Film Review: Oppenheimer (2023)
Blurb: Sins, consequences & beyond.
The chronicles of history contain more than a few tipping points for human civilization. The discovery of the Solar-System, the first telescope, electricity, the Great War, and the tragedy which was its sequel, World War-II. Among the weighty and consequential events of WW-II, the bombings in Japan are an event which not only altered the human perception of destruction but also gave the word ‘destruction’ a whole new lexical dimension.
Through Oppenheimer (the film & character) Christopher Nolan has successfully and adequately introduced the audience to the level of gravity and apprehension which inhabited not only the eponymous character, but also the immediate circumstances which led to a scientific breakthrough and a moral dilemma.
From a technical standpoint, the film is a marvel in both its visual and auditory elements. I would particularly draw attention to its sound-mixing and soundtrack which truly envelopes an audience member in the same sense of foreboding as the film’s characters. Just as linguists & lexicographers manage to give birth to new names, Ludwig Goransson has successfully given the emotions of ‘Anxiety’, ‘Anticipation’ & ‘restraint’ a soundtrack worthy of their physical effects. The visual representation of inner emotions further bolsters the overall cinematic effect.
The narrative is fragmented as is Nolan’s trademark, but the editing keeps all the strands interwoven in a patchwork quilt of stories and incidents which make sense in both isolation and when taken together as a whole. Augmented by a tight script and a star-cast which delivers every time they take to the screen. The only criticism that I can bring to bear against the film is its prodigious runtime which does give it the slightest sense of bloating.
There is a subtle and not-so-subtle celebration of paradoxes throughout the story which when taken in the context of Oppenheimer’s character makes the film not so much a ‘film’ or a ‘documentary’ but more a character study of a man who never truly reveals to us what he believes in.
Much like the divinity after which he named the bomb-test, Oppenheimer becomes the human embodiment of the multi-faceted/multi-natured presence within each of us. He is not a character you can sympathize with. Nor should you. But he is deserving of your empathy, as is any person who is gifted with brilliance but is plagued by a lack of wisdom.
Historians & Trivia-pundits will have a field day with the selective inclusion & omission of people, events and other august contributions, if that is a fault of Nolan or the book upon which the story is based is anyone’s guess (perhaps both). Watch the film not for its historical accuracy (what is ‘accurate’ these days anyway?) but for its technical brilliance and immersive spectacle.
