Rabi says the second thing Oppenheimer has to do is appoint Hans Bethe to run the theoretical division. Rabi is in. Finally, the rest of the team comes together, and they meet in Oppenheimer’s classroom. They will be there until the T-section is finished at Los Alamos. Almost immediately as he starts talking, theoretical physicist Edward Teller (Safdie) interrupts with his findings regarding his calculations of the chain reaction. Everyone including Bethe, Alvarez, and Kenneth Bainbridge (Peck) are shocked at the findings, so Oppenheimer asked them to redo his calculations while he heads to Princeton to visit with Einstein. There’s not much common ground between the two, which is why Oppenheimer sees this as an unbiased opinion.

Oppenheimer finds Einstein on a walk in a forest with Dr. Kurt Gödel (James Urbaniak). Brushing off Gödel, Oppenheimer walks with Einstein, who says Gödel doesn’t really eat because he’s convinced the Nazis have poisoned his food. Changing the subject, Oppenheimer shows Einstein what Teller’s findings are. Oppenheimer sees that “Neutrons smash into nucleus releasing neutrons to smash into other nuclei. Criticality, a point of no return, massive explosive force. But this time, the chain reaction doesn’t stop”. Einstein says it would ignite the atmosphere. If they detonate an atomic device, they might start a chain reaction that destroys the world. Einstein sees the irony in the king of theoreticals needing an answer of certainty, but Oppenheimer ignores to ask if Einstein can run his own calculations on it. Unfortunately, he carries a disdain for mathematics as much as Oppenheimer does. Even so, Einstein is confident that Bethe can get to the truth of it all. Oppenheimer asks what they should do if the answer is catastrophic. Einstein responds by saying that in this case, he should share his findings with the Nazis so neither side destroys the world. Getting back to his heavily guarded classroom, Oppenheimer is greeted by Bethe who says Teller is wrong. The chances of an uncontrolled nuclear reaction are near zero. However, Oppenheimer is still concerned that it’s not absolutely zero, and he should be. If there is any chance at all, that means Oppenheimer and his team’s work are nowhere near done. In fact, they are just getting started and have to do everything in their power to create this thing before the Nazis do.

My Thoughts:

When looking at Christopher Nolan’s entire filmography, Oppenheimer stands out as a clear-cut outlier for being like nothing he’s ever done before. Amidst all of the thrilling science fiction, action and war movies, and everything in between that he’s given us, a three-hour biographical epic about a famed theoretical physicist is in stark contrast to what we’re used to coming out of his camp. When reading about the production a year in advance, I initially wrote it off as something I wouldn’t be interested in simply because of the premise. It’s not that it wouldn’t be good, I just didn’t think it would be a must-see, especially in theaters. Then, the trailer came out, and I was shocked at how engrossing the two-minute teaser was. Right then and there, I knew I was wrong, and the expectations started to rise. Above all else, especially knowing Nolan’s style being magnified on the big screen, it became clear that this deserved to be seen in theaters, which is something Nolan famously fought hard with the studios to get. If you were lucky enough to watch it during its theatrical run, you know he was right on every aspect of this production. Seeing how enthralling he was able to make a biopic, a notoriously hard genre to make consistently entertaining because so many real events and people have to be covered for accuracy and may not be as exciting when delved into, audiences and studios alike need to come to the conclusion that they are not allowed to doubt this man again, no matter the idea regarding a production of his. If Nolan’s name is attached to a project, it has to be given a chance. Proving once again that he is one of the best filmmakers of his time, Nolan writes, directs, and produces this cinematic epic that is equally deserving of the label of box office blockbuster and Academy Award-winning masterpiece.

To pull this off is seemingly impossible because if you look at the history of the Oscars and how it translates to the box office, it’s usually one or the other, rarely both. Despite this, Oppenheimer overcomes the odds and is absolutely deserving of the praise it has gotten. It’s about as complete of a production that you may ever come across. From Ludwig Göransson’s moving score to the magnificent performances of an all-timer ensemble cast of stars to the genius nonlinear narrative moving back-and-forth between a range of thirty or so years to give context to everything involving the man’s life and his decisions, Oppenheimer succeeds in reminding the American public of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s place in history as one of the most significant minds of the 20th century and the singular man that could be looked at as the main contributor to the potential destruction of the world due to his efforts.

