Movie Night: Oppenheimer.

INDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15398776/

Genre: Biography/Drama/History

Rating: R

Tagline: The World Forever Changes.

REVIEW:

I was excited to watch this movie as it was a sort of biography on one of the most important people of the 20^th century. I’ve heard stories of how he regretted building the bomb, but to see the events that led up to his decision to run the project, seemed like I would be seeing what really happened, especially after reading that the screenplay kept very close to the book based on his life, made me want to see it even more.

I was so disappointed.

This movie, while it did depict the unusual aspects of his life, jumped around so much that at times I had no idea what was going on. Between telling the story of his life, it jumped to the Congressional hearing on atomic energy, and the private hearing where they tried to prove that he knew there were Russian spies at Los Alamos. I’m not a fan of this type of storytelling. I prefer linear and maybe had they told the story this way, it would have lessened the confusion for me. I felt that it broke the main rule of storytelling—it told me everything instead of showing. At times, the dialogue was so detailed and fast, I didn’t understand what was going on, especially at the end when Robert Downy Jr. character went into a long rant that was probably meant to pull the story together, but at that point, I wasn’t interested anymore.

Another reason for my dislike comes from the fact it was long. Almost three hours, but to try and reduce the time would mean they’d have to cut out some important part and I don’t think they could do that and still accurately portray the story they wanted to tell. Oppenheimer was a genius, that was made clear. He had a complicated life, but whatever ambition he had for wanting to be a part of this project, for me, was not clear. Was it ego? Professional gain? Was it like the movie depicted in that he wanted to create the bomb first before other countries to protect the U.S? All of the above?  

A few questions the movie did raise near the end was, did the U.S. government under Harry Truman need to drop the bomb on a populated city? Would the Japanese not surrender if it was detonated in an isolated place nearby? Wouldn’t the sheer terror of the explosion and knowledge that the U.S. had such a weapon not convince them to surrender? Did they really need to drop the second bomb? History has not been able to answered any of these questions and I’m afraid it never will.