Review of Oppenheimer
When the test for the atomic bomb was ongoing, and it finally went off, I was thinking in silence that damn, that is power. Eventually the sound wave reached us, I saw Oppenheimer, and understood what he was thinking. ‘What have I done.’
You see, Christopher Nolan did this. He did this thing, showing us that scientists are also human, challenging the “mad scientist” stereotype. Yeah there have been some movies that portrayed scientists brilliantly before, but I think I’m not wrong when I say Nolan with his movies was the most influential.
And here we are with Oppenheimer. A pretty close look at one of the most influential scientists in history. Yeah, It’s not about the atomic bomb. It’s about the scientist.
A person never remains the same before and after taking a life. Oppenheimer murdered more than a hundred thousand people. Yeah it’s not direct murder, but it isn’t indirect either. He suffered for his sins. Not nearly enough, but he suffered. In reality, he worked the rest of his life to limit and control the use of science for military development.
At the end, when Oppenheimer tells Einstein, ‘we thought we might start a chain reaction, that would destroy the entire world…I believe we did.’ This was the crux of the movie. The whole point of science is to develop humanity, to ensure the well being of human beings. If innovation doesn’t inspire general good, it loses meaning. The invention of the atomic bomb was a huge misstep in the evolution of science and technology, Oppenheimer understood that, and always opposed the creation of hydrogen bombs later on. After nearly a hundred years, we are now always on the brink of extinction. The world has more than enough atomic bombs to completely incinerate itself. But why would anyone decide to do it? Well, for example, Pakistan is in an unimaginably bad state right now. But they cannot and will not be allowed to fall into complete bankruptcy. Why? Because they have a great deal of nuclear strength. If they die, they sure as hell won’t die alone. So if they are allowed to fall, over billions might get pushed into death. That’s just one example of the short sightedness of the invention of atomic bombs. Before innovating, we absolutely must get the philosophy straight. Unfortunately, even after making such a huge blunder, we still aren’t conscientious of our inventions enough. History always repeats itself, at least once, doesn’t it? The rise of AI is another example of what unregulated inventions can do. Already thousands of people have been kicked out of their jobs, since AI works faster than them. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be making human life easier, not dire. An influential engineer leaves OpenAI saying they don’t focus on AI safety enough, he launches Anthropic. Elon Musk says no one is developing AI for the general gain of humanity, he launches xAI. Why the heck is everyone so concerned about human safety now? Shouldn’t you have thought about this before launching the revolutionary tech? I’ve heard some people say Oppenheimer is the most important movie of the century. Yeah, it might be.
One thing that I particularly loved about this film is how it portrayed Oppenheimer’s political struggles. He had to report a lot of details of his life, which had to be corroborated by others who were connected to the occurrences. He repeatedly had to convince others for things he needed, and even after reaching that level of success in his life, Oppenheimer had to take in a lot of bullshit. Understand that it wasn’t just his success, he was the person who brought success for all of America. He was the living life that practically ended WWII. And this person was being treated like filth. This can be solace for those in real life, who may have achieved good things, yet at certain places they get mistreated. It happens, even to the absolute best. Nevertheless, His love life was also very complicated. I was thinking while watching, how can someone take so much social pressure while devising solutions for extremely complex mathematical problems like that? The life of a scientist at that level, when stakes are that high, it’s unfathomably hard to even remain sane I guess. Again, when he had actually delivered on his word, when he is the man of the moment throughout the whole world and especially a hero to America, he is tried for treason. He is treated like a low life. Oppenheimer was pretty calm throughout the events, maybe because he thought he deserved every bit of crap that was being thrown at him.
In Nolan’s direction, he allows us only few moments to catch our breath. Throughout the film, I was unable to sit back comfortably; every time I tried, I had to bend forward to keep up with the intensity of the events onscreen.
Sound effects were masterclass as with all Nolan movies. Totally forces the viewers to be attentive, in a positive way.
Cillian Murphy played Oppenheimer so good. An absolute soulful performance. This is probably his best role ever as well.
Now before I go into some criticism, I gotta clarify my mode of criticism. I do not criticize on “what could’ve been” based on what’s out there; I criticize on “what could’ve been” based on what the target was. I try to rate a movie as its own thing.
First of all, the promotional material convinced us that the focus was on the atomic bomb. However, the movie doesn’t even show the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is of course a flaw of marketing and not of direction. But it had to be called out. In the hall, everyone was putting out their mobile cameras thinking ‘here comes the big blast’ but the movie just ended, haha.
Secondly, throughout the movie I was thinking there are more to these women, Jean and Kitty. They do mention that Jean is a psychiatrist and Kitty a biologist. But I was expecting more of them in a three hour movie, where actually the only thing they did was cry and drink. When you Google them you do see that they were indeed kinda influential women. Nolan even cracked a joke using Kitty (Emily Blunt) where she was telling Oppenheimer there’s no kitchen in the new house! That was hilarious tbh but still, in a world where there are very few women that may deserve acclaim, I think we should glorify the ones that do deserve some. Eventually, we just end up hating both of those female characters in this movie.
Lastly, the pinnacle of blasts in the film is the one that is the final test explosion. I think this needed to be a little more grandiose. Practical effects are great and all, but I think sometimes you gotta add a little bit of CGI too.
Even after being three hours long, you might slightly feel at points, that this part of the storytelling needed a bit more information, that character needed a bit more development.
Even though a hugely pertinent film because of the state of the current world, this isn’t Nolan’s best work. For example, Dunkirk will make you feel better than Oppenheimer, even though Oppenheimer is much more heavier of a movie. Nevertheless, this might end up getting the most awards.
Humanity, now, has the power to destroy itself. Oppenheimer gave these angry, egocentric people of the world the ultimate tool to infinite destruction within the limits of their reach.
Ingenuity, Devastation, and Reckoning. 9.5/10.
