Film Review: Oppenheimer (2023)

STORY

During World War II, US Army general Leslie Groves offered physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer to become the director of the Manhattan Project. Although Oppenheimer accepted and despite leading to a successful mission, his legacy and reputation were at stake when in 1954, during the McCarthy era, he was accused of being a Communist and a Soviet spy.

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INTRODUCTION

Oppenheimer is based on J. Robert Oppenheimer’s biography “American Prometheus” written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. A special thanks to actor Robert Pattinson who gifted Christopher Nolan a book of Oppenheimer’s speeches. These materials inspired him to direct Oppenheimer.

This three-hour epic biodrama mostly focuses on the 1954 Oppenheimer Security Hearing, his role in the Manhattan Project, the accusations against him, and his sporadic affair with Jean Tatlock.

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REVIEW

Oppenheimer, in its entirety, drives you to understand Oppenheimer that perhaps, a big perhaps, he was obsessed in creating a bomb that the Nazis cannot or do not. Being a Jew and observing the Jewish consequences of the war, his immense hatred for Adolf Hitler gave General Groves an idea to hand the world-changing project to a Jew.

The building of Oppenheimer’s character grows smoothly with the screenplay and intensifies in the middle of the story. You can feel yourself in his shoes and feel the heat that sweats him after getting stuck in the ugliest mashup of quantum mechanics, communism, world war, and sex. Nolan smartly executed these four outrageous bombings of Oppenheimer’s personal pie graph and showed us that before America was preparing the new world for which no one was ready, Oppenheimer was already bombed. The film successfully dramatizes the complexity of Oppenheimer’s life.

This film is not a usual path of gathering around and get the candies of the offered. Oppenheimer is a blend of science and politics that is brilliantly transformed in a cinematic format. The film is talkative but fruit for a wise. I do not believe that the viewers will have ever taken keen interest before in advanced physics such as ‘Quantum Mechanics’ as much as in this film. A three-hour non-action historical drama based on a physicist with more than half of the film dramatizing trial and hearing with a worldwide grossing of almost three commas definitely indicates that physics has found its cinematic voice with much excellence in almost every technical aspect.

Observe that most of the scenes of the film that has Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss is in black and white format. This can be a metaphor of dramatizing the culprit colorless. What is your opinion about keeping a lot of scenes black and white? Share your opinions below.

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TECHNICALITIES

Most of the aspects look Oscar-promising. Jennifer Lame‘s editing was visibly challenging as the film adopted a nonlinear narrative. Observe all the interrogation scenes with Oppenheimer and the table conference with Strauss. Nolan recreated the town of Los Alamos, just like Oppenheimer asked Groves to build a town for creating the bomb in secrecy. So for the entire setup, the production designing of Ruth De Jong deserves the credit.

The background score of Ludwig Göransson not really bought me but I will praise his effort to somehow go in through the story and compose some interesting pieces on it. The winning piece of all compositions was that entire tense-building score when the bomb is about to explode, and when attorney Roger Robb pressing Oppenheimer goes very intense. I think without the score, those two scenes may not have fried the viewers.

Once again, Nolan used no CGI in the film at all. The Trinity test was also not real, I mean he didn’t really detonate an atomic bomb but magnesium, gasoline, propane, and aluminum powder were used to recreate the blast. Nolan is so adhere to realism, I feel if he ever makes an animated film based on animals, he may invite the animals to voice over the characters.

Speaking of explosion scene, I think that entire shot of waiting for the explosion was superbly orchestrated that took around five minutes. Oppenheimer addressing the rally and imagining the consequences. Notice the excitement in the rally turning into mourning.

Nolan’s films are known for many great qualities, one of the many that always impresses me are fast exchange of dialogues and many of those lines are hard-hitting and blunt. Always reminds me of Aaron Sorkin‘s style of dialogues exchange. This film also leaves no equation of disapproval. During the process of recruiting for the Manhattan project, Oppenheimer meets one of the listed to whom he pushes that they need us. His reply? “Until they don’t”. OUCH!!! That is the first head-shot to Oppenheimer in this dirty game.