In his best performance to date, Cillian Murphy controls the picture at every turn with an all-around tour-de-force to be remembered. Starting as a bright-eyed but mentally clouded college student in the 1920s who is trying to find his place in the world of theoretical physics and being encouraged to take things a step further through his studies in Europe, to becoming a confident and somewhat cocky professor who reaches the level of being one of the smartest men in America and knowing it, Murphy as Oppenheimer weaves through each decade seamlessly and goes through a bevy of changes in his personal life as it corresponds with what’s happening around him. Not once does Murphy lose a step either, as he’s able to play cool guy womanizer and deeply regretful politician who has come to terms with the hand that he’s played in giving the Earth an opportunity to destroy itself with the most powerful performance of the year. From the beginning, Oppenheimer deeply cares about the happenings of world politics and is intelligent enough to understand how important it is to research and pay attention to what’s going on around him and formulate opinions based on the matter. Once he gets some serious clout upon getting to Berkeley, he becomes entrenched not only in his work but in making a difference with it and by spotlighting his personal opinions because he now has a say in the matter because of his name. It’s a brave thing to do during this timeframe, as though everyone acknowledges his genius and his innovations in his field, not even his closest of colleagues would back someone or engage with someone that could remotely be tied to Communist ideals. Though it could be a bit of narcissism woven into his courage to speak out on such manners, Oppenheimer doesn’t back down from what he believes in, as he doesn’t see how intellectuals and respected minds can’t speak openly about such things like the discussion surrounding the Spanish Loyalists.

Oppenheimer’s egotistical ways are seen in the prime of his career as a foreshadowing of what’s to come, as his refusal to compromise because of how he sees himself as such an important figure does him no favors when he’s accused of being a Communist when going through his private security hearing to renew his Q clearance. Had he conducted himself in a less of an adversarial manner and less of a “prophet” like he tells Rabi, he may have been looked at in a much more positive light from the higher-ups that make the decisions. As we see throughout this runtime however, that’s just not Oppenheimer. He is who he is and unapologetically so. When he became more of a celebrity, he thought he was more protected and continued to speak out to influence policy changes, but it only made things worse. Instead of being seen as a world-renown mind with a difference of opinion, which he would have been in any other era, he was automatically assumed to be a Communist by his detractors. Everything he did led to him getting bitten on the ass, resulting in the devastatingly vicious, one-sided security hearing that effectively ended his career led by Jason Clarke, who plays the antagonistic role of attorney Roger Robb so disturbingly well that you find your blood boiling every time he opens his mouth. What is most impressive about Murphy’s performance is how well he’s able to transition from the young college kid to the confident and cool adult who wants to be a part of history, to an aged adult who realizes what he has caused in his race to make a name for himself and be the public figure he would become. It’s all fun and games at first, and Oppenheimer at the peak of his powers is exactly that. Murphy is fantastic as he makes being a physicist look like the coolest thing in the world, making sense as to how he was able to build such a following when he brought his subject back to America for generations to learn.

When he puts on the fedora and grabs his pipe, it’s framed in a way that gives off the bone-chilling feelings of Indiana Jones putting on his fedora or Rocky putting on his boxing gloves.

When approached with the Manhattan Project by General Groves, Oppenheimer is aware of a few things that makes him realize that he’s fully in control. The first being that they came to him. Even if Groves downplays wanting Oppenheimer to head things up, he knows they wouldn’t be in his classroom otherwise if they didn’t want him. Secondly, he’s vindicated as America’s best with this proposition, not that he didn’t already think so. Remember, when Strauss asked Oppenheimer why he didn’t ask for “The greatest scientific mind of our time” in Albert Einstein to assist him on the Manhattan Project when he’s showing him Princeton, Oppenheimer is quick to correct him with “Of his time”. With Groves coming to him, it shows Oppenheimer that he holds all the cards and knows it, not giving in to Groves and his intimidation tactics for a second, as their initial conversation is my favorite of the film. The problem with someone like Oppenheimer is that when someone is lucky enough to have this mind and ability that no one else has, there has to be a drawback to his personal character somewhere and these drawbacks are what takes him away from reaching success in all aspects of life. He’s not a people person nor is he a people pleaser. He’s a womanizer to the very end and doesn’t see the error in his ways until something drastic happens like Jean Tatlock’s suicide, or his affair with Ruth Tolman being admitted in private once it’s brought up that it was being used to convince Lawrence to testify against him. The only reason Oppenheimer doesn’t see it as feasible is because they have no proof because Richard didn’t know about it, which only adds to the complexity of our troubled protagonist. Additionally, he gives up his baby for Chevalier to watch him at one point because he just couldn’t handle the responsibility, especially because Kitty was virtually no help.

