SPOILER ALERT. The plot will be discussed.
Oppenheimer (2023),
winner of the Best Picture Oscar, is based on the book entitled America
Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the nuclear
physicist who helped create the atomic bomb in 1945. In mythology, Prometheus
defied the gods and gave fire to humanity. For his transgression he was
tortured by having a giant bird chew at his liver while he was in chains. It is
a rich metaphor for daring to defy the order of things by reaching above the
human realm. (A similar theme is in the tale of Icarus and Daedalus).
Oppenheimer harnessed the basic power of existence and for that he suffered
psychological punishment through guilt and the persecution of the political
system when he advised against developing and using the weapons he helped to
create.
As he testifies before a committee, Oppenheimer states
that when he was studying in England, he was troubled by images of a hidden universe,
possibly a precognition of the awe and danger of the nuclear world. Christopher
Nolan (Winner of the Best Director Oscar for this work) depicts shifting time periods
and is adept at cutting to Oppenheimer’s viewpoint here, with visions of the atomic
world, which he depicts in color. He said it was to stress the scientist’s
point of view, which was subjective and the camera is closer to Oppenheimer,
making the face a landscape, according to the cinematographer. The screenplay
was in the first person, a very unusual technique, to stress Oppenheimer’s take
on things. Strauss’s scenes are in black and white, supposedly an objective
viewpoint, at least as Strauss sees the facts, and the camera shoots farther
away to suggest objectivity. Nolan said, despite the back and forth shifting of
time periods, structured it first as an origin story, then a kind of suspense
film in making the bomb, and then a trial sequence. Nolan combines old school
with new school technology. He does not prefer CGI, and still uses film, but
IMAX has visual resolution superior to digital photography. This film is the
first to do black-and-white in IMAX.
Oppenheimer poisoned an apple for his demeaning
professor but stops Bohr from eating it. The apple has Biblical references,
showing that knowledge kills innocence and can lead to a fall from grace. It
also shows the darkness inside of Oppenheimer that here manifests in a personal
manner and later in a global one.
He throws glasses into the corner of his room as if
the broken, dangerous shards mimic what happens when matter is fractured. He
stares at a cubist painting which depicts various sides of reality in the same
viewing, which is what Oppenheimer sees as he considers the totality of
existence.
Back at the confirmation hearing, Strauss notes he
first met Oppenheimer for a position at Princeton University. He corrects
Oppenheimer by saying his name is pronounced “Straws,” another example of
Strauss’s wish for proper recognition. He says that no matter the
pronunciation, “they know I’m Jewish,” which may accurately stress a reason for
his insecurity. (Oppenheimer was also Jewish, although his parents moved away
from the religion toward a more secular belief system). Strauss asks why Oppenheimer
didn’t recruit Albert Einstein (Tom Conti), who also is at Princeton, for the
Manhattan Project which initiated the research to develop the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer
says that Einstein was the best scientist of “his time” for his theory of
relativity published many years prior. Oppenheimer seems superior in his manner
here. When he asks Strauss if he was a physicist the latter says he was a “self-made
man,” implying the scientists had an unfair advantage in life. He says he was a
shoe salesman. Oppenheimer says the successful Strauss was once a “lowly shoe salesman.”
Strauss takes offense at the adjective and corrects by saying, “just a shoe salesman.”
Oppenheimer has an unheard conversation at this point with Einstein near a pond
on the campus. Afterwards Einstein walks past Strauss as if oblivious of the
man being there. Strauss later says to the Congressional Committee that Oppenheimer
must have said something which caused Einstein to “sour” his feelings toward
Strauss. Also, the fact that Oppenheimer is not jumping at the position offered
at Princeton irritates Strauss. All these details about what Straus perceives
as slights show how he will eventually undermine Oppenheimer.
The scene switches to a dark, desolate landscape in
the howling wind in New Mexico which is a nice follow-up to the apocalyptic
vision in the Sanskrit text. Oppenheimer and his brother Frank (Dylan Arnold)
camp out. Oppenheimer says that when he was young, he thought that if he could
combine physics with New Mexico his life would be good. He reaches that goal at
Los Alamos, where his ideal situation also becomes the birthplace of enormous destruction.
Prior to the above time, there was no thinking of
developing a bomb. But at Berkeley there is news that the Germans split an atom
by bombarding it with neutrons. Oppenheimer says the math doesn’t show it’s
possible, but Luis Alvarez, (Alex Wolff) working with Lawrence in the practical
engineering department, replicates the German experiment, showing, as Lawrence
says, that theory only takes one so far, and it doesn’t always predict reality.
The fact that energy is released with fission points to the possibility of making
an atomic bomb.
Oppenheimer is trying to live in the world of science
along with elements of romance and politics to show some connection with Jean.
He is not successful combining these parts of his life. She is unhappy with his
lack of attention. He shows up with Alvarez to union meetings and argues with
Lawrence about unionizing professors, which brings backlash from the
university. On September 1, 1939, he co-publishes an article on black holes, a
scientific breakthrough. It is in the theoretical world, divorced from the
practical one, where he is most fulfilled.
