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Student Voices

SHOW ALL

July 31, 2023, 4:10 p.m.


STUDENT MOVIE RECOMMENDATION: 'OPPENHEIMER' FILM IS THE STORY OF A MAN WHO
CHANGED THE WORLD

Oppenheimer movie poster

 



by Benjamin Thernstrom

Christopher Nolan is one of my favorite film directors. He made two of my
all-time favorites ("The Prestige" and "Memento") and others that I love a great
deal ("Interstellar," "Inception," and "The Dark Knight").

In fact, there’s not a single one of his films I dislike, so I was eagerly
looking forward to his latest, "Oppenheimer," as soon as it was announced.

While it didn’t quite live up to my sky-high expectations, "Oppenheimer"
continues to show Nolan's ability to blend an engaging thrill-ride of a
narrative with complex ethical questions and character development.

As you might expect, the movie tells the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer (played
by Cillian Murphy), the visionary physicist who led the Manhattan Project to
create the atomic bomb that would be used against Japan in the final days of
World War II.

However, as with most of his films, Nolan tells the story in an order you
wouldn't expect. The first we see of Oppenheimer is at a 1954 security hearing,
where he defends his loyalty to the United States against members of the
government who are accusing him of communist sympathies. We jump back and forth
between the hearing and the story of his life, through which he tries to explain
his actions.

In addition to this, we have black-and-white flash-forwards that focus on Lewis
Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.) attempting to become Secretary of Commerce in 1959.
Strauss, who was head of the Atomic Energy Commission when it deposed
Oppenheimer, has his actions during the security hearing criticized by Congress,
putting his appointment in jeopardy.

The greatest advantage of the nonlinear structure is that it helps us contrast
Oppenheimer before the war with Oppenheimer after, by cutting continually
between them.

Murphy's performance is flawless — the younger Oppenheimer's wide eyes glow with
hunger and curiosity, while the older Oppenheimer's weary demeanor shows how
much he's been ground down and put through the wringer of the
military-industrial complex. He's no longer the leader of his field, he's ended
up using his work for goals he regrets, and he doesn't even feel like he's being
valued for it anymore.

Murphy makes sure that Oppenheimer is always fascinating as a character, and if
the film's themes aren't as consistently gripping, they still have plenty of
bite to them. Even as someone who's already read a great deal about this period
(if you want to, you could check out books like "American Prometheus" or "The
Making of the Atomic Bomb") and was hoping for a fresher perspective from Nolan,
I was fascinated by the questions the film raises about the value of technology.



Oppenheimer and the scientists working with him were building the bombs to try
and save lives by ending the war earlier, but the same bombs would give rise to
a nuclear arms race that would put even more lives in danger for future
generations — including the generation we live in today.

Since Oppenheimer had created his technology for the government, he ultimately
lacked the power to control it. He ended up as an advocate against buildup of
nuclear armaments with the hydrogen bomb, and he looked like a hypocrite after
he had helped begin the nuclear arms race.

It's as perfect an example of failing to put the genie back in the bottle as
anything in history.

One small drawback, Nolan zips through the early part of Oppenheimer's life
without developing them sufficiently. However, things get more engaging when we
reach Los Alamos, the site in New Mexico where the bomb was developed.

One scene that stands out is the fluid cross-cutting between a hostile military
intelligence officer grilling Oppenheimer about potential communist spies, and
future occasions when Oppenheimer is forced to revisit that conversation (and
defend his less than candid responses).

Oppenheimer had friends who were associated with communism that he covers for,
which leads Strauss and other military officials to deem him a security risk. In
that back-and-forth is one of the central questions of the film that resonates
today, with polarizing ideology putting close personal relationships at risk.

Overall, while "Oppenheimer" has enough small writing issues to not rank among
Nolan's best, that speaks to the quality of his filmography. I doubt any other
blockbuster this year (at least with a price tag of a hundred million dollars)
will set out to tell a valuable historical story to the audience, or to analyze
important ethical questions. And if they do, I doubt it will be half as gripping
as this.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Benjamin Thernstrom, a rising senior at Washington-Liberty High School in
Arlington, Virginia, is an intern with PBS NewsHour Classroom. You can read more
movie reviews by Thernstrom on LetterBoxd.




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TAGS

 * World War II
 * government-civics
 * social-studies
 * student recommendations
 * Manhattan project
 * arts-culture
 * Christopher Nolan
 * student-voice
 * film review
 * Atomic Bomb
 * Student Recommends
 * us-history
 * Civics
 * Oppenheimer



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