Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” based on the book “American Prometheus” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, is a riveting American tale of power, politics, and posturing. “Posturing” because as the minutes tick by, what begins as a story about a scientist leading a race against time to build a “bomb to end all wars” before the Nazis do, evolves into a grand political thriller of sorts, highlighting personal rivalries and ambitions. However, even with a generous three-hour runtime and an impressive cast, Nolan still isn’t able to give all his characters sufficient space to leave a powerful impression. It might seem unbelievable to state a three-hour movie wasn’t long enough! But that’s just how it is!
The pace is consistently steady, never slowing down, with constant plot developments and surprisingly, the makers avoid relying on slow-motion shots for emphasis on events, actions or emotions. While some sat bent forward on their seats in the theater, intent on not missing a single dialogue in the film, one could distinctly hear people in the packed hall chatting away, and there were others who constantly checked their phones. Clearly a few weren’t as invested in the experience as others. In-fact, there are three types of viewers who might find “Oppenheimer” completely uninteresting – those who know nothing about the politics of World War II; those who know too much; or those who were expecting a Batman-like action flick.
This movie is tailored for history fans and biopic enthusiasts and may not cater to Nolan’s regular fans. Nevertheless, the director infuses some of his trademark cinematic styles even in this period piece, like inserting dream sequences of Oppenheimer’s visions of nuclear fission, explosions, or of the atom splitting. The movie’s original soundtrack by Ludwig Göransson emerges as one of its strongest ingredients. The orchestral flourishes, the slow drumming up of beats, the poignant violin pieces, they all heighten the tension, anxiety and moral conflicts experienced by the characters.
Cilian Murphy is interesting as the flawed genius physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who is first hailed as a great American hero for helping build the atomic bomb and sealing America’s position as a world power during the war. Just like the real man who was considered a bit of an enigma by those close to him, the kind of genius who rarely reveals what’s going on in his mind, Murphy too firmly maintains a cold distant persona for most parts. Propped up as an American hero at first, he is soon pushed to the sidelines for voicing strong opinions and persecuted for being an alleged communist and a suspected soviet spy. His friendships with fellow scientists, romantic relationships, political ties, are all sped up like recaps. Only Emily Blunt as his wife Kitty Oppenheimer stirs the viewer despite her very limited screen time. She packs a punch as an impassioned wife who questions her husband’s actions and commands him to “pull himself together” when he falls apart. Robert Downing Jr. probably clocks in the most screen-space after Murphy as Lewis Strauss, and despite a compelling performance, it makes you wish there was more story to him.
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“Oppenheimer” is judiciously straightforward, it fairly presents how the atomic bomb was the culmination of several brilliant physicists and mathematicians, not just one man. But one always needs a poster boy, doesn’t one? And true to its title, Nolan and team keep their narrative fairly limited to their protagonist’s experiences. We never get to see or hear the arms race from the point-of-view of the Axis Powers and is what is truly laudable – the movie doesn’t exploit viewers’ emotions by showing any scenes of devastation cause by the bomb in Japan. Some might argue that this avoidance diminishes the real horror of what Oppenheimer and his team of scientists had created. Although the scientist became a pacifist after the war, he never expressed remorse for his contribution in making the one of the deadliest weapons known to mankind. Not that remorse can redeem anybody. Mere moral regret of mortals can never undo the damage caused by the nuclear arms race to the world. However, the film makes sure to underline that it was always a matter of “when” and “who” would have eventually developed the bomb. If not the Americans, it would have been someone else.
Christopher Nolan wraps the movie with an intriguing interaction between the protagonist and Albert Einstein. This exchange is first shown in the first half of the film, but their conversation isn’t audible, and it is revealed only in the climax. This clever narrative technique brings things full circle in the tale, leaving the audience with unsettling questions about war and peace.