NOW IN THEATERS! A biopic like Oppenheimer allows viewers to take pause and understand how the human mind has powers that propel life and change the world forever, and there’s no going back. However, what we do going forward knowing from the past is worth considering. It takes a director like Christopher Nolan to deliver history in a manner that many people can understand or even better than they did previously with his vision and dedication to the subject. It’s the power of cinema that Nolan offers to tell the story of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), known as the father of the atomic bomb. Torn between his gift for understanding quantum physics, theoretical mathematics, and atomic energy that could destroy humanity as we know it, Oppenheimer’s struggles were real, and his abilities were seemingly obtained for war, not to pursue his love for the creation of stars and the universe. Nolan artistically presents the conflict and humanity of Oppenheimer as a profound visionary, providing Cillian Murphy the ability to share the emotional sacrifice and stature of a mind, man, and person with respect beyond the screen.
“…artistically presents the conflict and humanity of Oppenheimer as a profound visionary…”
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Nolan draws upon the Greek myth of Prometheus to capture the mood of Oppenheimer and to provide endless metaphors through visual effects, dialogue, character structure, and sound, especially that of crackling electricity providing a sense of of the inner workings of a bomb and perhaps the cavernous and intricate mind of Oppenheimer. Nolan even manages to throw in the art and writing of the time that reveal changing philosophies from T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and a Picasso painting to offer insight into Oppenheimer’s need for transcendence in space juxtaposed with humanity’s need for catastrophic weapons. With the endless parade of characters who were all an integral part of the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico, Nolan makes sure each physicist, scientist, government official, and anyone connected to Oppenheimer is presented in full, especially those who are Jewish like Oppenheimer due to the looming wrath of Hitler. Quite a few things are involved in the aptly named Trinity Test—three years, 4,000 people, and two billion dollars. This was ultimately followed by the ending of World War II with Japan with President Truman’s approval of the atomic bomb.
Solar flares, dreaming of the fires of hell, black and white mixed with color, and explosive visuals all have a purpose in creating the Oppenheimer and Nolan spares no detail. He sheds light on a period in which paranoia and outspoken loyalties to communism, the far left, and critical thinkers, were impassable roadblocks for intellectuals, especially in a world of changing political structure and the introduction of an arms race, something that even today is only a click away from initiating.