Even if Chevalier justifies this by telling his friend, “You see beyond the world we live in. There is a price to be paid for that.”, it is not lost on the audience how insane of an action this is, regardless of how smart the man is. All of this is important to note because Oppenheimer doesn’t glorify the man as an inarguable hero but rather someone who’s significance to world history deserves to be studied despite all of his flaws as a person. At first, in America, he is a hero and reaps the immediate success of his creation while moving further up in U.S. government because of it, but this was a different time because anyone who contributed to the war effort during a period where pride and nationalism was at an all-time high would always be looked at as an icon. Though it’s true that he never publicly apologized for Hiroshima and Nagasaki despite his leading up of Los Alamos being the contributor to such a disaster, Nolan centers half of the action through the eyes of Oppenheimer and how he is fully behind the idea of the famous physicist regretting what he’s inherently responsible for and how sympathetic he is to the disaster he’s caused. He’s changed the world and is coming to terms with it as soon as the bomb is dropped in a delayed reaction of sorts. Sure, he was excited at the possibility of etching his name in history, but he didn’t consider the consequences until it was time to put everything in motion. By then, it was too late, and he tried to save face in the ensuing years with his attempts to influence policy to reduce the risk of more disaster. Also, when faced with the project in the first place, Oppenheimer and the others involved see this as necessary. They are very aware they are building a catastrophic bomb, but he’s correct in his fear that the entire planet is at risk if the Nazis do it first. Yes, he’s unsure if the United States can be trusted with such a power, but no one can deny the horrors the Nazis would attempt without question if they had such a bomb.

If they already have an 18-month head start because of the genius of Heisenberg, would you do go through with it? There really is no choice. The audience can question the morality of creating such a devasting weapon all they want, but different decisions are made when you are at war and there is a very real threat on the other side. The danger is clear, and they have to act. There is no other solution. As much as we want to believe in Einstein’s words to Oppenheimer, in that if they see their findings of a potential chain reaction that could blow up the atmosphere that they should share their findings with the Nazis in hopes that everyone sees they have gone too far, this is a mere pipe dream that they CANNOT risk. In a perfect world, it would make sense, but when you have different philosophies and motivations between countries, and allegiances that can change every decade or so (with the Soviet Union being a prime example), you can’t just sit on your hands and hope a superpower of evil and intellect will see themselves as going too far when everyone is trying to “win”. Once again, Oppenheimer is right. It sucks that it had to be this way, but humanity and the reactions of evil people are unpredictable. They can’t take such a risk, and no one would in that situation when control of the free world is at stake. Furthering Oppenheimer’s guilt regarding his role in this situation is the scene in which he runs into Szilard and Hill at the hotel before he goes with Groves to Washington to talk with the Secretary of War to decide the final say of where the bombings will take place. Knowing that the intention is to bomb Japan, Szilard and Hill’s efforts to meet with President Truman (Oldman) was stopped in its tracks. Their last-ditch effort is their petition they started in Chicago, and they want Oppenheimer to present it because he has the power to stop it, with Szilard referring him as the “salesman of science” because at this point in time, he’s gaining a cult of personality and is the face of his profession.

Could he have made the difference? It’s quite possible, but it also could have made him look badly out of place during a crucial period in American history. It’s an unfortunate moment that foreshadows everything with Szilard saying confidently, “History will judge us Robert”. Sadly, it’s too late and Oppenheimer has come to terms with it because he knew what he signed on for (“Just because we’re building it, doesn’t mean we get to decide how it’s used”). Once the bomb is built, he is literally told “With respect Dr. Oppenheimer, we’ll take it from here”. The horrors of reality have already set in, and he can’t do a thing about it. He is aware of how destructive this is, but his hands are tied, and he’ll be the only one arguing against it in that meeting, and it could ruin the little bit of power he may be yielding in that moment. He has no choice and has to double down in the heat of the moment. When Szilard states that Japan isn’t going to hold out alone and winning is an inevitability, Oppenheimer has a point in asking how he could he know such a thing. Can they take that risk? No, it’s the same argument against the Nazis, and this conversation is another crucial one in showing the unwinnable position Oppenheimer continues to find himself in once he gets deeper and deeper. Teller poses the question as well, asking if the Japanese would surrender if they knew what was coming, but Oppenheimer doesn’t have an answer and neither do we. At most, he sees the positive in its creation because its existence makes war “unthinkable” because of what it can do. In a perfect world, he would be right, but Teller counters with a simple response that will define the rest of their adult lives heading into the Cold War in mentioning, “…until somebody builds a bigger bomb”. He tries not to react, but it shouldn’t be a surprise that Oppenheimer internalizes it because he knows Teller is right.

