TheMuddyDragon’s review published on Letterboxd:
You are the man who gave them the power to destroy themselves. And the world is not prepared.
Oppenheimer is Christopher Nolan’s Magnum Opus - a grand biopic that serves as a political thriller whilst also maintaining the rules and regulations of the conventional norms. It’s a series of firsts for Nolan, yet there’s hints of flavour from his previous work, like the non-linear structure (Memento), dreams (Inception), booming score (Interstellar), explosions (Tenet), the main antagonist being a reflection of the protagonist (The Dark Knight), it’s all there as he combines all these elements into one long grandiose of a film.
The cast is absolutely STACKED, with Cillian Murphy being the first-time lead in a Nolan project, and he absolutely crushes it. RDJ is also amazing, as Lewis Strauss he brings a level of malice and intensity that we haven’t really seen much of before, he’s kinda terrifying, and I love it. The supporting cast includes Emily Blunt (Katherine ‘Kitty’ Oppenheimer), Matt Damon (Gen. Leslie Groves Jr.), Florence Pugh (Jean Tatlock), and Kenneth Branagh (Niels Bohr) among others, but all do an outstanding job bringing their real-life counterparts to life in amazing ways.
The main focus of Oppenheimer is, of course, the creation of the atomic bomb during World War II and how one man changed the course of history but lived to regret it afterward. Now, Nolan has never done a horror movie (yet), but it plays out like one, with the grim and terrifying nature of reality sinking in more and more as the film goes on. They were real people, and this actually happened in our history.
The films score is absolutely intense, with Ludwig Goranson composing chill-inducing melodies that put you on edge and make you feel uneasy, which was probably what he had in mind when creating it. It’s hauntingly beautiful, but nerve wracking at the same time. Easily of his best yet. The sound design is stellar and the cinematography is gorgeous, with Hoyte van Hoytema creating some awe-inspiring shots - with the buildup to and detonation of the Trinity Test even more so.
Oppenheimer is basically split into two sections- colour and black and white. The colour is from Oppenheimers perspective while the B&W is from Strauss’. I believe Nolan used this technique to convey the different ideals between the two as their beliefs collide in ranging ways. Unlike his preceding projects, it’s far less action based and more of a devine character study, this a biopic, after all. He uses the physics and sparks as an outline to express what Oppenheimer is feeling at a particular moment do that the audience can understand where his head is at and what he might want to accomplish next.
Overall, while it’s not perfect, Oppenheimer remains Christopher Nolan’s most ambitious project to date with a massive cast, a looming score, and gorgeous visuals.
“Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. For this, he was chained to a rock and tortured for eternity.”
