The film “Oppenheimer”, directed by Christopher Nolan, set a new record for evaluation at the public and critical levels on the specialized “Rotten Tomatoes” website, as it reached a rate of 94%, which is what no film has reached in the past.
A film of a director of the size of Nolan was not a strange assessment in the world of cinema, because of the successes that he had known since it started in the Hollywood sky coming from London, to make a special world of imagination, and offers films that combine unbridled imagination with cinematic and technical skill, and always raises questions about identity in an entertainment framework, such as “The Dark Knight) 2008, and” Sprinkle of ideas “( Inception 2010 and “Between the Stars” 2014.
Christopher Nolan, who was nominated for 26 awards and won 7 of them; He decided to give his audience a compulsory vacation from pure entertainment, to address in his new film one of the most important and serious stations of humanity, as he tells in his distinctive way the biography of the nuclear bomb maker, with its violent drama and contradictions that lead to laughter like crying.
The film not only tells the story of the scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer’s contribution to the manufacture of the nuclear bomb and his supervision of the Manhattan Project to manufacture it, but it also touches on the conflict he lived through between science and ethics throughout his life, and the paradox that made a genius scientist like him fall into the famous Faust bet, selling his soul and mind to the devil of making the nuclear bomb, and spending his remaining years trying to atone for what he did, so the American state judges him for his intentions.
The director used his favorite time game in his films, where he moves into the future, then returns to the past, pauses in the present, and repeats the game in a circular manner.
In “Oppenheimer”, the director draws a timeline, starting from the courtroom in which “Robert Oppenheimer” is being tried, to his laboratory, and then to “Los Alamos” where the Manhattan Project for the manufacture of the nuclear bomb was implemented.
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The film, which swept theaters around the world on the evening of July 21, grossed nearly $ 150 million over the weekend, despite its difference from most Hollywood productions.
And “Oppenheimer” needs a vigilant mind. The conflict that the viewer is used to in Nolan’s films, such as a car collision, shooting, or a match in free martial arts, is a mental and emotional struggle.
The work was presented by the project implementation team that eventually led to the production of the first nuclear weapon in the world, and it also presented a team of the US Federal Investigation, and a number of members of the US Congress that represented “McCarathism”, which represented a trend within the system at the time aimed at liquidating any individual carrying left-wing ideas in American society, and it led to wasting the lives of many creators and scientists, either by expulsion from work or social isolation if he was a free artist.
And General Leslie Grause – whose role was played wonderfully and completely dry by actor Matt Damon – carried his very own offer to Oppenheimer, and the man who did not know any administrative abilities and did not receive a Nobel Prize seemed to be; As if he was waiting for the offer to manage the project to produce the bomb, which means that he would become an administrator or politician instead of being a great scientist.
The fate of Robert Oppenheimer – who managed the project and turned the theoretical perception of the bomb into a reality that led to a sharp change in the military balance of power in the world, and completely changed the shape of the world forever – was not different from the fate of the victims of McCarthyism.
Oppenheimer was tried, and his powers were withdrawn, after he was investigated about his leftist tendencies and the thought of a number of his relatives who were members of the American Communist Party at the time, and they are his girlfriend, wife and brother.
The “father of the nuclear bomb” remained excluded, isolated, and his loyalty questioned until President John F. Kennedy announced his honor and rehabilitation, but he – that is, Kennedy – was assassinated, and President Johnson honored him instead.
Malek shadows and clash of faces
There are clear shadows of the American director of Lebanese descent, Terrence Malick – the owner of “The Tree of Life” and “The Thin Red Line” – in “Oppenheimer”, as Nolan reviews those distinctive capabilities of the imagination of the young Robert Oppenheimer, and presents a strip of wonderful heavenly images in the well-known Malick way, where the bright stars line up in a dark sky, but the faces dominate the rest of the film except for the review of the desert in New Mexico; Where the Manhattan Project was held in the “Los Alamos” area.
It did not happen that any of the actors presented a dramatic scene with theatrical expression or exaggerated emotion, and on the contrary, most of the roles are either for soldiers who play their roles with harshness and discipline, or for scientists and university professors in the fields of physics, chemistry and mathematics, who are always dominated by conservative behavior as befits faculty members in the forties of the last century.
And here appears the vision of Nolan, who presented a film that addresses the mind of the viewer and asks him to focus intensely, because the real game is in the mind and in the search for what is behind a drama.
From Robert Oppenheimer’s face full of mystery to his eyes that do not reveal anything even in the worst circumstances, to the faces of his colleagues, except for his girlfriend who committed suicide after he left her, and his wife who was addicted to alcohol; Each face did not cross except within the limits of what its owner’s profession allows, not his humanity.
The film did not apologize for the nuclear bomb, and did not show even a single scene of the victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki explosions. Rather, it was preoccupied with presenting Oppenheimer’s life in its various aspects, although the bodies that were burned are “blood on his hands,” as he said in his dialogue with the film.
The work presented the moment of transformation in which Oppenheimer’s conscience woke up in a large hall to celebrate his success, as the camera approached his silent eyes looking outside the frame, so that we could move on to colleagues, audiences, and students applauding him and his success, but those faces appear to him as if they were melting, and bodies falling and burning, to begin the reverse journey and the viewer is sure that he spent about half of the film panting to make the nuclear bomb, and the other half panting to apologize for what his hands had done.
Beyond the drama
The makers of the work presented more than 3 hours in an attempt to provide behind the drama that Robert Oppenheimer lived in the shadow of the drama of World War II, McCarthyism, and the struggle of great scientists who were recruited for the benefit of a country that decided to end the war in the most difficult way.
The camera tried to penetrate through the faces into the bright minds located between the hammer of science and the anvil of morality, which are delusional that they have the ability to make decisions despite the clarity of the center of power that used everyone to achieve their goals, and then began to judge each person for his unfulfilled intentions and his dull and useless past.
The dialogue that played the starring role in the film was nothing but a tour of those minds that not only explained how the nuclear bomb works, but explained how conscience and reason work, which awakened when his colleague denounced him for wearing a uniform that a scientist should not wear, saying, “What is this ridiculous military suit that you wear?! You are a scientist … wear clothes that suit you.” Oppenheimer quickly changes his clothes after he was happy to manage a military project.
The sound tape was very distinctive, as it pushed the tensions to a climax since the first shot, as Oppenheimer puts his hands on his ears, while a loud clamor emanates, evident as a result of the anger of those present at his trial at the Congressional Committee who strike with their feet on the wooden floor.
Cillian Murphy presented his qualifications to compete for the Academy Award at next year’s ceremony, while Rami Malek, of Egyptian origin, who won the Best Actor Oscar in 2018, appeared for his role in the movie “Bohemian Rhapsody”; In several scenes among a large group of stars who realized the importance of work, they accepted small roles.
The film – which is classified historically – confirms that some sayings do not lose their validity no matter how long they pass, including the saying “History is written by the victors”; And here is the victor writing history, apologizing for Oppenheimer’s trial, and for the torment that afflicted his conscience, which prompted him to work to limit the use of nuclear weapons in war.