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CAST

There are so many well-known actors. To fit them in a 3-hour film needs a powerful screenplay. Otherwise, there is 99% chance for such assembling of actors to be considered ‘dragged’. Oppenheimer, with all that incredible casting, sent a bullet message that the casting was to fill the gap where the script demanded. It is the smart continuity of the screenplay that balanced their longer and shorter appearances. Their weight of appearance never mattered. Each of them was important to the story. The one I missed was definitely Nolan’s favorite, Michael Caine who collaborated with Nolan in eight consecutive films.

Seems like Oppenheimer will not only dominate at the coming Oscars in the technicalities but also for the performances. Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer and Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss look pretty clear favorites to actually win the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor awards. Their nominations look stamped. I will not be surprised if Emily Blunt and Matt Damon also show up in the nominations. Coming fresh building the legendary status of Thomas Shelby, one of the best decisions of Christopher Nolan for the film was selecting the right face for Oppenheimer. Cillian’s facial features are visibly more obstructing. In the transition of the burning struggles to achieve the unforgettable, the weight of pressure of his acting is very dogmatizing. The body language clearly melts once he begins to regret and realize their bigger plans of his brainchild.

And another actor after building the legendary status of Tony Stark, has arrived on stage with his most stunning performance in ages. Notice Robert Downey Jr. going nuts about Oppenheimer after the hearing.

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MINUSES

Shocking isn’t it? Well for me, there are minuses in my opinion. There will never be a perfect film so that I ever give 10/10. You know why? Because that will defy nature.

1. Follow-up from the Trinity Test
The continuity from the success of the Trinity test drives towards the consequences to which Oppenheimer mentally suffers and regrets. The trouble is for the viewers spending the remaining last of the three hours in listening to the hearing and interrogation.

2. David Hill’s Findings
One of the Manhattan Project’s scientists David L. Hill played by Rami Malek had an unusual character growth. If I am not wrong, he appeared only thrice. The first two, he was mute and Oppenheimer stopped him from writing and then signing. But then in the last phase of the film, out of nowhere, he showed up in the Strauss’ hearing for the final plot twist and testified against him. So where goes the development of this character? How come he knew all this about Strauss’ dirty game against Oppenheimer? The whole point is missing about what leads him to there?

3. Love, Sex, and Gita
Oppenheimer had a mad affair with Jean Tatlock, that is true. The problem is everything that revolves around the character is either a bad execution or a shocking waste of time. The sex scene where she picks that specific line for Oppenheimer to read her, did she know Sanskrit to pick exactly that line, the loudest one?

There was an outrage in India over this scene because Bhagawad Gita was held by a woman in nudity. Kind of disrespect? In all honesty, the entire scene was unnecessary. If that actually happened, I have no disagreement over this. Because in the book, there is no such mention. But if this never happened, Nolan here wasn’t being artistic in his direction at all, it was plain nonsense. I wanted Oppenheimer to utter those words in Sanskrit as she demanded. I don’t know why didn’t he.

4. Ending
Christopher Nolan is the master of concluding the film. He has moved us with one of the best possible finishers. Oppenheimer doesn’t have a bad ending but not even a WOW ending. Yes, the suspense disclosed about what the two great physicists exchanged. But Nolan must have pushed for a frightening end. In his shoes, I would have pushed the timeline to 1965 on the sets of the NBC News where visibly old and deeply-hurt Oppenheimer regretfully quotes that line from Bhagavad Gita. And with that quote would follow the dramatizing of the atomic bombings on those two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

5. Where are the bombings?
And speaking of bombings. Where are the bombings? I understand the significance of the Manhattan Project but despite the fact that Oppenheimer was not directly involved to the atomic bombings but these are the one of the ugliest chapters of the human race that changed the world forever. This was on the cards and we all were hopeful that the director who crashed the plane in the name of realism in the previous film will show us atomic bombings instead of showing us the explosion of the Trinity test.

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HISTORICAL ACCURACIES

FILE – Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission Advisory Council, tells a joint Congressional Atomic Committee that U.S. military establishment to his knowledge had never found it necessary to use exportable type isotopes for the development of new war machines. The hearing continued on charges of mismanagement in AEC. (AP Photo, File)

I was lost when Oppenheimer poisoned an apple but this incident is mentioned in the book. He was near to get expelled before his parents intervened.

