Oppenheimer (2023)

These are my initial unedited thoughts on the film.

Oppenheimer is paradoxically both the least and most Nolan film Christopher Nolan has directed. Unlike every entry that came before it, this film has no great cinematic action set-pieces, tangentially supernatural ideas, or adventuresome heroes bending space and time. Audiences seeking a second Inception will find JFK instead. Yet, Oppenheimer is perhaps the ideological and technical culmination of his filmography. From his start in cinema, he has brought a specific non-linearity to filmmaking. Memento’s plot after all, as described by Nolan, is best understood by looking at it like a horseshoe. His war film Dunkirk is similarly twisted. Each of the different modes of warfare are on a different temporal plane, interlocking to form a connected story of the British evacuation. In this sense, Oppenheimer is as much offspring of his previous work as any of his films.

At one point in the film, Oppenheimer tells his brother and his fellow physicist friend Ernest Lawrence his desire to connect the two most important things in his life: physics and New Mexico. The years pass and his career progresses. When the Manhattan Project is given to him and his authority, the first thing he does is complete his quest. He creates a physics laboratory at the center of Los Alamos, his dreamland. What came to my mind then was Christopher Nolan’s story. Above all else, he is a director of ideas. He tries to conceptualize abstract theories on the big screen. From Memento to Tenet, theory becomes real.

Nolan’s choice to pursue Oppenheimer’s story is as natural as Spielberg choosing to tell the story of Oskar Schindler. It is as if he planned this decades ago. Memento is a story of memory, Inception of dreams, and Tenet of time. Nolan’s Interstellar illustrated the wonder of theoretical physics to a global audience. It seems as if this whole time he has been trying to arrive at this film: a place where theory meets reality. He finds his subject in Oppenheimer as naturally as the real Oppenheimer chooses Los Alamos as the site for the project. In looking at Oppenheimer as a supremely Nolan creation weakens my appreciation of the film, by making me realize that behind the movie is a man attempting to convince me that this physicist was the most important person that has ever lived. He fails to do that effectively. Conversely, leaving the film I was left with the thought that the bomb could have still been created whether Oppenheimer held the reins of the Manhattan Project or not. It is not as if the other scientists on the project lacked the scientific or leadership capabilities to marshal the forces necessary to produce a bomb.

Putting aside Nolan’s decision to choose this project and the relative importance of Oppenheimer himself, the film is a great accomplishment. It is a propulsive film, moving through this historical episode at a Sorkin-like pace. Yet even moving faster than probably any three-hour film I can remember, it doesn’t omit the important details of his life. It correctly, and consistently, highlights the Jewish element of the atomic bomb project. The truth is that for many of the scientists working at Los Alamos, the race to beat the Nazis was an existential effort. They had either escaped the Nazis themselves or knew relatives who had. So, when Hitler kills himself and the race for all intents and purposes ends, that willingness to use the bomb dies as well. These changing priorities nicely compliments Oppenheimer’s shift toward a different but ultimately weaker ethical justification for the bomb, that its use will be a demonstration so powerful that it ends all wars.

This new justification is essentially a lie. Oppenheimer is not interested in creating the bomb for any reasons of war, before or after the Nazi government collapses. For him, it’s a device that will thrust him into a state of historical significance. It’s the same reason he returns to the States to create a department of quantum theory; he wants to be remembered. But when the bomb’s use on Hiroshima and Nagasaki makes him a national hero, he cannot hold the fame that he had previously sought. He finally grasps the enormity of the weapon that his project created, while also realizing the terrible truth that he cannot forgive himself for what happened. It is not the act of mass destruction itself that makes him unable to achieve absolution. Instead, it is the realization that he committed these sins to satisfy his egotistical desire for power. This internal fight within Oppenheimer is the source of his obvious passivity as the forces of government and enemy agents combine to strip him of his popularity and credibility. By exposing the type of terrible person Oppenheimer becomes as he matures, Nolan’s script is made more intriguing than other biopics. The Darkest Hour was great character work, but it never attempted to deal with the sort of material Oppenheimer manages so effortlessly.

It is always difficult to understand what makes a masterpiece a masterpiece. Often, we don’t know the future of a film in the moments following its creation. However, these films all demonstrate mastery on multiple fronts of filmmaking. Oppenheimer clearly satisfies that requirement. As an exercise in editing and sound design, this film is among the best of the last decade. Jennifer Lame’s editing working in conjunction with Goransson’s score produces a natural suspense that transforms a dialogue driven thriller into something else clearly elevated beyond its genre. Several scenes come to mind. When Oppenheimer is in the basketball gym giving his “victory” speech, the film becomes a horror picture of sorts. We experience Oppenheimer’s terror at the monster he believes he’s responsible for creating. A child’s scream echoes loudly in the background. The screen whites out. We see the tattered faces of the cheering crowd, torn by the explosion of the bomb. While we take in these images, the sound drops off. The cheers dry up and the room is empty. Suddenly, the screen flashes and the sound returns in a shock; Oppenheimer is thrust back to reality. Before I walked into the theater, I always imagined that the Trinity Test itself would be the lasting scene that I would remember. Now, I think it will be this scene that will follow me. It is here where the film becomes more than a biopic.

I originally booked a ticket 3 days after my first viewing in IMAX 70mm to watch it again. Now, I realize this film demands some time to digest. I may edit this post later if the rewatch changes any of my thoughts, but I really enjoyed my first viewing of the film. Unlike any of Nolan’s previous films, Oppenheimer succeeds as a character driven thriller. The complexity of Oppenheimer’s motivations as they are slowly unveiled to the audience is so intrinsically engaging that we don’t need the typical Nolan frills to keep us interested. Combined with the tremendous technical work from Goransson, Lame, and Hoytema, two days later I am still unable to rid myself from thoughts of Oppenheimer.