Review: Oppenheimer – Synevropa

07/21/2023 – Christopher Nolan’s long-awaited film about the “father of the atomic bomb” falls into many of the pitfalls of the biographical format.

No wonder J. Robert Oppenheimer’s invention of the nuclear bomb may have mixed feelings. However, the fact that the man (who Cillian Murphy) regrets using his invention to kill thousands of people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, presented near the end Oppenheimer (+read also:
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movie postcard) From Christopher Nolan like a great revelation. It’s not the only confusing moment in the film, confusing in the sense that Nolan’s director places too much emphasis on these not-quite-new or unexpected moments. An absurd scene illustrating the jealousy of Oppenheimer’s wife produces a similar impression (Emily Blunt) against his former mistress (Florence Pugh), a rather trivial dynamics that does not deserve such categorical consideration. Likewise, the scene in which Oppenheimer delivers his triumphant speech after the bomb is dropped is redundant and tasteless. The play between subjective angles and surreal imagery evokes student film ingenuity rather than conveying real sincerity.

Paradoxically, the emotions that the “destroyer of worlds” experienced about his invention are not so interesting. What is far more fascinating and more amenable to dramatization is the journey that led the scientist to the creation of the weapon.

In the very first frames of the film, with haste and stereotyped images, reminiscent of Go Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, a perpetual satire on biographical stereotypes. It seems that in every room the young Oppenheimer enters, he meets a world-famous scientist who tells him where to go. These early descriptive sequences are full of superfluous and clumsily inserted detailed biographical information. Nolan himself seems to recognize this, as he prefers to juxtapose a linear biography with two other significant moments in Oppenheimer’s life: the 1954 security hearing, during which he was questioned about his past communist connections, and the Lewis Strauss hearing in 1959. year. Senate confirmation (performed by excellent Robert Downey Jr.), who was interrogated as a former member of the Atomic Energy Commission about his past support for Oppenheimer.

Gallery of recognizable faces (Josh Hartnett, Jason Clarke and Casey Affleck, to name a few) these scenes sometimes run the risk of detracting from the dialogue, which is so dense that it seems like Nolan was deliberately trying to express simple ideas in the most convoluted way possible. Be that as it may, trying to understand the system of secret alliances and rivalries that shaped Oppenheimer’s fate is the most amusing of the mysteries that Nolan offers us.

One of the main themes of the film is Oppenheimer’s passion for theories and his naive belief that they can and should be considered in isolation from their potential applications in real life. The story will be ironic for him in that sense, but apart from his story, it seems that Nolan wants to warn us against the danger of living only in our heads. Perhaps that is why the director, who is often accused of having such a disembodied point of view in his work, cares about conveying not only the ideas of his character, but also his sex life and emotions, no matter how obvious they may seem. Overall, this approach doesn’t work (especially the sex scene, which is downright bizarre), but Murphy’s intense delivery helps keep the film more or less grounded.

Much more touching is the film’s emphasis on the fact that Oppenheimer was Jewish: the bomb he created to fight the Nazis ended up killing thousands of people. Nolan’s direct and naive style works best in the scene where the officers decide which two Japanese cities to bomb. No fairy-tale or subjective sequences are needed to convey Oppenheimer’s deep ambivalence at the time. Perhaps the film could have done without the declamatory scenes.

Oppenheimer produced by Syncopy (UK) and American companies Universal Pictures, Atlas Entertainment and Gadget Films. Distributed by Universal Pictures.

(Translation from English)