- Oppenheimer
2023 – Drama/Thriller – 3h – 4 in scale 1-5
Director: Christopher Nolan, Interpetations: Cillian Merhpy, Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr, Emily Blunt.
One of the most anticipated films of the season bearing the signature of Christopher Nolan. The great British filmmaker tackles here the figure of the “father” of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, in a three-hour saga designed to impress as much as to trouble the viewer. A brilliant theoretical physicist, who does not easily fit into molds, Oppenheimer will gain more and more fame, until the needs of the Second World War will “recruit” him. Together with a group of great scientists and some military men, they will create the Manhattan Project, in an attempt to build the first atomic bomb before the competition catches up with them. A few years later, however, Oppenheimer would find himself before McCarthy’s disciplinary commissions, accused of acts that undermined US interests.
Nolan opts for a mixed editing, alternating between the events leading up to Trinity’s final nuclear test (in color film) and what followed after the war (in black and white), thus composing a complete picture of Oppenheimer’s history and personality . Cillian Murphy undertakes the titanic task of embodying the hero and carries it out uniquely, automatically entering a favorite position for the Oscar race as well. Next to him he has a multitude of excellent actors (Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, etc.), who help to keep the interest of a film that has little real action, however, it has more tension and dramatic tones.
Above all what remains as a feeling here is the terrifying weight of History, the decisions small or large that determine the fate of an entire world, even when those who make them do not quite realize it. After all, Nolan gives a great foundation to the moral-psychoanalytical part of the story, presenting here Oppenheimer with the triple status of scientist, patriot, but also friend, member of a small but close-knit community of physicists who were called to act under conditions of extreme pressure. The atomic bomb as a weapon of absolute destruction, but also a peculiar “insurance policy” of the global balance, turns cinematically almost into a mechanism of ancient tragedy, which starts in the middle of the American desert and ends in a depressing room, where Oppenheimer appears apologetically, more before of his conscience and less of the investigators.
All in all, Christopher Nolan completes another cinematic achievement. His film, of course, has its flaws, but manages to present an entertaining film that appeals to the general public.