Oppenheimer’s theory on black holes’ existence is correct and the news of Poland’s invasion did break the same day.

Oppenheimer did give away his child to his friend but the circumstances were different.

Haakon Chevalier asking Oppenheimer to pass information to George Eltenton was true.

The storm did interfere before the Trinity test.

Oppenheimer’s meeting with President Truman went unpleasant as shown. And Truman, believe it or not, actually called him a crybaby scientist.

Indeed, Klaus Fuchs will always be remembered as the Manhattan Project spy who passed the details to the Soviets.

Mrs Oppenheimer has quite an accurate portrayal. She do was married three times before Oppenheimer. A highly educated but sadly a depressed and an alcoholic woman.

David Hill’s testimony against Strauss was truly the game-changer. He did testify that Strauss had organized the campaign against Oppenheimer as an act of petty vengeance.

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CLOSING REMARKS

Christopher Nolan has already completed two trilogies in his legendary career. The Dark Knight Trilogy and the one that still has no official name but I can convincingly call it a time trilogy or in better terms the “Inversion Trilogy” that is Inception, Interstellar, and Tenet. And now looks like Nolan is eager to complete a World War Trilogy. We will see what film will join Dunkirk and Oppenheimer.

Oppenheimer emphasizes on the human wants and breaking the walls to exceed that want for which a human spends energy, time, effort, and sometimes life. A ground-breaking goal that looks to lift a dreamer and his/her legacy either becomes a milestone or a curse. Oppenheimer shows the madness of achieving a goal and turning stupid and blind over not realizing that the people who were shouldering around you were the ones who were always ready to break you in pieces since the first day they met you for a reason. The dirty game was played, a particular division of human race was wiped off, and you were just there assuming that you were fighting your own war against the evil.

Everyone who entered into the world war had his/her hands dirty and soul corrupted. We all have considered the winners and losers from all the battles and wars but the ugliest truth is that no one actually wins these fights. Both the opponents fight against each other and the civilians are the one who outnumber the soldiers in casualties unless the soldiers fight on the battlefield.

In short, the egoes of the global powers raise the flags against each other and dominate by killing. And Oppenheimer superbly shows how a scientist is used for their wants and thrown into the mud when the mission is over.

RATING 8.7/10

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Book Review: My Autobiography (1964)

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“Friends have asked how I came to engender this American antagonism. My prodigious sin was, and still is, being a non-conformist. Although I am not a Communist I refused to fall in line by hating them.”

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A riveting manuscript blended with the toppling of articulation. An essence of dissemination with a gifted cerebrum that educates the readers the life of an artist who never inclined nor compromised. The quote above is from the thirtieth chapter which confirms the resistance and determination. An institution, an influence; whose artistic brilliance and extracting expressions from the silence won hearts and made him the most beloved entertainer of the 20th century. He was Charlie Chaplin a.k.a. The Tramp.

A verbal but soft revolt over the hatred or a memoir wonderfully constructed like an architect coalescing the whole tabulation with a strong grip. A case study that examines a life structure built from struggling poverty towards solving the enigma of solemnity. A gracious gentleman with a beautiful heart, a blessing smile that can melt a tart.

He was respiring in his seventies when the pages of this incredulous book were inked. I am not surprised that the gentleman who wrote his own scripts, and directed his own films, would go on to write an autobiography; but what astonishes me is the chosen vocabulary. The school of words used in the text defines his individuality and indicates how indulged and fascinated was he to treasure the richness of words and then use them like a sword. It is not to my knowledge nor have I quested an answer to what length has the wordings of Mr. Chaplin been edited but the introductory words by his biographer David Robinson confirm that the writing is all done by the tramp himself. The artistry of a performer has his own percussion of conveying his message and reading his life in his own words helps you step into his world and understand him.

Being a stage/theater artist, the actor knows how to bring a ‘Vow!’ among the viewers. So as the author who happened to be an artist, he drops the revelation of mystery by beginning the book with a precise date, time, and place of birth this way;

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“I was born on 16 April 1889, at eight o’clock at night, in East Lane, Walworth.”

