Review of the IMAX film ‘Oppenheimer’ (2023)

In this film, Christopher Nolan adapts for the screen and directs American Prometheus, the biographical book about the life of Julian Robert Oppenheimer, famous for being the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory that created the atomic bomb. From the beginning of the film, the story switches between at least four timelines: the main story (the one the trailer takes its scenes from), a meeting and two hearings. The film won’t tell you the dates, but I will: 1949 for the meeting and 1954 and 1959 for the hearings. Nolan, as in his film Memento, pedagogically tells apart the timelines through photography: the main timeline and the 1954 timeline are shown in colour, and the 1949 and 1959 timelines are shown in black and white.

The words ‘This is not a judgement’ are said at the beginning of the film; hearings are not trials, there are no criminal charges, no objects to examine, no burden of proof. But hearings and meetings are trials in every other aspect: scenically, dramatically, strategically. A trial is a closed universe examining itself – whatever facts that are deemed relevant are examined. Writers and filmmakers profit from it, creating stories that follow the trial's queries into the past. The film Oppenheimer certainly follows this formula, only that there are three trials instead of one – an incident from the main timeline can be examined in the rest of timelines and besides in itself too.

Nolan manages to pull out this tour de force mainly successfully, but not it full. In spite of the pedagogical effort from Nolan, showing quick flashbacks whenever a past event is referenced, it’s easy to get lost at some point with so many timelines. In spite of the carefully crafted script, some things are left unclear. The day that the Third Reich invades Poland is clearly shown, but the days the USA enter the war with Japan and the Third Reich are never mentioned. Before the main timeline reaches the development of the bomb in 1945, the 1949 timeline shows that the Soviet Union already has it. The 1959 hearing is not introduced properly, so for many minutes it seems a revision of the 1954 hearing rather than an unrelated one.

In addition to this, this critic chooses to take to himself an additional duty when it comes to historical films: to evaluate its historical accuracy as well. Well, it happens to be very accurate, with only the conspirational part around the 1954 hearing lacking evidence to support it.

Oppenheimer is presented as an idealist, honest except for being unfaithful, ingenuous except for supporting the atomic bombings of Japan, endlessly working for the atomic bomb but opposed to the hydrogen bomb. His position evolves through the film though – at first, he just wants to be the first to get a nuclear bomb and opposes the more destructive hydrogen bomb only because of being more difficult to develop, but later on he opposes the hydrogen bomb because of realizing that if the USA get it, then the Soviet Union will have to get it too. Nolan’s script leaves the responsibility of the atomic bombings out of Oppenheimer’s shoulders and puts the focus instead on these scruples and makes them key for the 1954 hearing, getting to the point of presenting Oppenheimer as someone resembling a martyr. As for whether or not it is paradoxical to have scruples about the hydrogen bomb and none at all about the atomic bomb, is beyond the purpose of this review to say.

The cinematography is arty, low on light and colour, obscure in some scenes. The depth of field is always thin, with Nolan usually keeping the background off-focus.

The film is said to be filmed with IMAX cameras, and the image shows it – but because of thin field of depth, the low lighting and most of the action happening in interiors, it is barely noticeable. Another film where the only advantage that the IMAX quality provides is to watch the pores in the actors’ faces.

Nolan’s direction is, as usual, flawless. With the right pace, never slowing down for too long, and the help of sound and music, Nolan keeps the spectator interested. The music, as in Nolan's previous film Tenet, is composed by Ludwig Göransson. The style is much the same, electronic, theme-less music – but this time the music has the right feeling, and that makes it actually good.

As for the interpretation: This is a film with an unusually high number of actors, and of unusually high quality too. The direction of actors from Nolan shows, for I haven’t encountered a single bad performance, and that is the most unusual thing of them all – Tom Conti’s performance, being just about, is the least good performance in the film. With so many actors it is only possible to evaluate a fraction of them. These are the ones I manage to evaluate, in no particular order:

• Good performances from Gary Oldman, Josh Hartnett, Rami Malek, Dylan Arnold, Jefferson Hall, Máté Haumann and Kenneth Branagh.

