Howie Nave Movie Review on Oppenheimer: 5 out of 5 Bagels

After seeing the epic biopic, “Oppenheimer” it becomes plainly clear that the man known as the “Father of the Atomic Bomb” caused just as much of a chain reaction in his personal life after splitting the atom. This is definitely director Christopher Nolan’s best work so far. As a fan of World War II, I feel a little embarrassed I didn’t know more about theoretical physicist Robert Oppenheimer other than he was involved in what was known as the Manhattan Project, which created the first atomic bomb at the Los Alamos laboratories in New Mexico. I also didn’t realize that the atomic bombs that were eventually dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were originally developed out of fear that the Nazis would develop one first. Oppenheimer was the head of the Manhattan Project overseeing thousands of scientists and although we don’t see the effects of the massive destruction released on its victims in Japan, Nolan brilliantly shows the psychological effect it has on Oppenheimer through his hollow eyes with bright flashes of light that are far more effective and haunting with a music bed to match provided by Ludwig Goransson’s score.

Cillian Murphy’s portrayal of Oppenheimer is beyond Oscar worthy capturing the man in different phases of his life with the weight on his shoulders imposed by other scientists and the government to finish and successfully test the bomb. Cillian’s expressions are just as poignant as the words he speaks from keeping his team focused to the constant pressure from Gen. Leslie Groves (played by Matt Damon), the Pentagon builder who brought Oppenheimer in to helm the Manhattan Project. The movie works on several levels with a lot of flashback moments shown in glorious black & white. In the three years it took developing the bomb (starting in 1942) to its successful detonation on July 16, 1945 (code name “Trinity”) the cast of characters overall worked with the same goal in mind: to end the war in the Pacific. Things change dramatically after that from those who want to push for more powerful bombs escalating what will become known as the Cold War with Russia. That’s where another Oscar-worthy performance is shown in the way of Robert Downey, Jr. who I didn’t even recognize! His portrayal of Lewis Strauss, Chair of the US Atomic Energy Commission who pushes beyond the atomic bomb wanting to green light the creation of the H-bomb, is magnificent. His ego has already become even more explosive than that bomb! Another actor worth noting is the brilliant actor Kenneth Branagh who plays Niels Bohr, the Danish physicist who won the Nobel Prize for breakthroughs in understanding atomic structure and quantum theory. It was Bohr who stated, “This isn’t a new weapon; it’s a new world.”

The few women that appear in Christopher Nolan’s film are very pivotal in Oppenheimer’s life. Florence Pugh plays Jean Tatlock a Communist Party member and the inspiration for the name of the project, code named ’Trinity.’ She’s a sexually liberated, intelligent woman who is deeply damaged. She met Oppenheimer at a Berkeley house party in the spring of 1936. Emily Blunt plays Oppenheimer’s wife, Kitty. Her character is pretty much reduced to someone who has no interest in being a mother, double with that of a person who has a serious drinking problem. She too is a member of the Communist Party as is Oppenheimer’s brother, Frank (played by Dylan Arnold). Oppenheimer never officially declared himself a Communist but unfortunately, it’s the McCarthyism era that ruined the careers of not just actors and entertainers but scientists as well many of whom had been linked to the American Communist Party in the years leading up to World War II. During the war and through the 1950s, the government used it against Oppenheimer in an effort to deny him his security clearance.

Despite its three hours length, there are so many good actors that just didn’t get enough screen time including those involved with the Manhattan Project including his longtime friend Isidore Rabi (played by David Krumholtz), his UC Berkeley colleague Ernest Lawrence (Josh Hartnett), the in-your-face Hungarian Edward Teller (Benny Safdie) and a brief encounter with renown scientist Albert Einstein (played by Tom Conti). It's worth noting that the very brief scenes these two scientific giants have together show the difference between the two involving the atomic bomb. Though it was Einstein's letter to President Roosevelt that convinced FDR to begin a nuclear weapons program Einstein was not involved in the Manhattan Project. Others include Casey Affleck as Boris Pash, the Presidio’s Chief Army Counter Intelligence Officer, Rami Malek as an associate physicist who makes his mark in a Senate hearing later in the film and a very unrecognizable Gary Oldman who plays President Harry Truman. Although his screen time is short be sure to pay attention to his first encounter with Robert Oppenheimer in the Oval Office (who had just made the cover of TIME Magazine).

The film is so timeless and I’m reminded every time I turn on the news and hear someone threatening to use nuclear bombs such as Russian leader Vladimir Putin threatening Ukraine with them, Israel, and possibly Iran (no one knows for sure if they’ve developed one yet) or neighboring countries India (who became a nuclear power in 1974) and Pakistan (who became a nuclear power in 1998). Neither country has used nuclear weapons in conflict, but many experts fear that the ongoing crisis could escalate beyond conventional weapons. The movie is a constant reminder that conflicts can’t be settled at this stage and it definitely haunted Robert Oppenheimer so brilliantly portrayed in this biopic.

“Oppenheimer” is rated R for nudity, language, some sexuality, and clocks in at 3 hours and 9 seconds.