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Prometheus Bound: Review of Oppenheimer
By Geoff Carter
As one of the most highly anticipated new releases of 2023, the movie Oppenheimer at first sight seems to be a bit ponderous to fit into the summer blockbuster category. Unlike Barbie, it does not seem to fit neatly into a film genre (but, in truth—in the final analysis—neither did the surprisingly complex Barbie). Oppenheimer, the film biography of the Robert Oppenheimer, the brilliant physicist who supervised the conception and building of the first two atomic bombs, might seem a little too much like history class for the average viewer.
But in the hands of director Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Inception, Memento, and Interstellar), the film transcends the history of a brilliant, arrogant, and somewhat naïve scientist into an examination of the metaphysical and psychological stressors that motivated and tormented him. After all, Robert Oppenheimer was the man who brought unimaginable destructive power to mankind—an accomplishment that made him a hero—but who was subsequently tormented by guilt and shame for unveiling the secrets that ultimately caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands—and the possible demise of Earth itself.
Based on the book American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, the film relates the story of a man whose peculiar and brilliant vision led him into realms of insight to which only a few could ever have access. Like Prometheus in Greek myth, Oppenheimer stole fire from the gods and gave it to man for their benefit to warm their homes and cook their food. Being men, of course, they also used the gift for destructive ends. For his pains, Prometheus was chained to a rock. Every day, vultures would come and tear at his liver. Every night it would grow back, and the cycle would begin again. Robert Oppenheimer unlocked the power of the atom and gave man thermonuclear warfare. Since the gods would not punish him for that, he took that task upon himself.
Using a fragmented narrative timeline, the film begins as Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) is being grilled by a committee about his security clearance. As his allegiance to his country and his former affiliations with the Communist Party are questioned, the story flashes back to his early days as a student, an expatriate, a renowned scholar, and, finally, an American hero.
As a student at Cambridge, young Oppenheimer is plagued by doubts, insecurities, and homesickness, but after meeting his idol Neil Bohr (Kevin Branaugh), who advises to focus on theory, and after meeting Werner Heisenberg (Matthias Schweighofer) in Switzerland, Oppenheimer’s brilliant career is set on the right path. In the early parts of the film, Nolan uses a variety of visual effects to convey the singularity of Oppenheimer’s vision. As he lies in his dormitory bed, images of stars, lights, and seething masses of matter—along with nearly mind-numbing sound—assail the viewer. While it is a simultaneously beautiful, mysterious, and frightening look into one of the greatest minds of our times, it is also logical, lyrical, and poetic. A vision.
Determined to establish a quantum phyics program in the United States, Oppenheimer eventually land in Berkeley and the California Institute of Technology, where he grows the new department from the ground up, meeting Dr. Ernest Lawrence (Josh Hartnett). While there, Oppenheimer meets communist Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh) with whom he starts a rocky romantic relationship. He also meets and woos Kitty (Emily Blunt) who he soon marries.
In 1942, Oppenheimer is recruited by Colonel Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) to oversee the production of the atomic bomb. Spurred by the Nazi persecution and murder of Jews and the fact that Heisenberg is working for the Germans, Oppenheimer accepts and talks Groves into establishing the base of operations in Los Alamos, New Mexico, near Oppenheimer’s ranch. Because of Oppenheimer’s ability and reputation, Groves is willing to overlook the physicist’s past Communist affiliation.
Oppenheimer insists on bringing in the best and collaborating with all departments, even though doing so creates a security nightmare for Groves. During the course of building the bomb, the slim possibility of the nuclear bomb starting an unstoppable chain reaction extending into the atmosphere and destroying Earth is broached. Oppenheimer visits his colleague Albert Einstein (Tom Conti) and they discuss the harrowing possibility.
During this time, Kitty, obviously dissatisfied and frustrated with the life of a housewife, takes to drinking heavily. Oppenheimer visits Jean but tells her he can no longer see her. He is devastated when he learns she has committed suicide a few months later. During this time, Oppenheimer is also carrying on an affair with other women.
Despite the complications in his personal life, the “gadget” is finally completed and successfully tested at Los Alamos. Since the Nazis had already surrendered, some of the scientists protest the use of the bomb against Japan but are overruled. The bomb is dropped on Hiroshima and then Nagasaki and the war is won. Oppenheimer, however, is haunted by the destruction his work—his vision—has caused and seeks to slow research on the newer more powerful hydrogen bomb. Running into resistance from Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey, Jr.), the head of the newly formed Atomic Energy Commission, Oppenheimer finds himself falling into disfavor for his political views and is called to a hearing to ascertain his security clearance.
At the beginning, it is unclear why or how Oppenheimer’s security file was leaked to the hearing committee, but it becomes very clear how the hearing will end. Through his arrogance, the famous scientist had made too many enemies more than willing to use his past affiliations with the Communist Party to crucify him. Despite support from Groves, Rabi, and others, Oppenheimer is ostracized from political circles.
The film Oppenheimer is not only an historical biography of a renowned scientist and his accomplishments but is also a penetrating psychology study into the heart, mind, and conscience of a man torn by an insatiable thirst for scientific truth, burning ambition, and guilt by proxy for the deaths he had indirectly caused and for handing the human race the means for destroying the entire planet.
J. Robert Oppenheimer could have avoided dishonor and disgrace, had he followed Einstein’s advice, and simply not gone to the security hearing, but he did. He chose to have his past examined, his past collaborations exposed, and his sins brought to light. He chose to be tried in a kangaroo court. He chose to be punished.
To say J. Robert Oppenheimer was a complicated man is an understatement, but this film also reveals the complex relationship between science, government, morality, and conscience. Oppenheimer was caught between his brilliance, his ambition, his flaws, and the times. He had to build the bomb before the Nazis but by doing so, he became—in his own mind—a killer. Once the genie was out of the bottle, he tried to put it back in, but that task was beyond even his considerable powers.
Oppenheimer is a beautiful movie. It is also disturbing, fascinating, and thought-provoking. Nolan has done a masterful job of presenting his subject’s life through a series of flashbacks, mixing black and white footage of Strauss’s cabinet confirmation with sepia-toned images of the forties with the brilliant images gleaned from the scientist’s own psyche.
Cillian Murphy hands in a masterful performance as Oppenheimer. His face, while nearly always inscrutable, is a wonderful landscape of planes and angles. While Murphy’s resemblance to the real Oppenheimer is remarkable, his performance resonates with the psychological depths of a tormented soul.
The star-studded supporting cast is outstanding. Matt Damon’s turn as a tough but supportive Colonel Groves gracefully balances toughness with humor and understanding. As Jean Tatlock, Florence Pugh is wonderfully dark. Emily Blunt, Josh Hartnett, and Gary Oldman all turn in magnificent performances. The film—though long—is a beautifully rendered cinematic work. It is absorbing, gripping, challenging, and entertaining. It even has explosions. Big ones.
J. Robert Oppenheimer was an American Prometheus. He stole fire from the gods and gave it to the grasping hands of a foolish and rapacious human race and regretted it to the day he died. This Prometheus was not bound by the gods as a punishment. They were not there, so he took it upon himself to inflict the punishment for his presumption to sit amongst the gods. This film is about all that made up this hero, this visionary, and this tragically flawed hero.