• Brilliant performances from Emily Blunt, David Dastmalchian, Dane Dehaan, Benny Safdie, Florence Pugh, Jason Clarke, Casey Affleck, Alden Ehrenreich, Macon Blair and David Krumholtz.

• As for Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon and Robert Downey Jr., the main actors in the film: Cillian Murphy is obviously one of Nolan’s favourite actors, for he has got roles in half of Nolan’s films. However, he’s not the kind of actor that gets the spectator to know what the character is thinking – I find his performance to be simply good, just as Damon’s. Robert Downey Jr., on the other hand, steals the show with a balanced performance having the right amount of containment, with a result not short of great.

All in all, an excellent historical film. 4 stars out of 5.

Comparison with the 1989 film ‘Fat Man and Little Boy’ is unavoidable and I, for one, am certainly not avoiding it. This film tells only the story of the first two atomic bombs, which allows for this story to be told with more details. It shows a radiation accident, as much terrible as fascinating, based on real accidents that happened at Los Alamos, only later. The main difference is the focus on the relationship between scientists and military, with many problems in the way. Without the character of Strauss, the duo of protagonists is played by Dwight Schultz and Paul Newman. Schultz’s interpretation of Oppenheimer is very different from Murphy’s, not better nor worse. However, Newman’s embodiment of General Groves is another matter – now that’s a General!

Title:	Oppenheimer
Genre:	Historical
Year:	2023
Nationality:	USA, United Kingdom
Colour:	Colour
Director:	Christopher Nolan
Writer:	Christopher Nolan, Kai Bird, Martin Sherwin
Cast:	Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Alden Ehrenreich, Scott Grimes, Jason Clarke, Kurt Koehler, Tony Goldwyn, John Gowans, Macon Blair, James D'Arcy, Kenneth Branagh, Harry Groener, Gregory Jbara, Ted King, Tim DeKay, Steven Houska, Tom Conti, David Krumholtz, Petrie Willink, Matthias Schweighöfer, Josh Hartnett, Alex Wolff, Josh Zuckerman, Rory Keane, Michael Angarano, Dylan Arnold, Emma Dumont, Florence Pugh, Sadie Stratton, Jefferson Hall, Britt Kyle, Guy Burnet, Tom Jenkins, Matthew Modine, Louise Lombard, David Dastmalchian, Michael Andrew Baker, Jeff Hephner, Matt Damon, Dane DeHaan, Olli Haaskivi, David Rysdahl, Josh Peck, Jack Quaid, Brett DelBuono, Benny Safdie, Gustaf Skarsgård, James Urbaniak, Trond Fausa, Devon Bostick, Danny Deferrari, Christopher Denham, Jessica Erin Martin, Ronald Auguste, Rami Malek, Máté Haumann, Olivia Thirlby, Jack Cutmore-Scott, Casey Affleck, Harrison Gilbertson, James Remar, Will Roberts, Pat Skipper, Steve Coulter, Jeremy John Wells, Sean Avery, Adam Kroeger, Drew Kenney, Bryce Johnson, Flora Nolan, Kerry Westcott, Christina Hogue, Clay Bunker, Tyler Beardsley, Maria Teresa Zuppetta, Kate French, Gary Oldman, Hap Lawrence
Producer:	Christopher Nolan, Charles Roven, Emma Thomas
Executive producer:	Thomas Haysli, p, J. David Wargo, James Woods
Production designer:	Ruth De Jong
Cinematographer:	Hoyte Van Hoytema
Film editor:	Jennifer Lame
Casting:	John Papsidera
Art Director:	Anthony D. Parrillo, Samantha Englender
Set Decorator:	Claire Kaufman, Olivia Peebles, Adam Willis
Costume Designer:	Ellen Mirojnick
Music:	Ludwig Göransson
Running time:	180 minutes
Language:	English