OPPENHEIMER was certainly one of the most waited movies of 2023 because Christopher Nolan is one of the few directors today that know how to make great and overlong movies without making the audience in the theater fall asleep and also because of its star studded cast. In fact when I saw it in theater last August I felt like glued to the armchair and the three hours running time went by easily. Despite its 4086 reviews to date I'll have to talk about it also because of its triumph at the Academy Awards.
This isn't exactly a traditional biopic following Robert Oppenheimer's (Cillian Murphy) life in all its steps but it can still be called biopic because it follows most of his life. It starts in the years when he was a student (first in Cambridge and then to Gottinga), when he met his wife Katherine (Emily Blunt) despite he'll have a relationship with communist Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh). In 1942 Colonel Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) goes to Oppenheimer and names him leader of the Manhattan project for creating the Atom bomb, especially during the death of Adolf Hitler Oppenheimer thinks that the bomb will stop the conflict in the Pacific and save many US soldiers. Harry Truman (Gary Oldman) orders the bombardment of Hiroshima and Nagasaki forcing Japan to surrender. While Oppenheimer is praised by the press he is conflicted about the many lives killed by the bomb and thanks to Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr) his image is tainted in the public view only to be rehabilitated when in 1963 Lyndon B Johnson gives him a prize and before the screen fades to black we see the conversation between Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein (Tom Conti, who was also in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES) where they didn't referred to Strauss but to the fact that Oppenheimer with his invention caused a chain reaction that put the world in peril.
To say that the acting is great would be an understatement. It was phenomenal. Cillian Murphy has always been great in most of his movies and since Christopher Nolan directed him so often in supporting roles had the great idea of making him play the lead also probably because Murphy kinda looks like the real Oppenheimer and managed to make Murphy give his career-defining performance... he nailed it! Robert Downey too deserved his Academy Award, and proved once again that he's more than just Iron Man, courtesy also of Nolan. Now the supporting cast it's huge so I'll mention only some of them: Matt Damon as the Colonel that wants Oppenheimer for the Manhattan project, Matthew Modine (who even put me some likes on Instagram since last October) as one of Oppenheimer's closest collaborators Vannevar Bush, Josh Hartnett as another of Oppenheimer's colleagues, Jason Clarke as the inquisitive Oppenheimer's attorney, Tony Goldwyn as the chairman of the jury revoking Oppenheimer's security clearance, Kenneth Branagh as Niels Bohr alas Oppenheimer's idol and Gary Oldman as President Harry Truman in a role that despite appears for five minutes you'll remember it even after months. Emily Blunt was also pitch perfect as Oppenheimer's wife same goes for Florence Pugh as his lover.
The direction by Nolan, needless to say, it's flawless. If with the DARK KNIGHT trilogy proved that he can do blockbusters, with OPPENHEIMER he improved his way of doing historical movies over DUNKIRK that was good but not on the same level of this one. Ludwig Goranson's score was great, and then we come to the moment everyone including me and my friend were waiting for: the explosion of the atomic bomb. Despite I saw it in a Dolby Atmos theater my ears didn't blew off but it was still a treat for the eyes.
Overall, it was certain it would have triumphed at the Academy Awards in its major categories and it did. If you still haven't seen it or missed it during its theater run what are you waiting for? Only the biggest of curmudgeons would hate it IMO.
This isn't exactly a traditional biopic following Robert Oppenheimer's (Cillian Murphy) life in all its steps but it can still be called biopic because it follows most of his life. It starts in the years when he was a student (first in Cambridge and then to Gottinga), when he met his wife Katherine (Emily Blunt) despite he'll have a relationship with communist Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh). In 1942 Colonel Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) goes to Oppenheimer and names him leader of the Manhattan project for creating the Atom bomb, especially during the death of Adolf Hitler Oppenheimer thinks that the bomb will stop the conflict in the Pacific and save many US soldiers. Harry Truman (Gary Oldman) orders the bombardment of Hiroshima and Nagasaki forcing Japan to surrender. While Oppenheimer is praised by the press he is conflicted about the many lives killed by the bomb and thanks to Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr) his image is tainted in the public view only to be rehabilitated when in 1963 Lyndon B Johnson gives him a prize and before the screen fades to black we see the conversation between Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein (Tom Conti, who was also in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES) where they didn't referred to Strauss but to the fact that Oppenheimer with his invention caused a chain reaction that put the world in peril.
To say that the acting is great would be an understatement. It was phenomenal. Cillian Murphy has always been great in most of his movies and since Christopher Nolan directed him so often in supporting roles had the great idea of making him play the lead also probably because Murphy kinda looks like the real Oppenheimer and managed to make Murphy give his career-defining performance... he nailed it! Robert Downey too deserved his Academy Award, and proved once again that he's more than just Iron Man, courtesy also of Nolan. Now the supporting cast it's huge so I'll mention only some of them: Matt Damon as the Colonel that wants Oppenheimer for the Manhattan project, Matthew Modine (who even put me some likes on Instagram since last October) as one of Oppenheimer's closest collaborators Vannevar Bush, Josh Hartnett as another of Oppenheimer's colleagues, Jason Clarke as the inquisitive Oppenheimer's attorney, Tony Goldwyn as the chairman of the jury revoking Oppenheimer's security clearance, Kenneth Branagh as Niels Bohr alas Oppenheimer's idol and Gary Oldman as President Harry Truman in a role that despite appears for five minutes you'll remember it even after months. Emily Blunt was also pitch perfect as Oppenheimer's wife same goes for Florence Pugh as his lover.
The direction by Nolan, needless to say, it's flawless. If with the DARK KNIGHT trilogy proved that he can do blockbusters, with OPPENHEIMER he improved his way of doing historical movies over DUNKIRK that was good but not on the same level of this one. Ludwig Goranson's score was great, and then we come to the moment everyone including me and my friend were waiting for: the explosion of the atomic bomb. Despite I saw it in a Dolby Atmos theater my ears didn't blew off but it was still a treat for the eyes.
Overall, it was certain it would have triumphed at the Academy Awards in its major categories and it did. If you still haven't seen it or missed it during its theater run what are you waiting for? Only the biggest of curmudgeons would hate it IMO.