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This is exactly the confession and the first sentence of the book which gives the reader an impression that a grandpa in his rocking chair is about to excite you with the story that existed in his universe.

The first 5 chapters are very private, firsthand, and tragic and speak of his grinding poverty and mother’s mental health. Chaplin talks about the couples who were parted and the family comprised of a mother with her two children, Charles and Sydney, who depended on his weekly payments of 10 shillings a week. He talks about a failing stage performer whose vocal issues ended her career and her 5-year-old son took the stage in desperation to win the spectators, collected the coins, and handed them over to his ailing mother.

Chaplin recounts his struggles at such a tender age when his mother was shifted to medical care for mental sickness. The wait for some good fate and fortunes makes you anxious to turn over the pages.

The quality of eagerly reading this book is that with every chapter, the reader grows his fictional age from childhood to young hood to manhood. When Charlie reaches the age of puberty, he becomes romantic so as the reader. Those readers who have watched his films would realize how romantic was Charlie and how cavernous would he go to convey his utter emotions in the silent films. Plus the account of his love affairs distinguishes in writing to grow the feeling of youngness and maturity. For example, his depiction of love for Hetty Kelly gives a warm look at his boyhood which makes your understanding of ‘love’ a bit emotional but when he speaks about his relation with Paulette and Oona, his third and fourth wife respectively, the reader grows adult like him.

At 19, Chaplin proposes to 15-year-old Kelly who she keeps silent. He determines not to meet her again but he couldn’t resist and feels regret. He meets her at her residence but he couldn’t say more than ‘Goodbye’ twice. His love for Hetty Kelly is what grieved and ached him all his life and at such an old age when he chooses to write this book, he drops a ship of Theseus on the readers when he writes in chapter 6 about her;

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“Although I had met her but five times, and scarcely any of our meetings lasted longer than twenty minutes, that brief encounter affected me for a long time.”

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Moving from the affection of a love affair, he builds his career in the next chapters while landing in the United States; and in a space of 10 years, he works for Fred Karno, Keystone Pictures, Essanay Studios, and Mutual Films Corp. The amazement is reading about an inspiring journey by highlighting his earnings. Fair enough to reveal that his earnings under contract with Karno which stood at 6 pounds/week turn into an extremely rich contract of $670K with Mutual Films Corp. payable at $10K/week. What an accomplishment in a few years!

Also, the book has rich details of his life-long friendship with Mary Pickford and her husband Douglas Fairbanks from the thirteenth chapter who later form a partnership business by the name United Artists. Under this banner being a co. owner, Chaplin makes most of his feature films and makes the company one of the leading production companies of that time in Hollywood.

For the reader’s luxury, Chaplin has enriched and highlighted some very interesting episodes from his personal account and professional career. He records many elite names he met and befriended. In different chapters, Chaplin has covered the makings of his various feature films. For me, the most interesting read is about his film The Kid in which child actor Jackie Coogan co. starred. He pens an interesting story about how he discovered the child and how he approached Coogan’s father.

Monsieur Verdoux is a film that covers three chapters which is quite peculiar and outlandish for me because the film wasn’t received well. There is a whole chapter about the film when it encountered the clearance issue from the Office of Decency by copy-pasting their whole letter and writing the whole part of the script which was objected. I find writing this all at length redundant and extraneous; this chapter could have been easily abridged.

The reason I am pondering it too long a chapter is because a critically acclaimed film like Modern Times has surprisingly very short details as compared to the others. A film based on The Great Depression and the rise of the machines was a hard-hitting subject but to my discouragement, Chaplin wrote only a few pages.

Two films whose omission from the book hugely astound me are The Circus and A King In New York. The former, being one of my favorite Chaplin films, was a prominent film that depicted the rise and fall of a circus while the latter was produced after Chaplin was barred from the United States and he showed his anger and criticism over McCarthyism in the film.

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“All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman, and a pretty girl.”

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Chapter.23 is among the gripping chapters of the book which details Chaplin’s tour of Japan and describes how fortunate was he to escape the assassination of the then Japanese PM, Inukai Tsuyoshi, which was committed by 11 young naval officers who revealed the plan that Chaplin’s murder would facilitate war against the US.