Additionally, Szilard and Einstein were the ones who got them into this mess with their letter to FDR about how they could build a bomb, effectively causing this domino effect that has led Oppenheimer to his current position. Though Szilard argues this was more about Germany, Oppenheimer again brings up the red tape that ties his hands remarking, “That’s not how weapons manufacture works”. He puts all the pressure on Oppenheimer to save the day right before his meeting, but it just can’t be done. You can tell through the expressive eyes of Murphy that the man realizes the future implications of Trinity, but they don’t have the power to stop it no matter how hard they disagree with it ethically. Along with not having a say in the matter, Oppenheimer at the time still sees they have to use it on the Japanese because “They won’t fear it until they understand it, and they won’t understand it until we’ve used it”. The idea is that the existence of this bomb “will ensure a peace mankind has never seen, a peace based on the kind of international cooperation that Roosevelt always envisaged”. It’s not just a sense of “It is what it is”, at the time the decision was a means to an end, and the only response to the situation they’re in. Again, they are at war. Even so, he does bring it up in the meeting, but he doesn’t push hard enough because of the political pressure thrown in his direction from Groves, and this is yet another thing that eats at the man following the aftermath of World War II. With what he has spearheaded, he has changed the world and every day following Trinity, he has become more and more aware that he was “the man who gave them the power to destroy themselves”, turning into the embodiment of an “American Prometheus”. It’s just like Bohr tells him at the Christmas party, “The power you are about to reveal will forever outlive the Nazis and the world is not prepared” and “We have to make the politicians understand this isn’t a new weapon, it’s a new world“.

His actions cannot be undone and will forever keep the possibility of nuclear war a potential outcome. Despite his obvious regret, he’s not completely innocent in the matter because of his role. He took the job and knew the consequences. It was just his delayed reaction after the United States went through with using it in such calamitous fashion that he saw the error in his ways and what he made possible. Finally, he looked past his selfishness in trying to become a respected voice in the world and started to see the consequences directly rooted to his actions. Though we are sympathetic to our protagonist over how he feels years after the fact, you also can’t help but see Kitty’s point of view when he breaks down in tears over Jean’s suicide when he admitted to cheating on Kitty with her. In that forest scene, Kitty wakes him up to the reality in which he finds himself because of his own actions saying, “You don’t get to commit the sin and then have us all feel sorry for you that it had consequences!”. He saw himself as a reason for Jean’s death just as he does all of those Japanese lives, but he did what he did on his own volition. Regretting it after the fact can only do so much, and this moment of truth hits hard because of how inarguable it is. It’s what Robb uses against him in bringing up the hypothetical of would he support the hydrogen bomb if it was used on Hiroshima instead of the A-bomb since the bombing was technically successful because it ended the war, as well as the irony in Oppenheimer working night and day on the Manhattan project but ultimately not wanting to use it. As much as you hate Robb and sympathize with Oppenheimer for what becomes of his position in his older age, Robb’s one-sided cross-examination is done well enough that you can’t ignore the other side of the coin regardless of the guilt our star feels.

There is also the question of Oppenheimer’s true character, as the film paints a vague enough picture to further complicate the matter because there’s so much context that has to be considered. As we come to know Oppenheimer, Strauss may have a point that Oppenheimer would do it all over again if given the chance because “It made him the most important man who ever lived”. Knowing Oppenheimer’s arrogance in some regard and how he never publicly talked about his regrets, it’s quite possible that things do slightly align with Kitty’s sentiments that Strauss seems to paraphrase with, “He wanted to wear the sadness as a crown, so he didn’t look bad, even though he knows it’s a road we had to go down”. As much as we see how unfairly Oppenheimer is treated and how earnest he is in his responses in the security hearing like how he was in a position to make decisions at Los Alamos and how he would have done anything asked of him, there are some contradictions that don’t take him completely out of the woods, at least to those who vehemently oppose his outspoken ways. There’s just enough fuel there for even the most loyal of his friends (like Groves) to objectively say he should not get his Q clearance based off the new guidelines imposed. Basically, this screenplay is absolutely incredible in its design and captures the essence of every single one of these real-life, complicated people of power. The only one who walks away unscathed was Einstein. He’s written like an angel-like, benevolent figure, with a performance to match it. Tim Conti plays him with such an elegance and seriousness that for the first time in a mainstream film, a depiction of Einstein is treated with the respect of one of the most respected minds in the history of the world. The aura he has in any scene he’s in feels as if he we took a time machine back to watching the real-life legend in real time. It gives you goosebumps just watching his calming presence interact with Oppenheimer and offering words of wisdom anytime he speaks.

