I'm fully aware that critiquing the work of an auteur like Christopher Nolan could be perceived as snobbish. Hence, I'd try to be objective in this review.
Firstly, it's a biopic. There's nothing quite unique about a biopic as the imaginative works of Nolan like the Inception or Interstellar. Hence, there is only so much he can do to be creative in directing Oppenheimer. It's just history, and there is nothing much to spoil there. This movie is a take on the personal predicaments and political persecution of scientist Dr. J Robert Oppenheimer who headed the Manhattan Project which resulted in the creation of the atomic bomb and as a consequence millions of innocent people lost their lives in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Secondly, there is a known pattern of human behavior which always targets the best of us when their job is done. Meaning, eminent scientists being harassed by the system once they have achieved great success is a recurring theme. We find that in the story of Alan Turing in the Imitation Game, in the story of Nambi Narayanan in Rocketry and so many others. It is common to find scientists working on technologies of strategic importance being framed for treason or similar cases and then being questioned for their loyalty to their nation. It's simply an occupational hazard. What can I say? Never build things for the government!
Thirdly, movies about American supremacy growing out of the Second World War and the subsequent cold war are stereotypical. We are quite over them. We just see them in different light now. President Truman's two bit rebuff of Oppenheimer is as asinine as it can get. It's cartoonishly evil. Perhaps it serves as the explanation of why no one ever committed suicide for being part of the decision to drop those bombs. Instead everyone just kept bickering over bruised egos for not being amply credited for the wonderful devastation which brought an end to the war.
Also it feels like Nolan is showing off by bringing on-board every brilliant actor out there for minor roles and cameos. Additionally, it could be a nerd's wet dream to see the glimpse of every founding genius of particle physics being name called and paraded as part of the plot but as a student of physics myself, I'm cringing.
Furthermore, the use of Bhagwat Gita reference was not given justice. The reason why Oppenheimer quoted those famous lines about becoming "destroyer of worlds" could have been treated better and not in a clichéd scene which could just be dismissed as some orientalist's curiosity with foreign religion. The movie didn't soak in the actual philosophy of which Oppenheimer was a keen student in real life.
The idea of a scientist who created the ultimate weapon of mass destruction growing a conscience and getting punished for that is a bit of a routine drag. I think this is where Oppenheimer contrasts with Heisenberg. While Oppenheimer set aside all his personal doubts to create the atom bomb for US government knowing well that he won't have any say in its use (In-fact he was highly enthusiastic about it initially) Heisenberg and his team of scientists working on the same project for the Nazis did not show that same motivation. I believe that's where Heisenberg's character far exceeds Oppenheimer's. Let's not delve in assessing such historical giants with our current worldview.
You can watch a movie called 'The Catcher was a Spy' on how USA deployed a baseball star to spy on Heisenberg to know if he's close to creating the atom bomb and if so, assassinate him. Critics didn't like the movie much. However I like it better than this.
Comparing with the body of work of Nolan, Oppenheimer does not feel like his best. It's an over emphasized effort to dazzle the world with the scale of production. We are sitting on the verge of a world war III with very real threat of a nuclear annihilation and we still don't care if the world will come to an end.
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