Film review: Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer is a film awash with quotes. Twice, Cillian Murphy as the titular physicist intones his famous “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds” line from the Bhagavad Gita – once with horror when he sees what his atomic bomb can do during the Trinity test in the New Mexico desert on July 16, 1945, and before that, 20 minutes in while he’s in bed with his lover Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh) and she asks him to read from the original Sanskrit. Used in two different contexts, it carries weight both for his dreadful invention, and the threads of his personal life on which the movie pulls.

Perhaps more presciently, it opens with a shortened version of the quote from Greek scholar Apollodorus: “Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. For this he was chained to a rock and tortured for eternity.”

This is how director Christopher Nolan positions J. Robert Oppenheimer in history. As leader of the U.S.’ Manhattan Project during World War II, his work resulted in a weapon so devastating in its power that the threat of its potential use remains a terrible last resort. He undertook the development of the atomic bomb – “The Gadget”, as staff at its development facility in the purpose-built desert-town of Los Alamos were instructed to call it – genuinely believing that its use would hasten the end of the war. Better, he reasoned, to get there first and use it sparingly and efficiently to finish things, than to have the Nazis able to fire them off. When the world saw his creation at work, his hope was that it would be the full-stop on their use. It would be too much power to actually be able to use without destroying the world.

Oppenheimer was a vocal critic of The Bomb after the fact, haunted for the rest of his days by the technology he and his fellow scientists had given to politicians who didn’t understand it, or seem to care about the lives that would be lost through its use. Indeed, Nolan at one point makes this point with a blunt hammer when U.S. Secretary of War Henry Stimson strikes the Japanese city of Kyoto off the list of potential targets, partly for its cultural significance, but also because he honeymooned there. (This wasn’t actually in any meeting minutes, but is agreed by many historians to have been part of his decision.)

It is a complicated story to tell, with an even more complicated moral question in the middle. Nolan lays it all out by taking several tacks at once, in different filming styles. Principally, there’s the actual story of The Bomb and the man’s life, including his affair with Jean Tatlock (pointed to here as part of the reason for her eventual suicide). The former is told as a tense race-against-time, as Oppenheimer proceeds while also having to convince the military that the expense and time taken are vital to actually getting it done.

It also follows the hearing into his security clearance post-war. For his criticisms of the bomb, following the drops on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Oppenheimer was drummed out of the magic circle of U.S. defence by having his credentials - and thus, his seat at the table - rescinded under shady pretexts and accusations of being a Russian Communist spy. Here, it’s a taut thriller, a knot of double-crossing and mistrust and finger-pointing, precipitated by embittered former associate Lewis Strauss of the Atomic Energy Commission (a staggeringly cold-hearted performance by Robert Downey Jr), who had wanted to increase nuclear capabilities. (Oppenheimer had been interested in Communism, but as more an academic idea and a starting point for further thinking, rather than a hard political doctrine).

Becoming increasingly gaunt and haggard across the movie’s marathon run-time, Murphy manages to embody both the scientific fascination at what he is unlocking, as well as the terrifying truth about what it will be used for. He also manages to keep his character enigmatic. Other than his dedication to science, which far outstrips that of his dedication to his marriage (and, indeed, his affairs outside it), and his consuming anxiety about what he’s done afterwards, it’s often hard to know what he’s truly thinking or believes. He also doesn’t aim to make the character a hero, a villain, or even all that likable. He is a mixture of all the questions its subject raises, played with brilliant stress.

It is a vast movie, in length, scope and depth. It asks questions of its lead without demanding that you accept any one answer. Being Nolan, it looks incredible. Oppenheimer’s regret is magnificently articulated, as is the spectacular moment Trinity takes place. The use of black and white for the Strauss sections not only differentiates between stories, but adds a dignified, stark tone. The rakish young Oppenheimer and cooly glamorous parties, meanwhile, amply show the energy, excitement and, ultimately, hubris of being carried off by something so big and important.

“For where it is in our power to act,” said Aristotle, “it is also in our power not to act.” It's not a quote used in the movie, but an apt one when looking at it. Early on, an attempted revenge on a university professor who has slighted him with an apple injected with cyanide almost has ruinous consequences, stopped only by Oppenheimer having a change of heart at the final second. As a device, it’s unsubtle, but clear, just as it rams home the point of how the rest of these events have resulted in a world that constantly has a gun to its own head.

There is a very necessary question as to whether such things are right for big-budget summer blockbusters featuring good-looking stars, sexy bits, and smoking thousands of cigarettes in a cool wide-brimmed hat. Or, indeed, LOL-tastic opening double-bills with Barbie. That’s on you and your own mind to decide. But it doesn’t shy away from the stark terror of its subject, or how callously such power has been tossed about since. And in that, it does its job to staggering, tasteful, poignant effect.

Verdict: 4/5

Oppenheimer is out now via Universal