Oppenheimer Movie Review

Summer 2023

Do not go to view this movie if you have not done your homework on the subject matter. This is not entertainment for fun and games. It is a serious film about J Robert Oppenheimer, the building of the bomb, and the after currents that followed which still reverberate in today’s world politics.

The human being as a culprit looking for self-destruction, no matter the means of accomplishing it, gives director Christopher Nolan his psychological canvas. With the non-liner set pieces interspersed in the 180 minutes, the various court settings, congressional hearings, sexual discretions, interlocked with personal conversations between presidents, scientists, politicians, and military leaders. The important historical events, such as the explosion of the first bomb in New Mexico, are paced in a frantic way, but do not consume the film as a much younger and less astute audience would want. This is not for the less intelligent, and those that want more than what they get are just shit out of luck here. Again, this is not for the dumbasses that frequent the cinema for a quickie, in any form.

This movie is about history first, but just as important, about Oppenheimer the man, his thoughts, his demons, his loves, and his personal struggles within and outside his sphere of control. We have some tremendous performances, something that Nolan does better here than most of his past films. At least in volume if not anything less. His actors in this film are each significant in what they bring to their performance. Nolan made sure that the A-list of greats, such as Casey Afflick, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, and Gary Oldman get their due, but not to overpower the B-list that is numerous. Mentioning a few, Florence Pugh, Bennie Safdie, Matthew Modine and Jason Clarke all are solid.  I will also note Alden Ehrenreich as the senate aide to Lewis Strauss, who was perfect in his final lines with the unsuccessful cabinet hopeful Strauss.

Robert Downey Jr gave his greatest performance, with respect to Charlie Chaplin and Tony Stark. He will win most of the awards for supporting actor for this year. Emily Blunt gives her greatest performance also. And to get Cillian Murphy to play Oppenheimer, Nolan pulled all the right buttons with Murphy’s help in grooming himself physically for the role.

With all the hate that Nolan gets for his films not being being understood for his off beat direction and pacing, the issue of great film-making for him is totally misunderstood. Not my most favorite film by this director, it is by far, the most significant.

Four stars out of five stars on my short Letterboxd review.

From a Facebook post I make a day before I posted this review.

as I agree with most of your post, it might be his most “important” film he has made to date, even if I might think it is not his best (which is also a matter of opinion and I cannot say it wasn’t without being totally subjective, which I will not here.) I became very disturbed with the ending. I tend to think what was done in New Mexico during the building of the bomb was very possible the building the one thing that will end humanity in the end. What one must remember is that Russia and Germany were also doing their best to best the USA in the build. Humanity, no matter if it lives in any country or under any political slant, will, in the end, kill itself with something, being a bomb or with something else, say AI for a future example. The human will not, in the long of it, live for eternity on this earth. Nothing will stop us in doing so.