Oppenheimer

So my husband and I finally went to go see Oppenheimer. Now I am a fan of very few Christopher Nolan films and I am a fan of very few 3 hour+ long movies. However Oppenheimer made me a fan of both. Nolan’s take on history was brilliant, beautiful and harrowing.

Let’s start with the fact that this movie was 3 hours long, but it didn’t feel like it. The structure was incredible. The fact that the movie goes back and forth between Oppenhiemer’s point of view and Strauss’ kept the narrative interesting and engaging. There was a clear 3 act structure and it was paced so so well. I didn’t ask myself once, “how long is this movie?”. It was incredibly well structured and I am someone who thinks structure can save a bad story or kill a good one.

We also have to talk about how incredible the casting was. It seems oversimplified to say that the entire cast was incredible, but truly everyone was fantastic. Cillian was incredible, his expressions were subtle but so impactful. He really conveyed Oppenheimer’s moral struggle between science and the implications of his work. Florence was on screen for so little time but she was incredible. For the side of the internet that was complaining very hard about the nude scenes; This was so blown out of proportion that I thought I was gonna have personal beef with Christopher Nolan when the portrayal of the relationship could not have been more respectful and necessary. Now if you know me then you know how I feel about oversexualization in Hollywood. But what I think a lot of people miss is that nudity does not immediately equal oversexualization, the scene where Gene and Oppenheimer are sitting in their separate chairs naked is probably one of the only scenes in media history where the nudity was necessary. It showed their comfort level with each other, it showed their love and familiarity with each other and it was needed. Emily Blunt really stole her scenes. She was incredible. Her role in the scene where she goes up for Oppenheimer’s security clearance hearing was so well acted, she pulled herself together because she is the fighter in their relationship.

Now let's get into how the story was told. There is a delicate nature to historical stories because you can’t sanitize it. The story needs to hold the integrity of what actually happened, but you can’t make it dry, as it is not a documentary. And when dealing with a story surrounding war you also have to be very careful. You can not glee in the death that we caused but you can;t ignore real world reactions. Christopher Nolan did an incredible job of making it very clear the atomic bomb was not necessary to winning the war, and also made it clear that we killed thousands and thousands of innocent people with this unnecessary weapon. AND that we shouldn’t make a hydrogen bomb because we will use whatever weapons we have regardless of necessity. It was a fantastic and realistic look at the results of America’s work on the atomic bomb.

I think overall Oppenheimer was incredible. I’m going to give it a 9/10 because it's not something I think anyone is going to rewatch on a regular basis but it was truly an incredible experience. The movie was visually incredible, the pacing and structure was absolutely phenomenal and there were no glaring flaws in the film. I do think everyone should go see this film, even if historical films are not normally your genre, this one is worth it.