Review: ‘Oppenheimer’ dramatically profiles trials, tribulations of infamous physicist

When it was announced that Christopher Nolan would make his return to the director’s chair with a film chronicling the career of the father of the atomic bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer in September 2021, many film fans and history buffs’ minds became piqued.

Then news began to trickle out that the film would include a star-studded cast with names like Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt and Matt Damon, and anticipation began to build.

Adding to the ante was the news that the film used first-of-its-kind IMAX black-and-white film — which can be seen during scenes in which Downey Jr. puts on a show with his portrayal of Adm. Lewis Strauss — and organic visual effects that visually recreated an explosion similar to the one caused by the Trinity Test in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Though this gave the notion that the three-hour-long film would be centered around the creation and use of the atomic bombs during the Manhattan Project, the film actually digs deeper, also exploring the Red Scare and the arms race against the Soviet Union.

This is displayed by the first few scenes, which feature two separate hearings in which it is unclear if Oppenheimer and Strauss are testifying on behalf of one another or against each other.

As it is later revealed in the film, Strauss is bidding for the position of secretary of commerce during 1959 Senate confirmation hearings, whereas Oppenheimer is testifying to keep his top-secret clearance with the U.S. Department of Energy several years earlier.

It is established early in the film that Oppenheimer came under intense scrutiny during the final years of his career in physics due to his interest in far-left political views and groups that had ties to communist ideologies, even though he never openly joined the Communist Party USA. This led to questions surrounding Oppenheimer’s allegiance to the United States as well as if he was sharing nuclear secrets with the Soviet Union.

This plot looms over the film even during scenes where the screen is filled with a star-studded cast of actors portraying scientists, politicians and other historical figures, among them Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, President Harry S. Truman, President Lyndon B. Johnson and Edward Teller.

The film features brief appearances from actors like Alex Wolf, Josh Peck, Jack Quaid and Gustaf Skarsgård. But actors like Rami Malek, Casey Affleck, Florence Pugh, Gary Oldman, Benny Safdie, Alden Ehrenreich, Jason Clarke and Tom Conti share their weight in pivotal scenes.

Though the film has a three-hour runtime, it keeps audiences on the edge of their seat by being intensely dramatic and perfectly fitting multiple subplots under the macro plot of the Red Scare.

The first big moment of the film comes when audiences anxiously await Nolan’s recreation of the Trinity Test, but once the bomb bursts across the screen, there is a deafening silence as the screen becomes illuminated by a burst of orange, red and yellow pigments.

But perhaps the most impressive shot of the film comes when the screen jumps from an extreme close-up of an explosion to a wide shot of scientists admiring the bursting mushroom cloud.

Although this scene is seemingly climatic, it tees up an equally exhilarating second half of the film in which Oppenheimer is haunted by his role in the creation of the atomic bomb and the subsequent decision to drop two on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, as displayed by somewhat graphic hallucinations from his point of view.

But Oppenheimer uses his new platform to attempt to become a peacekeeper in the ensuing nuclear arms race, which outrages politicians who have ties to nuclear energy boards and companies. These figures seek to oust Oppenheimer from the public eye and do so by digging up his past interest in communist ideologies and ties to the party.

The film expertly balances vibrantly colored film with sleek black-and-white reels meant to be experienced on screens that support IMAX 70mm film, while the script, which is based on the book “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer,” is portrayed in a neutral manner that allows audiences to formulate their own opinions about its characters and dig deeper into their history.

“Oppenheimer” opens in theaters Friday, July 21.

This article appears in Jul 20-26, 2023.