This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.
The movie we have all been waiting for is finally here. And it does not disappoint. I am a huge historical drama fan so when this movie first started advertising over a year ago, I was ecstatic just like every Christopher Nolan fan. Nolan is known for his detailed scripts and excellent cinematography. Oppenheimer proved once again why he is the one of the best.
Oppenheimer, if you haven’t seen the trailers before almost every movie this year, is a historical dramatic biopic about the life of Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, played by Cillian Murphy, including his involvement with the Manhattan Project (where the first atomic bomb was developed) during World War II. He was a professor at Caltech and University of California at Berkeley. He was then recruited by the U.S. government to help develop a weapon that would end the war.
The acting in this film is immaculate. I was in awe when I first saw the cast list. Christopher Nolan has a tendency, much like Wes Anderson, to recruit copious A-list talent into his films. Oppenheimer is no exception. There were A-Listers supported by A-Listers. There were legendary character actors like David Krumholtz and Matthew Modine. Even famous personalities like Josh Peck have solid roles in the film. At first, I was worried that Nolan was going to have trouble trying to fit in all these famous individuals in a three-hour movie, but he managed to make it work, and work well.
Along with Cillian Murphy in the lead role, we also are welcomed with the presence of Emily Blunt, who plays Kitty Oppenheimer, Robert Downey Jr., who plays Dr. Lewis Strauss, Florence Pugh, who plays Jean Tatlock and Matt Damon, who plays General Leslie Groves. The list doesn’t end there, and it is supported by many more well-known actors and actresses. Nolan chose his actors meticulously and correctly and I will be very disappointed if Murphy, Downey Jr. and Blunt do not get Oscar nominations for their roles. It almost felt like they went back in time, learned exactly who these people were and put transformed into them on screen in every little moment during that tense time in our nation’s history.
In addition to the acting, the cinematography is truly great. Oppenheimer is beautifully shot given it was done with no CGI according to the Nolan. This is no small feat especially with filming only taking 57 days. It is quite impressive to push out a historically accurate, three hours long movie in less than two months. That right there could say that everyone was 100% invested in making this movie the best it could be. The best part of the movie was the explosion scene, when they finally realize they have built a weapon that could potentially end the war. During this scene, and many others, the colors, sound, acting and overall emotions were indescribable. But when you hire legendary cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema for the job, great things can happen. There is so much more to the cinematography that you must see for yourself.
One last thing I would like to touch on is the score. I don’t think the music and soundtrack gets as much credit as it should in most movies. It can truly make or break a movie. Luckily, Nolan hired Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson, who knocks it out of the park. You may know Göransson from his work on The Mandalorian tv show, and his skills are on full display here. The sounds and score moved perfectly with the film and the direction it was going. I felt my heart racing multiple times and the score added to that feeling.
However, this also brings up the one minor problem I had with the movie. During some scenes, the sounds or music was overpowering the dialogue and I couldn’t really hear what was going on. At first, I thought it was just my theater and since I was watching it in IMAX, that was the cause. However, I have been hearing from other people that they were having the same problem. I am not sure if it was intended to be that way but that is the only problem I have with this masterpiece of cinema.
Final Thoughts
For me, Oppenheimer may just be my film of the year so far. It was emotional, devastating, and everything in between. It had my eyes glued to the screen the entire time that sometimes I forgot I was in a theater surrounded by dozens of other people doing the same. I haven’t seen so many people in a theater since Avengers: Endgame and I am sure all those movie fans left the theater with their jaws dropped as I did.