Some have called the testing of Trinity anticlimactic, but I disagree. I thought it was expertly done in its buildup, starting with the calm before the storm as Oppenheimer gives Kitty the secret message of telling her to “take in the sheets” if the test succeeds before he’s whisked away. Though it’s not mentioned a lot, the silence in which he climbs up the tower to come face to face with the bomb before it’s used was a beautiful scene as well. When it’s followed by the terrible weather and the initial panic regarding the failed implosion test, the tension rises exponentially. For a real-life event where we know the outcome, it’s done unbelievably well in showing how everyone’s careers and lives are on the line, with Oppenheimer even admitting there is a small chance that the bomb could trigger a chain reaction that could destroy the world to Groves, who was unaware of this until a few hours before detonation. Nolan is masterful in creating the suspense in this sequence, and it’s only enhanced when Oppenheimer stresses the importance of the abort button before saying again, “And now I am become death. Destroyer of worlds”. When that flash comes across the screen as these vital figures in American history stare in silence with only breathing being heard before the explosion, it feels like you are witnessing the historic event as it happens. The only misstep is giving fucking Josh Peck such an important job, but not everything can be perfect. Also, I can’t say how necessary it was for Kitty having a vision of Jean fucking Oppenheimer while making eye contact with her during the security hearing, when he admitted to cheating on Kitty with her, but it was funny as hell, so I give it a pass. Filming that must have been hilarious.

Every supporting character has a moment to shine. There’s not a single wasted moment, and everything feels like an important moment in the development of American history, with not a single actor taking their opportunity for granted. Rami Malek’s role is a triumphant one in context and makes you feel somewhat at ease, as does the excellent scene in which Emily Blunt’s Kitty refuses to be intimidated by Robb, but one who stood out immensely among the sea of talent was Casey Affleck’s bone-chilling performance as psychopath Boris Pash. His mere presence, built up by Matt Damon’s frightening backstory of the man (“I would never put you in a room with Pash”), led to a palpable tension that tilts the entire film on its head. Honestly, there’s enough about Pash in the few scenes he’s in that could warrant a documentary in itself like with Groves detailing how when Pash heard about Lomanitz, he told the FBI himself he was going to kidnap him, take him out on a boat, and interrogate him in the “Russian” manner. Mind you, this is the son of a Russian Orthodox bishop. When the FBI said this wouldn’t be permissible in court, he said he had no intention of leaving any witness left to prosecute. Can you imagine having someone this insane with such a high-ranking position in government? This guy went back to Russia in 1918 to fight the Bolsheviks just to kill Communists with his own hands! The soft approach of Affleck with his direct eye contact is able to intimidate just enough to align with the secret lunacy behind Pash’s known scare tactics, and it adds a ferocity to his scenes like nothing in comparison, with the obvious exception of Robb’s interrogation of Oppenheimer. Honestly, Oppenheimer should have gotten up and shaken Groves’s hand when it was revealed that he got Pash transferred.

Someone had to be the initiator of the Manhattan Project to win, and someone had to be the fall guy when public perception changed. Sadly, Oppenheimer had to be both by proxy. He was instrumental in the creation of the atomic weapons that ended World War II and did so because he was asked by the government, the AEC, and everything in-between when he thought he was an important part in making decisions within the government because of his contributions, but they turned their back on him and ousted him as soon as they were given the chance. When he was faced with the design of the hydrogen bomb from the General Advisory Committee, basically his second chance in making things right, he opposed its construction because of what it could lead to. The regret and guilt started to become internalized as soon as President Truman bombed Japan without any reservations. When Oppenheimer privately expressed his concerns of having blood on his hands to Truman, who took responsibility because he was the one who called for the bombing, he called Oppenheimer a crybaby behind his back for feeling bad about it. Despite being painted as an American hero by everyone who asked for his help, and him initially being accepting of his “Father of the Atomic Bomb” moniker (according to Strauss) because it allowed for his new status to influence policy, those muffled screams and deaths he caused could not be forgotten, as evidenced by the harrowing speech scene detailing the visions Oppenheimer was trying to repress as he advanced in his career. In doing so, he tried to push the GAC to recommend arms control instead of going through with the making of a hydrogen bomb because it was essentially his worst fears coming true in accordance with what Teller said of someone building a bigger bomb.

