Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) is a talkative, chain-smoking physicist and university professor at Cal-Berkeley. There, he makes numerous advances in the physics field and influences a generation of fellow leading physicists.
In 1942, Brigadier General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) recruits Oppenheimer to lead the Manhattan Project at a hastily constructed military base in a remote area of New Mexico. In turn, Oppenheimer recruits his peers from around the country and the world, motivated by the fear of Nazi Germany developing the A-bomb first.
An A-bomb prototype is successfully tested at New Mexico in July 1945. By this time, Germany has been defeated, but the war with Japan continues. As we know, A-bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Japan surrenders. Oppenheimer is feted as a national hero.
But Oppenheimer makes political enemies when he opposes development of the Hydrogen bomb, which is magnitudes more powerful than the Manhattan Project's A-bomb. Of course, the U.S. military wants the H-bomb, which will keep them ahead of the Soviets during the Cold War of the 1950s.
In particular, Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.), a leader of the Atomic Energy Commission, wanted Oppenheimer out of politics. He instigates a review of Oppenheimer's security clearance, which turns into a de facto closed-room trial. Oppenheimer is shut out of government influence, but remains head of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey for the rest of his life.
Throughout most of the film, Oppenheimer is married to Kitty (Emily Blunt), but has an on-and-off affair with communist activist Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh). His association with her comes back to trouble him during the McCarthy era.
How others will see it. Oppenheimer was one of the biggest blockbusters of 2023, and another critical and commercial triumph for Christopher Nolan. As of this writing, it appears almost certain that Oppenheimer will win Best Picture within days at the Academy Awards. It has already won seven awards at BAFTA, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Cinematography.
How I felt about it. I didn't like it. Admittedly, I am no fan of Christopher Nolan's movies, with the exception of The Prestige, which, while short of remarkable, is certainly good.
Among the reasons I dislike the film is that most of the movie is in color, but the scenes with Strauss are black and white. This seems silly to me. In The Wizard of Oz, I understand why the scenes in Kansas are black and white, while the scenes in Oz are in color. That makes sense. But there is no good reason to make Strauss' scenes black and white.
Also, Strauss is such an unpleasant person in this film that one wonders how he ever accomplished anything. I suspect he has been Nolanized into a Machiavellian villain for dramatic purposes. Strauss wanted to the U.S. to develop the H-bomb. Oppenheimer opposed this, so Strauss retaliated. It was petty and political, but not sinister.
There was an excellent Oppenheimer movie released in 2023. Not the present movie, but To End All War: Oppenheimer & the Atomic Bomb. In that film, it is speculated that Oppenheimer had sex with Tatlock during his final visit to her apartment.
In Oppenheimer, there's no mere speculation. We see them buck naked and doing the nasty. In real life, Tatlock was not particularly attractive, but in Oppenheimer, she is played by a ravishing brunette. Because it's a movie.
The big suspense in Oppenheimer is the July 1945 test of the A-bomb prototype. During those scenes, there is a annoying violin music. Another soundtrack distraction is the recurrent foot stamping of an approving crowd, that somehow symbolizes Oppenheimer's self-doubt about the ethics of A-bomb development.
In To End All War: Oppenheimer & the Atomic Bomb, it is revealed that a dozen Japanese cities were spared fire bombing so that they would be suitable as A-bomb targets. Were it not for the A-bomb, those cities would have been fire bombed, as was Tokyo and other big Japanese cities.
Thus, just as many lives would have been lost, if not more, if the Manhattan Project never existed. The effect of the A-bomb was to delay the deaths of those in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and to spare the lives of civilians in the other ten cities. Of course, it also saved the lives of countless Marines and Japanese soldiers who would have defended Japan against a final invasion. Oppenheimer, rest easy.
In both Oppenheimer movies, it is noted that Secretary of War Henry Stimson removed Kyoto from the list of A-bomb targets, presumably because he was fond of the city from a 1926 vacation. But in Oppenheimer, Stimson foolishly proclaims this to a room full of politicians, scientists, and generals. In real life, Stimson kept his reasons for sparing Kyoto to himself. He knew, as anyone would in his position, that his personal feelings would be considered irrelevant to the selection of a military target.