Oppenheimer, the latest film by writer/director Christopher Nolan, reveals the life and experience of J. Robert Oppenheimer before, during and after the making of the atomic bomb. Cillian Murphy stars in the titular role and performs admirably in a film largely focused on him. With amazing directing and production, the film portrays his life in an intense and intriguing way. 

The film is presented in a non-linear way; it jumps around moments and periods of Oppenheimer’s life showcasing the different events in his work creating the bomb. They may be out of order but it all comes together in a way that allows for an interesting culmination of each individual story, resolving the tale and events of his life as a whole. 

The story shows Oppenheimer in his time as a student under his teacher Patrick Blackett (James D’Arcy), someone he once tried to poison (but would quickly abandon his effort to do so). After that he met Niels Bohr (Kenneth Branagh) who would be a better teacher for him. Oppenheimer wasn’t great at lab work and so chose to go to the USA to teach theory instead, as that was a largely unexplored idea there. On his way he meets Isidor Isaac Rabi (David Krumholtz) a fellow physicist who would later be a consultant on the Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer gets a job at the University of California, Berkley, where he meets a physicist named Ernest Lawrence (Josh Harrett), who is working on building a small particle accelerator. 

During his time in America, Oppenheimer would join the Communist Party as he was a supporter of the Spanish Civil War, even donating funds to them through the party. There he would meet his first romantic partner, Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh), who was a member of this party. 

In the first few years of the war, news would break that the Germans had split the atom, and upon hearing this Oppenheimer, Ernest and a scientist named Luis Walter Alvarez (Alex Wolf) recreate the test and split it themselves. Oppenheimer and Ernest quickly realize that this process can be used to make a bomb.

Soon after this discovery the military would appear before Oppenheimer to vet the capability of this bomb, led by Lieutenant General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon), who previously had overseen the construction of the Pentagon, Boris Pash (Casey Affleck), a military intelligence officer who would investigate the scientists for any communist involvement, and Kenneth Nichols (Daniel DeHann) a civil engineer who would observe the project’s production.

After seeing what Oppenheimer had done, Groves decides to recruit him for the Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer suggests building a town in the New Mexico desert called Los Alamos where they could house many scientists and engineers for the development of the bomb, along with their families. Oppenheimer brings his wife Katherine (Emily Blunt), whom Oppenheimer met when she was the wife of a member of the communist party. The two broke off their respective relationships to be together.

Also there were people Oppenheimer met at Berkley and those they sought out: Edward Teller (Benny Safdie), David Hill (Raimi Malik), Lilli Hornig (Olivia Thirlby), Kenneth Bainbridge (Josh Peck), Richard Feynman (Jack Quaid), Jack Serber (Michael Angarano), Vannevar Bush (Matthew Modine) and William L. Borden (David Dastmalchian). All of these scientists had differing levels of involvement in the project and differing roles after it was done. 

Though the bomb was a success, the quickly encroaching Cold War with the Soviets would put the Manhattan Project under the investigative lens of the FBI to find any communist involvement that could become a security threat for the USA. They believed there was a leak as the Soviets had begun atomic weapons testing. Borden was pushed by Nichols to spy on Oppenheimer and report to the FBI director J. Edgar Hoover due to his involvement in the Federation of Architects, Engineers, Chemists and Technicians, a group seeking unionization whose leaders were mostly members of the communist party.

This whole investigation was stirred on by a man named Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.), the chairman of the Atomic Enegry Commission (AEC), who sought to defame Oppenheimer after he embarrassed him publicly for trying to withhold scientific discoveries from other countries. Oppenheimer believed that each individual discovery was just like a tool and therefore there was no reason to treat them as dangerous just because they were used in atomic weapons development. 

This embarrassment led Strauss to manipulate the government into having a controversial hearing whether or not to renew Oppenheimer’s security clearance. This hearing was led by Roger Robb (Jason Clarke) a Circuit judge who was convinced beforehand that Oppenheimer was working with the Soviets. He used numerous harsh interrogation methods to make Oppenheimer seem guilty in front of the counsel running the hearing. 

This tactic did work in getting Oppenheimer’s clearance revoked and defaming him in the eyes of the public; during the hearing Robb made him appear as a hypocrite for developing the atomic bomb yet halting progress on the hydrogen bomb, an issue Strauss and Teller fought for. But it came back to bite Strauss when another hearing was called years later to determine whether or not he should remain a member of the AEC. This is shown in the movie as a black and white sequence as the film bounces to and fro, including many appearances from characters from other eras of the story as we see the reveal of Oppenheimer’s scheme that played out in these other eras. 

The film also features a few scenes of Oppenheimer meeting with Albert Einstein (Tom Conti), who Oppenheimer discussed the development and state of world after the bomb, as well as a scene with President Truman (Gary Oldman), who personally thanks him for his role in ending the war.

The film has a very extreme pace throughout, and keeps that level of intensity consistent throughout despite bouncing around different points in time. This pace may not be for everyone as there are not many places to breathe or lulls in the story. This intensity is aided by Ludwig Göransson’s score which is less like a soundtrack and more like a single performance with multiple acts that accompany the respective scenes of the movie. The sound design as well assists that overwhelming feeling, though the number of booms (not just from the bombs) may be a bit much to those who are not fans of loud noises in movies.

I appreciated how this movie displayed the American military, government as almost antagonistic and aggressive, and the American people as both deluded and relieved. Portraying this from Oppenheimer’s perspective really let the audience understand how he felt of the weight of what he had done, together with the gratitude of the military and citizens, blending together into a feeling of triumph and horror in his actions. This is all shown wonderfully through Cillian Murphy’s acting, which allows the audience to be engrossed with his emotions. 

Oppenheimer is a long, intense and amazing film I would highly recommend seeing in theaters now.