Oppenheimer and why Nolan's use of grey reel should have extended to his characters - Talk Is Artes Vol. 1
from Talk is Artes
First of all, a lovely welcome to Talk Is Artes. I am Artes Blackheart and I have lots of opinions. And here I will talk about stuff, because I talk a lot. And y'all will listen to me. Because of course you will.
I'm gonna be talking about Oppenheimer today, and of course there are going to be spoilers. Duh.
So, if you're a science nerd like me, you cannot walk out of an Oppenheimer without saying, “wow”. The movie, in a very rudimentary form is a love letter to the physics of the early 20th century, talking about quantum physics and radioactivity, arguably the phenomena that breathed new life into physics, thought for so long to be a closed subject; and the people behind it, Einstein, Szilard, Fermi, Bohr, Heisenberg and the man himself, J. Robert Oppenheimer. It truly felt like the Avengers' Endgame for science nerds (totally didn't steal that from a friend, love you Darshna). In essence, it's a story about the science, the bomb, the politics, the physics and the egos. I wish I could have finished that sentence with “and the man himself”. And there lies my problem with the movie.
Because I am a terrible movie reviewer, I am going to refer to a scene at the right end of the movie. Robert Downey Jr. in his role as Lewis Strauss gives one of his signature monologues where he speaks about how he knew what kind of a person Oppenheimer really was, all along, and the fact that Oppenheimer, will just become a martyr in his story. I think this monologue sums up exactly how Nolan saw Oppenheimer, a person whose achievements can warrant nothing but martyrdom, someone whose achievements far encompassed his flaws.
Nolan's Oppenheimer, played by the flawless Cilian Murphy is Oppie, the father of the Atom Bomb, beloved by his immediate peers, considered the greatest scientific mind of his time, yet someone who is despised by people who were shadowed by his cult of personality, someone who is way too trusting, except for the time he is the polar opposite, but most importantly, someone, whose flaws don't feature on the silver screen, where his flaws are depicted as the whims of a master craftsman. Oppie can't admit to being Communist, Oppie can't commit to Jean and in essence, Oppie can't commit to where he stands on the destruction his greatest creation has caused. Yet, he gets away with all of it with the charisma that only Tommy Shelby possesses, and the hallucinations and flashbacks that only a Nolan protagonist goes through. But first, you need context. It's time to talk about the bomb.
An invention that awes and scares to this very day, an invention that will always be at the forefront of world politics, an invention that truly has, to an extent, prevented global conflict. A weapon that gives humanity the power to end its own race, a power befitting of the gods. Prometheus stole from the gods and gave humanity fire, and Oppenheimer gave humanity the fire that would blaze across the world, wrapping it in fear and mutually assured destruction. Nolan crafts a masterful story, like only he can, crafting the magnum opus of his work, through Oppenheimer, following him through his appointment as the Director of the Manhattan Project and his creation of the Los Alamos facility. Oppenheimer is almost considered a Messiah at Los Alamos, controlling every little detail, and crafting the deadliest weapon known to man. The music and cinematography is regal, to say the least. Everything leading upto the test detonation of the bomb (Project Trinity) is crafted to absolute perfection, as we have come to expect from Christopher Nolan. The soundplay, the lighting, the angles during the detonation cannot be put into words by my writing. And, oh, the detonation, itself, there is nothing you can do but stare open-mouthed at the screen at the magnanimity of the blast. It is cinema, as it is meant to be; something that captivates, something that holds your heart hostage, something that blows up every sense in your body.
The successful bombs are then carted away, ready to take the lives of more than 250,000 Japanese people. And we are left with a scene of Oppenheimer standing at the boundary of the Los Alamos facility, alone in the sunlight, having crafted his masterpiece. The bomb is then detonated and here is where Oppenheimer's dilemmas and my problems with the movie begin. Nolan's Oppenheimer can go through the major panic attacks having visions of dead Japanese soldiers yet having the American bravado to say “We don't know what the results of the bomb are, but I'm sure the Japanese didn't like it”. There is something about Oppenheimer that I feel that the movie couldn't resolve, for as much as Nolan likes black vs white characters, his writing of characters unfortunately rests in the gray. Be it Teller and his relationship, as well as the entire debacle on the Super Bomb (hydrogen bomb for you nerds), or his relationship with his own wife, a lot is left to be a desired about how he really feels about things. And Nolan keeps doing this, yes we see a lot of science and we see a lot of really cool Easter eggs that will make you unnecessarily proud of yourself when you spot them, but it's just, if his characters had a little more depth than going into flashbacks about events, maybe just maybe we could see Oppenheimer the way Nolan wanted us to.
The movie eventually became a tale of how Oppenheimer built the bomb to Oppenheimer vs Strauss. Nolan's Batman-esque protagonist vs Nolan's carefully crafted Batman-esque hero has to go through a shattering and scathing closed trial about his AEC security clearance, having already been ostracized about his role with launching the bomb once the Germans had already surrendered, facing betrayals, and criticism on his position, regarding the hydrogen bomb, or the Super, as is affectionately called in the movie, and in here, lies another of Oppie's dilemmas. Oppie is unsure in 1945, but in 1949, he is conflicted more still, and therein lies the the problem. I think his role and dilemmas can be best described in the scene where he meets President Truman after the Japan bombings, where he admits to feeling like having blood in his hands. Truman hands him his handkerchief and tells him to wipe it off, and tells him that history is going to remember that he dropped the bomb and not Oppenheimer. Herein lies the conundrum, Oppenheimer thinks that he is Los Alamos, and ultimately he is the bomb, personified. Yet, history will remember otherwise. This is why I am extremely happy that a movie with him as the focus was made, Oppenheimer is a complex character, and even though a lot of his flaws were overlooked, the Father of the Atomic Bomb deserves the attention of a world so perilously close to war and conflict. A message as to what science and what people can accomplish if they set their minds to it.
I love you all. Stay hydrated.
