Christopher Nolan doesn’t know the word small. Everything Nolan creates is vast, big, grand and epic. It helps that the filmmaker prefers to shoot films on film and with IMAX cameras too preferably, meaning even behind the camera he prefers to use the best of the best. From Inception to Dunkirk, from the Dark Knight Trilogy to Interstellar, Christopher Nolan has gone through a lot of metaphysical concepts such as dreaming, time travel, and interspace travel and he’s even taken us back to the battlefields of war-torn Dunkirk. For his latest film, Oppenheimer, he has one task - to tell the story of the man who forever changed the world by becoming the ‘Father of the Atom Bomb’.
Oppenheimer is a bit like Dunkirk for Nolan, it’s a story about a piece of history that hasn’t been told on a cinematic scale before. Oppenheimer is by all means a biopic, a first for the filmmaker as well, and it is an epic biopic! Detailing the life of Robert J. Oppenheimer from his studies in Europe, through his relationships with Jean Tatlock and his future wife Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer, to the creation of the deadliest weapon mankind has ever created. Cillian Murphy is magnetic as Oppenheimer, delivering an intense performance filled with politics and science that aim to educate the audience instead of demeaning them. Then there’s the all-star cast assigned to the film. From the likes of Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Kenneth Branagh, Florence Pugh, Robert Downey, Jr., Jason Clarke, Dane DeHaan, Josh Hartnett, Alden Ehrenreich, Gary Oldman and Rami Malek the film is packed with talent and each character has an important role to play in the life of this incredible man.
The film is very subjective, it offers a look at Oppenheimer’s inner turmoil as he realises what he has created. After the creation of the bomb, he starts contemplating the belief that mankind should not possess such a weapon, and the guilt of building something that destroyed many lives in Nagasaki and Hiroshima lingers with him for the rest of his life. The camera shifts and vibrates in the background, the sound design mimics the sounds of explosions, and the cinematography is as vast as you’d expect from Nolan. This is a truly cinematic experience and further proves that Nolan is one of the best filmmakers out there. He could turn a film about dirt into a cinematic masterpiece, he is that talented. The scope of the story means there’s a lot to get through in three hours, and yet the film moves swiftly back and forth from his past and to his future, with key important political elements being shown in black and white to great effect. There is so much detail and so much going on in the film you could easily forget key parts of it by the time the credits roll.
Oppenheimer is an extremely timely film, and even though it is essentially a period film the themes are inherently modern. The threat and risk of nuclear warfare is still discussed to this day. Secrets amongst nations and weapons hiding in plain sight further point to the kind of paranoid world we live in today and that is in fact thanks to Oppenheimer. There is a lot of discussion as to which country achieved this feat first with the Russians' presence causing a shadow over the film. The talk of spies and moles gives the film a Le Carré feel, and it even helps to dig into the importance behind the creation of weapons of mass destruction. You end up leaving the film in deep discussion about the topical awareness of what had happened, and this film will provide a strong legacy for how far we have come since those days of global instability.
★★★★★
5/5
Final Verdict:
Oppenheimer acts as a mirror to the modern world and provides a strong message about the dread and deadliness of atomic bombs and nuclear warfare. Cillian Murphy relishes in the role of Oppenheimer as he and his other cast members deliver one of the most important films of the century. Christopher Nolan certainly understands the story, he understands the power of film and the importance of cinema. Oppenheimer is a film that needs to be seen.
Thanks for reading today’s blog!
Alex Murray, the Head of Eyesight Productions
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