Oppenheimer
Scarecrow88

Review by Scarecrow88

Oppenheimer 2023

★★★★★

Watched 18 Jan 2024

Of all the moments that walloped me, it is these smaller moments that made impact for some reason like the cyanide apple meant for the teacher, the crack from Oppenheimer to Strauss about being "a lowly shoe salesman", the Albert Einstein conversations (and Strauss' incorrect assessment of "Einstein's dismissive pass due to something Oppenheimer said"), the Kitty interrogation by Strauss' arranged "kangaroo court" to deprive Oppenheimer of his security clearance and use of essentially a hitman by way of Roger Robb (Clarke, once again the perfect casting of yet another character I just wanted to reach across the screen and strangle), and Oppenheimer's emerging guilt "after the bomb was dropped", stepping into the ash corpse of a victim and pretty much having a panic attack in front of the Los Alamos "community of big brains".

I guess the point was "tragedy of genius" as Nolan includes Einstein as the voice of tremendous disapproval of what his own calculations produced that made Oppenheimer's own contributions to a major weapon possible. You get the "can't put that genie back in the bottle" reiterated (and rightfully so) over and over. God, that Truman scene just made me nearly nauseous. Matt Damon as General Groves gets lost in the conversation because Robert Downey Jr is so sensational as Strauss, power broker "in the shadows" looking for whatever government position he could achieve...if not for a couple of holdouts including JFK.

Now I realize a lot of this film is conjecture. I always kept that in mind. And I get that there is plenty of scrutiny in the Manhattan Project, the bomb's invention and use, all that. But the film was just incredibly made and I found it all absorbing. I can see why so many were conflicted with the man and still remain that way to this day. What a cast! David Krumholtz, I WAS NOT expecting! He's one of Oppenheimer's most trusted colleagues and I was just ecstatic to see Josh Hartnett (yes, I like him) as a fellow professor.

While the back and forth through periods of time could get a bit dizzying and I guess I felt Pugh's Tatlock could have worked better (I just felt her nude scenes were included just because), minor gripes. I was exhilarated by the presentation. There are still great movies being made. I just hope Hollywood continues to produce this kind of work in the future.

***PIcked up the blu because I really wanted to own the movie. This is similar to "JFK" in that I could see myself watching this many more times.***

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