Warning: Some Spoilers ahead.
I am a huge Christopher Nolan fan and have religiously watched all this movies. I was even amongst the minority who liked Tenet, The dark knight rises and Insomnia, considered 3 of the weakest movies in his repertoire. So when I claim, this is his finest work and the one that impacted me the most, please take it with a pinch of salt. Biographical movies are really hard to make. The story is known. While Gandhi till date is one of my favorite biographical movies, but due to its scope, complexities of the central character is hardly explored. This is one of the potential risks of doing biopics. When I first heard of Nolan taking on the biography of Oppenheimer as his next subject, I was excited and was waiting to see how he would tackle this complex subject. As a history buff, I have read of Oppenheimer on the sidelines of books/events around world war II, McCarthyism and like many Indians have seen this video of him referencing the Gita, making the subject matter relatively fresh for me. This movie also does a fantastic job in keeping the science accessible to the viewers.
This movie is told mostly from the perspective of 2 people, J Robert Oppenheimer, the regular scientist and Lewis Strauss, a politician, but a patriot. There are no scenes that evoke cheap emotions. The movie starts with 2 judicial hearings and 4 parallel timelines. While this could be confusing, the focus turns to one of those timelines quickly, hence making it easy to understand. I must admit, this is the least complicated of all the Nolan movies. When we are first introduced to Oppenheimer, we see a student who is a flawed genius. Soon we are transported back in time to the tumultuous era of the 1940s, and Nolan's impeccable attention to detail immerses us into the historical setting effortlessly. The crescendo comes towards the end, the team at Los Alamos test the first atomic bomb. This is one of the finest pieces of cinema, where the emotions of everyone are captured perfectly, right from the person who pushes the button to the people who are eagerly waiting on the fruits of their 3 year long hard word. These few minutes are cinematic magic which is exemplified by the magical acting, background score and cinematography. Please experience it in an IMAX screen. The last stretch is more of a court room drama, is equally engrossing.
The movie is not without its flaws. The 2 main female characters are poorly written. The need for nudity personally was not justified and adds nothing in helping us understand Oppenheimer better. Couple of cinematic liberties taken in the final court scenes did not fit well in otherwise somber tone of the movie. The movie is a tiny bit long especially at the end. The film also fails to establish a strong emotional connection between Oppenheimer and his brother, which makes the scenes where Oppenheimer fights to include him in the Manhatten project less impactful.
Coming to the performances, Cillian Murphy is remarkable as Oppenheimer, a man so complex that I can't imagine the amount of pressure there was to play him this effectively. The film paints Oppenheimer as neither a hero nor a villain, but rather a complicated man whose human qualities undermine what he will be remembered for in the history books mainly because of Murphy and his unbelievable ability to emote without words. If you look for videos of real Oppenheimer speaking in a black and white video, you could see how much homework Murphy has done and how accurately he brings out the moral dilemma. Robert Downey Jr. is sensational. The scenes where he yearns for the recognition of the scientists or scenes where he controls his disdain, he is in top form. Emily Blunt shines in a severely underwritten role. Her stare at a disloyal colleague, her compassionate hug when her husband mourns for his former lover and her interrogation scenes at the end make up for her meandering through rest of the movie. Matt Damon excels as Major Grooves in a restrained performance. There are many more actors who come in small bits, 3 particularly stand out. Garry Oldman as Harry Trueman wows us in a few seconds. The scene where he uses his handkerchief to deliver a point to Oppenheimer is one for the ages. Casey Affleck in a short role gives us chills. David Krumholtz (of the Num3ers TV series fame) lives a mark as Oppenheimer's loyal friend. The technical elements are fantastic. Splitting of atoms used as backdrop to convey emotions worked very well. Music is outstanding.
There are some great scenes in the movie. The scene where secretary Stimson takes Kyoto from the list of potential bomb sites, because he honeymooned there shows several things at once. While I am not sure about the historical veracity, the scene efficiently underlines why human beings, in our fickleness can’t be trusted with atomic power. The speech of Oppenheimer soon after the Trinity test, the silence after the bomb explosion, Richard Feynman's belief on his anti UV glass, and many more.
But more than the cinematic bits, the larger questions that movie posses are fascinating. First, can a person of science be agnostic to politics of the time? Oppenheimer tries to sometimes shift the blame saying he does not wield the power of choosing what to do with the bombs, is he right or wrong? Another question is on the scientific communication. There are 2 instances in the movie, first when Oppenheimer communicates the near zero probability to Grooves. Science comes with boundaries and probabilistic thinking, which can be used to manipulate the message the way one wants. Next instance, when Oppenheimer is grilled on why he changes his opinion from A-bomb to H-Bomb, I wish he had said, "I am a scientist, I adapt my opinions based on the evidence in front of me". Third and the most interesting aspect involves understanding the ethics surrounding our profession. We face similar dilemmas in our lives to varying degrees. This film has introduced me to 2 fascinating people in Edward Teller and Klaus Fuchs, who are in the extremes in the interaction between scientists and politicians, whose biographies will be fascinating reads.
On the whole, Oppenheimer is a fantastic mirror into the past, that gives us hope and despair in equal measures, hope in human ability to find solutions for toughest of problems of our times and despair at the fact that we could use the same, due to lack of cooperation and short term gains to end the civilization as we know it. We end up asking Oppenheimer "Neenga nallavara kettavara?"
