Oppenheimer is a classic Christopher Nolan movie. Its subject matter is on the grand scale, concerning nothing less than the end of the world. It works on many different levels, telling the story of the rise and fall of one of the 20th century’s most famous scientists. It is visually inventive. It plays with time and does not contain a linear narrative. And, like most Nolan films, it is far too long.
Nolan wrote the screenplay based on a biography of J Robert Oppenheimer, American Prometheus, by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin. The book had been offered to various directors and producers, including Sam Mendes (director of American Beauty, Jarhead, and the James Bond movies Skyfall and Spectre) before landing on Nolan’s desk. Cillian Murphy was brought on board, and gives a superlative performance as the gaunt, sometimes jolly, and sometimes haunted scientist with a tortured soul. Other stars soon followed. The film was shot partly in IMAX and partly in 65mm widescreen format.
The play with time in Oppenheimer is a little less complex than in some of Nolan’s films, such as Inception (2010) or Tenet (2020). The film begins during Oppenheimer’s 1954 appeal hearing to renew his security clearance in the US atomic programme. Alongside this are the Senate hearings to confirm Lewis Strauss, the chairman of the US Atomic Energy Commission, as Cabinet Minister for Commerce. Initially Strauss had been a friend, but he had become a bitter enemy of Oppenheimer. Most of the film is shot in colour, intended to show the story from Oppenheimer’s perspective. Black-and-white scenes of the Senate hearing are supposed to be more objective, as Oppenheimer was not present.
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