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Visionary filmmaker Christopher Nolan returns with his latest directorial venture, Oppenheimer, embarking on the unexplored path of biopic. Nolan audaciously presents an intricate and emotionally stirring rendition of the life of the renowned physicist Robert Oppenheimer, a central figure of the 20th century, and one of the most influential personas in American history.
Known for his impeccable aesthetic sensibilities and penchant for unpredictability, Nolan navigates the audience through a three-hour cinematic odyssey, exploring the critical junctures of Oppenheimer’s life. Maintaining his signature style, the auteur behind the acclaimed science-fiction saga Interstellar, the unforgettable war film Dunkirk, and the innovative blockbuster Tenet, Nolan deploys an array of novel and ambitious cinematographic techniques, including filming on film stock and utilizing unique formats like black-and-white IMAX.
Irish actor Cillian Murphy, a recurring collaborator with Nolan and a luminary of the cult series Peaky Blinders, masterfully portrays the titular character, with Emily Blunt incarnating his wife, Kitty. Matt Damon brings to life Leslie Groves, the general overseeing the bomb’s construction, while Robert Downey Jr. encapsulates Lewis Strauss, the politician instrumental in Oppenheimer’s downfall.
At the heart of this epic narrative, the audience is immersed in the feverish scientific pursuit that transpired in the secluded base of Los Alamos, New Mexico, during World War II. It was there that the Manhattan Project team labored in a relentless race against time to surpass the Nazis in the creation of the atomic bomb.
A pinnacle moment in the film is undoubtedly the depiction of the first atomic bomb test, dubbed Trinity, in the New Mexico desert. It is a visually astounding scene, filmed sans digital effects, embodying Nolan’s fondness for analog cinema.
In a recent statement, Nolan conveyed, “What we needed was to try and give our audience an idea of what it felt like to be there” during the first nuclear explosion. The palpable sensation in this scene is a testament to the ingenuity of Nolan’s team and Cillian Murphy’s immersive performance.
Adapted from the extensively researched biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, the film delves deep into the dilemmas, contradictions, and multifaceted dimensions of this enigmatic man. Oppenheimer is depicted as an ambivalent character, haunted by the burden of his responsibility and plagued by doubt following the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which claimed more than 210,000 lives.
As a notable target of McCarthyism during the Cold War, Oppenheimer provides fertile ground for Nolan to experiment with temporality, narratives, and paradoxes. Alternating between black-and-white and color sequences to portray the subjectivity of scenes, the filmmaker poignantly illustrates the pivotal hearings and struggles of the physicist against an administration obsessed with hunting down communist sympathizers.
With Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan invites the audience to contemplate on moral dilemmas, the scientific quest, and the pitfalls of glory, all the while pushing the boundaries of cinema.
With AFP
