This J. Robert Oppenheimer biopic, starring Cillian Murphy, runs for more than three hours. They converse often. They give ear. When there is good or bad news, they react. And sometimes they get caught up in their own thoughts—none more so than the title character, the team leader of the Los Alamos nuclear weapons program who earned the moniker The American Prometheus for his apocalyptic scientific contribution (as per the title of Nolan's primary source, the biography by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherman). In addition to capturing the beauty of New Mexico's desert vistas, Nolan and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema contrast Oppenheimer's exterior calmness with his interior turmoil. Oppenheimer is a brilliant mathematician and low-key showman and leader whose impetuous behavior leads to disaster.
The close-ups of people's faces may occasionally be broken up by flashbacks to unfinished or recent events. In addition to non-incendiary pictures that remind us of other terrible, personal tragedies, there are repeating images of flame, debris, and smaller chain-reaction explosions that resemble strings of firecrackers. (This movie uses a lot of gradually growing flashbacks where you first see a glimpse of something, then a little more of it, and then finally the whole thing.) These, however, have nothing to do with the large bomb that Oppenheimer's team plans to explode in the desert or the smaller ones that are continually going off in Oppenheimer's life, sometimes as a result of him pressing the big red button out of a fit of rage, pride, or lust, and other times for other reasons.
The faces in the movie carry the weight of the story's themes and interests, not just those of Oppenheimer but also those of other significant characters like General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon), Los Alamos' military commander; Robert Oppenheimer's suffering wife Kitty (Emily Blunt), whose strategic thinking could have prevented many disasters if her husband would have only listened; and Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey, Jr.), the Atomic Energy Commission The latter is a separate, full-length narrative about pettyness, mediocrity, and jealousy. Oppenheimer's Mozart is Salieri, and Strauss frequently and pitifully reminds people that he also studied physics.
Rather than the atom bomb itself or even its effects on the war and the Japanese civilian population, which are discussed but never seen, I think that's what "Oppenheimer" is actually about. The movie depicts what the atom bomb does to human flesh, but it's not an exact reproduction of the bombings in Japan; instead, the horrified Oppenheimer imagines what it must have been like for Americans. This choice in filmmaking is likely to enrage viewers who wanted a more direct examination of the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as those who believe the justifications put forth by Strauss and others that the bombs had to be dropped because Japan would never have capitulated otherwise. The movie doesn't say whether it believes that interpretation to be accurate or not.
This is just another intriguing aspect of "Oppenheimer." Despite the fact that Murphy's ominous face and menacing yet opaque eyes dominate the film, Oppenheimer isn't the only subject. It also explores how Oppenheimer's personality and actions affected other people, including the other strong-willed members of his atomic bomb development team (such as Edwin Teller, played by Benny Safdie, who wanted to advance to the much more potent hydrogen bomb and ultimately did), the troubled Kitty, and Oppenheimer's mistress Jean Tatlock (played by Florence Pugh, who possesses some of Gloria Grahame's self-immolating smolder).
Good
The content is very good. I will give 5 star rating
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