The Nazis invade countries outside of Germany and the looming
possibility of perverting pure science encroaches on Oppenheimer’s life. A quick
shift to his interrogation shows that he did not like the communist view of noninvolvement
toward the Nazi menace and did not join the Communist Party. He mentions that
his wife, Kitty (Emily Blunt), was a communist a long time ago for a period
because of her prior marriage. The committee tries to exploit the pasts of
himself and those of others he was involved with.
We then shift to his meeting Kitty, and her rejection
of the Party because of what to her was the senseless death fighting the
fascists in Spain. They become lovers, she becomes pregnant, and both end their
prior romantic involvements. But Kitty experiences the same detachment from her
new husband as Jean did with her lover. Oppenheimer is not there as a husband
or a father as his home is in the world of science.
Lawrence, being the practical one, which fits his
engineering application job, warns Oppenheimer that his attachment to unions
that are “filled with communists” alienates him from the Federal Government and
inhibits his fight against the Germans who may develop an atomic bomb, as
Einstein warned. So, Oppenheimer said his association with unions would not
interfere with working on a nuclear deterrent to the Nazis. At that time, he
was not persecuted, but when the McCarthy era began, his past came back to
haunt him.
Strauss later says, “Genius is no guarantee of wisdom.
How could this man who saw so much be so blind.” Again, Oppenheimer may see the
unseen world, but it obscures his vision of the overt one. He can visualize the
chain reaction of atomic particles, but not the cause and effect of his social
actions.
However, he shows he can apply his scientific mind to
making an atomic bomb before the Nazis developed one. He convinces the dubious head
of the Manhattan Project, Major General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) that he can
coordinate the development of a nuclear weapon and run the lab at Los Alamos. (Damon
has a small mustache, like the real Groves, but here it reminds one of Hitler’s,
and one scientist calls him “Generalissimo,” referencing Spain’s fascistic
Franco, so there is authoritarianism present to a degree here, too). Groves tries
to question Oppenheimer’s resolve by implying that nobody will receive a Nobel
Prize for making a bomb. The scientist wittily responds that Alfred Nobel
invented dynamite, which suggests the two sides of the coin that can come from
inventions. Groves, however, does try to protect Oppenheimer from persecutions
in the future. Oppenheimer knows that Groves can leverage him because of his
left-wing past. Oppenheimer says that one thing they have going for them is “antisemitism,”
implying the great scientists who are under Nazi rule are Jewish, and that
might alienate the scientists and Hiter from each other.
Oppenheimer recruits American scientists, saying the
government needs them, but as Alvarez notes wisely, “until they don’t.” We have
here Oppenheimer’s dismissal of how politics works. Rabi does not want to join.
He sees the bigger picture. He says, “You drop a bomb and it falls on the just
and the unjust. I don’t want the culmination of three centuries of physics to
be a weapon of mass destruction.” However, the immediacy of the problem wins
him over. As Oppenheimer says, they might not be wise in the use of the atomic
bomb, but he knows that the Nazis can’t be trusted with it. In this case,
Oppenheimer is being realistic about the threat of Nazi world domination.
Edward Teller (Benny Safdie) hypothesizes that the
detonation of a nuclear bomb could create a chain reaction that is unstoppable,
destroying the world. Oppenheimer consults with Einstein. Einstein says that if
widespread destruction is possible, then they must share the findings with the
Nazis, because they would not want to obliterate what they want to conquer. After
running through theoretical possibilities that world destruction was near zero
the practical Groves says, “Zero would be nice,” an understated sarcastic
statement given the horrific potential involved.
Another incident that haunts Oppenheimer at the
investigation involves his friend, Haakon Chevalier (Jefferson Hall) who wanted
the physicist to pass on information about the atomic bomb project to the
Russians, who were our allies in WWII. Oppenheimer notes that act would be
treason, but he did not report it as a security problem at the time, as he was
caught between loyalty to his friend and his country.
Bohr is able to escape to America. He says that Heisenberg
is now working with the Nazis, which shows how dangerous the blooming nuclear
age will become. Bohr is not there to help but to look beyond the current
situation and urges Oppenheimer to use his influence to warn the U. S.
Government that the world has moved into a frightening phase. He calls
Oppenheimer a Prometheus figure. That image stresses the cause and effect of
how discovering powerful tools can be used for terrible reasons. Maybe to
convince himself, Oppenheimer repeats what Bohr said to him earlier by now saying,
“You can’t lift the stone without being ready for the snake that’s revealed.”
Bohr meant it as a warning, but Oppenheimer uses it as a natural consequence
for the need to open a Pandora’s Box.
With the hydrogen bomb researched by Teller, there is
the possibility, later realized, of a device a thousand times more powerful
than an atomic bomb. As the scientists along with Strauss and government
official Vannevar Bush (Matthew Modine) argue the need or danger of developing
a hydrogen bomb, we get an intense subjective view from Oppenheimer’s
perspective. The resounding sound of stomping feet resembling soldiers marching
off to war echoes in his ears. He urges restraint in further development of
nuclear arms and says that there should be restriction of an arms race with
Russia, who has replaced Germany as an enemy. The implication here is that
there will always be a foe to justify the further development of weapons. However,
metaphorically, he is trying to defuse an explosive after he has already set it
to go off.
