Starring: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr, Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh
Director: Christopher Nolan
3.25 stars out of 5
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is based on the 2005 biography American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin on Robert J Oppenheimer, the Father of Atom Bomb.
Plot
The entire movie revolves around the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), a theoretical physicist, the way he rose to fame and later the development of the Atom Bomb and finally, fall to grace due to suspected allegiance to communist party. The Movie starts Leslie Groves (Matt Damon), a US Army Officer from the Corps of Engineers Officer, approaching J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), to develop the A-Bomb under the famous Manhattan Project, Oppenheimer due to his previous interaction with various physicists, chooses the right man for the right job and including the development of location for research facility, finally the team develops the A-Bomb under his supervision, US uses 2 Bombs to finally end the WW II. Thus, Oppenheimer becomes the most popular scientist of his times and is termed as the “Father of the Atomic Bomb,” Later He opposes the H Bomb project in a bid to stop the Arms race. but after a few years, Oppenheimer has to go through an enquiry for his Security Clearance. Why his Security Clearance is revoked? Who plotted against him? How he comes over the trauma forms the rest of the story.
Strengths
Christopher Nolan, is a good story teller, who bought out the relevant aspects in the life of one of the greatest Scientists in 20th Century, The interactions between Scientists like Einstein, Neil Bohr etc and their valid advices add to historical scientific relevance and shows their concern to over all mankind. Christopher Nolan carefully accommodated the entire life of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) in a 3 hour script without losing any important aspect. Cillian Murphy played his role with ease, Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, a negative role and Emily Blunt as Kitty, Oppenheimer’s wife, added the required depth to the film,
Overall
If one is not a History enthusiast, might feel a little bored as the movie is in the form a documentary and scenes of Enquiry at two different time intervals. But I would say, the story was well told and we should all know about this man who turned his knowledge of quantum Mechanics into a Physical Bomb. I would give the movie a generous 3.25 out of 5