This GAC meeting scene that was spread throughout the film and gone back to on several occasions through the perspective of Oppenheimer, and from an objective standpoint in black-and-white, was an extremely compelling one from the placement of our main characters at the table to the political discourse and to the specific shots of each person’s telling response. The tension between Strauss and Oppenheimer reaches a fever pitch, and the viewer can feel it. We already know from the beginning that Strauss and Oppenheimer are at odds, but their argument at the table over Strauss being convinced of the Russians building an H-bomb and accusing Oppenheimer of harboring a spy at Los Alamos because of Teller’s attempts to make one was one of the most riveting scenes of the year. Every time they go back to it and we are given a new wrinkle to the conversation or a different perspective based off the events of the previous scene, we are absolutely engrossed in the politics of what’s going on. It’s magnificently done, and Robert Downey Jr. in particular shines as the adversarial Lewis Strauss (or “Admiral” as he would correct me). Playing one of the pettiest motherfuckers to potentially exist, Downey Jr.’s Strauss basically goes to the ends of the Earth to ruin Oppenheimer’s life after never getting over being slighted over a few jokes that embarrasses him publicly and for Oppenheimer’s supposed comments that make Einstein sour on him. The anger and jealousy eats him alive, and he can’t help but think that Oppenheimer has a resentment towards him because of how the scientific community is, which is why he makes it so personal. Watching him unravel is just as entertaining as Oppenheimer’s journey, and Downey Jr. earns that Oscar every step of the way.

The final line from the Senate aide where he suggests that it’s possible that Oppenheimer and Einstein’s conversation may have not been about Strauss at all (since no one knew what was said) was such an ingenious way to explain the character in a nutshell that you could have ended the scene with the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme. Based off his expression, Strauss never once considered it, and it led to his own personal downfall. I loved it.

The role of a country’s government and how they go about making such a world-changing decisions is a compelling one. It’s easy for any normal citizen to point why something is wrong or how they should avoid going about things in a morally or ethically disagreeable sort of way, but war needs to be taken into account. When the world is at war, some people need to make tough decisions and failure is not an option because too much is at stake. Oppenheimer does a great job in a depressing but realistic way that cannot be ignored like in the meeting with the Secretary of War. There, it is argued that the A-bomb will “only” cost the lives of 20-30,000 people in Japan. When Oppenheimer argues the psychological impact of using it, it’s used against him as they all agree that it would makes things definitive and could end World War II officially. Another suggestion is brought up of a potential warning to Japan, but the fact of the matter is that if they are told about what’s coming, they’d send everything they had towards America, which is true. Secretary Stimson even argues “The use of atomic bombs on Japanese cities will save lives” as it will act as a deterrent. It’s outrageous to hear, but these are times when emotion cannot be a part of the decision because it could allow for the enemy to gain an advantage. This is only intensified when Lomanitz is drafted because he tried to unionize the radiation lab at a time when the government was worried about Communist infiltration. Oppenheimer is confused because Lomanitz “promised to quit all that”, but it goes to show you the difference between a human acting as an understanding person and a government official like Nichols who has to make decisions for the betterment of the country. Oppenheimer not being able to make this distinction is what effectively ruins his standing as a public figure.

Then, there’s the other side of things that sour your taste on the whole matter. Of course, this is when the plot against Oppenheimer begins, headed up by Strauss (“You know the truly vindictive, patient as saints”) and carried out by that son of a bitch Borden, as well as Rob but that goes without saying. The elaborate fix unveiled in the third act is one of the most infuriating things depicted on the big screen in years. It’s one of those sections that you can’t believe is based entirely on fact, eschewing feelings of shame for our country’s past and how we indict those who we may have called a hero just years before. It’s an awful black mark on American history and considering how many we have and how many we try to brush under the carpet, you should want more movies like this. For filmgoers, you should want more films that aren’t afraid to shine the light on corrupt practices of yesteryear to enlighten those who are unaware of historical events because not only is renewed interest in history a positive thing, but it also avoids the potential of repeating such tragedies. The most crucial element to this is that you just need a good enough filmmaker behind the production to make such an impact on worldwide audiences. Thankfully for us, Christopher Nolan is one of those guys and he’s here for years to come.

Through beautiful IMAX cinematography, a carefully constructed screenplay, and a wonderfully engrossing character study on one of the world’s most controversial figures, and everyone he crosses paths with en route to making history, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a modern-day classic of epic proportions.

Fun Fact: Glen Powell auditioned for Josh Hartnett’s role.