Back to the Los Alamos lab, Oppenheimer uses a quote
from John Donne who said in a sonnet, “Batter my heart, three-personed God.” So,
he names the test “Trinity” to see if the A-Bomb will work. The reference is
full of contradictions. The poem is a plea by a person who states the only way
he can be saved is through force from a supreme being. Oppenheimer’s naming the
test suggests that he sees salvation from evil (Nazism) only through submission
to a greater power (atomic).
However, the Allies defeated Germany and Hitler was
dead. The question is whether it is necessary to drop the fury of atomic bombs
on Japan. Oppenheimer, along with Bush and Groves, meet with the Secretary of
Defense Henry Stimson (James Remar) concerning this decision. Oppenheimer wants
to backtrack now since the Nazis are no longer a threat. Why not show the
Japanese the force of the bomb before dropping it? A lame excuse is that it
might fail and that will reveal our plans. That would assume that Japan could
somehow prepare for an atomic attack, doubtful at best. The military members there
and the Secretary talk about the many thousands that will die in abstract
terms. Stimson says he took the city of Kyoto off the list because he went
there on his honeymoon. He is playing God with innocent lives based on
nostalgic memories. A merciless Groves wants to drop two bombs to show the
effectiveness of the blast and then to force a surrender. This strategy is
based on the nonempirical conclusion that the Japanese will never surrender
otherwise.
After all the intellectually detached scientific work,
what they have made is a tangible weapon, and as it rides away on a military
transport, the harsh reality of that fact sinks in as Oppenheimer hopes that
the terror of the atomic bomb will stop all wars in the future. History has
shown that although the far more destructive hydrogen bomb became the nuclear
weapon of choice, there has been no use of it so far because of fear. But wars
still rage on, and the potential for mass destruction looms over them.
After the bomb is dropped on Hiroshima, we then meet
up again with the sound of those stomping feet in celebration now at Los Alamos.
Oppenheimer says, “The world will remember this day,” but will it be in
celebration or in infamy? That question is what exists inside of Oppenheimer’s
mind. The background shakes and he gets a vision of the patriotic cheering of
the project’s workers and their families turning into one of melting corpses.
Oppenheimer concludes that he has become, like Vishnu, “Death. The destroyer of
worlds.”
Scientists and those associated with Oppenheimer who were
against further use of nuclear technology paid the price for their views. Oppenheimer’s
brother was blacklisted by all the universities in the country and Lomanitz wound
up laying track for the railroad. Chevalier went into exile most likely because
of the shift to anticommunism in the United States
But Oppenheimer pushed for arms control instead of pursuing
development of the H-Bomb, trying to compensate for that blood on his hands. The
movie depicts Oppenheimer as a conflicted man, trying to navigate the morality
of helping to create monstrous weapons for the immediate Nazi problem while at
the same time advising against their construction in the future.
Strauss tells Oppenheimer that Klaus Fuchs
(Christopher Denham), a scientist at Los Alamos, was providing information to
the Soviets. Once there was confirmation of a spy at the test site, the FBI
stepped up surveillance on Oppenheimer. The view here is that people can become
guilty by association, not by fact.
Some of those government officials who supported
Oppenheimer now try to bury him in the public view. Secretary of Defense
Stimson now says the bomb was developed for an enemy that was already defeated.
Strauss uses the press to step up his positive publicity by sending out the
message through a reporter that Strauss fought Oppenheimer and America “won.” It
turns out Borden, who lies when he says he had no contact with anyone from the
AEC, received Oppenheimer’s private personnel file from the
inferiority-complex-ridden AEC ranking member Strauss, who devised the way the
scientist would be ruined. Borden, in a letter to J. Edgar Hoover, accused
Oppenheimer of being a Russian undercover agent. Strauss didn’t want to give
Oppenheimer a platform to be a “martyr.” He wanted a closed hearing in a small
office, with no burden of proof needed to be established and no discovery of
evidence for the defense, since the committee is not charging the physicist
with a crime. The committee revokes Oppenheimer’s secret clearance, thus
labeling him as a threat to United States security. Kitty knows it is Strauss
behind the conspiracy, labeling him as being vindictive for perceived slights,
and admonishes her husband justly for not fighting enough. He even shook
Teller’s hand after Teller said he thought Oppenheimer was not a good security
risk. All the while, Strauss, the proverbial snake in the grass, acts like he
is helping Oppenheimer navigate the attack Strauss devised.
At Strauss’s Senate confirmation hearing regarding his
nomination as Commerce Secretary, he is concerned he will be tainted by his
connection to Oppenheimer. He makes sure he lets the Senate know that he
disagreed with Oppenheimer about letting President Truman know about the
possibility of a hydrogen bomb. Strauss also says that the Russians wouldn’t
have known how to make an atomic bomb if there wasn’t a spy at Los Alamos,
another attack on Oppenheimer because the physicist was the leader at Los
Alamos.
