The cinema’s ability to successfully focus a spotlight on an important world event can be very hit or miss. Artistic license is often used as a catch-all phrase when the results come up short. Oppenheimer proves with the right intent and utilising a master’s craft to the fullest, that the work can inform, entertain and leave behind a vivid memory.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer was an exceedingly complex man and one many see as both a saint and a sinner. He was instrumental in putting the brain trust together for the Manhattan Project, The collection of minds that developed the first atomic bomb. When it was used twice to bomb the Japanese in Hiroshima and Nagasaki it divided both the world and scientific communities.
Oppenheimer the pragmatist saw the bomb as necessary due to the race for its completion between America and Nazi Germany but as a humanist, he was conflicted. He didn’t trust the government’s implementation of the technology and always struggled with the balance between technological advancements and their use and abuse by humanity.
Christopher Nolan tells a powerful tale about a complicated man who was both rewarded and condemned for his genius. He was a man who felt great guilt about his part in inventing the atomic bomb and its subsequent use as a political tool by the world’s governments. He felt deeply for humanity and struggled under being seen as the destroyer of worlds.
Rob Hudson
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