Julius Robert Oppenheimer, better known as J. Robert Oppenheimer was an American theoretical physicist and was the director of the Los Almos Laboratory during World World War II in an arms race against the Nazis and Axis powers. In short terms, he gave us the atomic bomb and is the reason war today is unheard of as large-scale world powers attempts to absolutely destroy one another. Bearing this in mind 129,000 died at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Additionally, Oppenheimer both in the film and in actual history, was a known philanderer, liar, cheater and broadly speaking a person of complex ethics.
In his time he explored communism, philosophy, physics and theory, learned Sanskrit and Dutch and did very well for himself as a person escaping Nazi ideology and a person of Jewish background whose family left Germany in the 1890s, the late Victorian age. Never let anyone tell you not to explore your complex notions and never let anyone undermine you for your family’s background.
This film follows the actual events of Oppenheimer’s life pretty closely, stylistically it is very much a biopic and period drama. I applaud the score, Nolan’s directing, Murphy’s anti-hero-like performance and the entire well-cast set of characters. As it is only a three-hour movie it does simplify quite a bit, I highly recommend doing your own research and building a more realistic picture of the past. I also, simply wish, Jean and Mrs. Oppenheimer were permitted the same nuance and capacity to do disastrous messy things as Murphy’s Oppenheimer. Pugh certainly had the range for it, as does Murphy’s female costar.
Overall a brilliant film, a think piece, there are no real heroes in history, only winners and losers. Oppenheimer was absolutely a victim of America’s fear of the theorist, revolt, the ‘other’, as well as the backlash against communism and socialism, “we had our revolution already…”
“Once you study theory, don’t you see the revolution in everything?”
But he was no martyr, it is important to always bear in mind that people’s role now and as in history, is not always ‘goodness’ or ‘the ethical perspective.’ But, much like the founding fathers, and their adjacents, Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Tallmadge to name a couple. People are flawed and messed up, we do bad things, both in fiction and in real life. That does not make one less compelling or less human. It is up to us as readers, viewers, critics and consumers of media to decide where precisely we draw our lines.
(Oppenheimer, 2023, Nolan).
“I am the destroyer of worlds.” – Oppenheimer, quoting a Sanskrit text
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