Also, has Chaplin filled a few pages about meeting very notable, established, and prominent personalities like Mr. and Mrs. Churchill, Mr. and Mrs. Einstein, business tycoon William Hearst, the then Premier of Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev and his Defense Minister Nikolai Bulganin, India’s preeminent leader Mahatma Gandhi and first PM Jawaharlal Nehru, Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavlova, first premier of People’s Republic of China Zhou Enlai and few more.

The most critical readings are the last six chapters when Charlie’s life meets a severe turnaround when WWII begins. He has one whole chapter on his speeches for Russian War Relief. While Hoover and his FBI team begin scanning him after being accused of being the father of Joan Barry‘s child, his image meets a downfall. Also, the last phase of the book has heavy details on Chaplin’s final moments in the US and early days of settlement in Europe.

So Charlie Chaplin has covered most of his life in 477 pages but somehow he still has missed leaking or providing few details. He speaks nothing about his second wife, Lita Grey nor does he mention his half-brother Wheeler Dryden. The readers will not find any details about his children, especially Sydney and Geraldine. Nor is there any word about Arthur Jefferson, his understudy while working with Fred Karno. Arthur Jefferson is Stan Laurel most celebrated for his partnership with Oliver Hardy in a world-famous comedy duo Laurel and Hardy.

 

 

Another major surprise is that Chaplin mentions nothing about his frequent collaborators like Henry Bergman, Mark Swain, Eric Campbell, Albert Austin, and Roland Totheroh who was Chaplin’s most regular cameraman for more than 30 films. Perhaps chapters may exceed more details in writing on these gentlemen or perhaps some other reasons. Chaplin talks about Limelight but didn’t speak about his novel Footlights which was unreleased for the next six decades until it was published in 2014. Footlights is considered a prequel and a fictional book that laid the foundation for producing this film.

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“Loneliness is repellent. It has a subtle aura of sadness, an inadequacy to attract or interest; one feels slightly ashamed of it. But, to a more or less degree, it is the theme of everyone.”

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Two things I would like to inform the readers about this book. The first point to remember is that Chaplin wrote this book in 1964, so obviously, the readers won’t have the luxury to read about his emotional return to the US eight years later when he received an honorary award for his contribution and outstanding achievements in the industry at the Oscars.

The second point is that the book should not be compared with Attenborough‘s film Chaplin produced in 1992 due to the fact that the details of the film are not precisely accurate as Chaplin has described in his literature.

But above all ‘My Autobiography‘ is a pure gift of The Tramp to his fans. Those readers who are curious to know how the silent cinema functioned at the beginning of the twentieth century should read this book and further realize how a pauper from England revolutionize the industry when the silent comedy was more focused on whacky vehicle races and pieing. His writing eloquence will melt you. A blatantly honest and easily one of the greatest autobiographies written and published.

Thank you, Charlie…

 

Chaplin’s Wives:

Ch#16 – Mildred Harris (1st wife)

Ch#24 – Paulette Goddard (3rd wife)

Ch#27 – Oona O’Neil

 

Chaplin’s Love Affairs:

Ch#5 – Marie Doro

Ch#6 – Hetty Kelly

Ch#26 – Joan Barry

 

Chaplin’s association with the companies:

1899 – The Eight Lancashire Lads (Ch#3, Age.10)

1906 – Karno Company (Ch#6, Age.17)

1914 – Keystone Pictures (Ch#10)

1915 – Essanay Studios (Ch#11)

1916 – Mutual Film Corporation (Ch#11)

1918 – First National (Ch#14)

1919 – United Artists (Ch#15 – Co.owner with Mary Pickford & Douglas Fairbanks)

 

Chaplin’s Earnings:

1906 – 6 Pounds/Week (Karno company)

1916 – $10K/Week (Mutual Film Corp)

 

Chaplin’s Films:

Ch#14 – A Dog’s Life, The Immigrant

Ch#15 – Shoulder Arms

Ch#16 – The Kid

Ch#19 – The Gold Rush

Ch#21 – City Lights

Ch#24 – Modern Times

Ch#25 – The Great Dictator

Ch#27 – Monsieur Verdoux

Ch#29 – Limelight

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