Oppenheimer review

[Westside Steve]

Oppenheimer

Universal

R.             180 min

 

Recently the entertainment/news reporting has had an abundance of commentary on the fact that OPPENHEIMER, touted as a mammoth and groundbreaking film from one of America's most powerful directors has been thrashed soundly at the box office by a piece of pink fluff, namely BARBIE. It's not hard to understand. Unless you are a hardcore movie buff, who wants to sit through 3 hours dissecting an injustice from the Ban the Bomb, post World War II Red Scare, anti-Semitism and Cold War era? Don't misunderstand, these issues are, and were, much more important, in my opinion, then 90% of the woke crap Hollywood spews these days. Still getting Generation Z out to see a film about baby boomers is a pretty steep task.

Christopher Nolan is a brilliant and powerful director held in the highest esteem in Hollywood circles. That means if he decides to tell a story it's not only a guaranteed green light but there are also very few producers with the chutzpah  to criticize the manner in which he tells it.

This saga has a tendency to jump around in time from the good doctors school days to his early work with nuclear fission to how his work lead, is it often does, to military applications in this case the atomic bomb. Much like Alfred Nobel and his creation of dynamite which could be used for so many useful things but wound up being the main ingredient for blowing up other human beings. Same deal with nuclear power except you can blow up lots more human beings. Even though the atomic bomb is widely credited as being the impetus to end the second world war with Japan the doctor, and many others, were Disturbed by the mass destruction and deaths of civilians. Many were also worried about the effect this weapon could have on warfare around the world. Some in high places,  seemingly consumed by bloodlust, took that cautious and thoughtful tactic to mean that the doctor may not have been as patriotic as he should be. Plenty of high-ranking officials sought to discredit him and that's the basis of this story. I think that's a valid story to tell yet I also think that Nolan took way too much time to tell it. Even though the acting was superb the look exceptional I believe that 3 hours is far too long and that all the details crammed in made the whole thing a little confusing.

So, while I have the utmost respect for Nolan's ability as a director and the amount of work it took to put this together it was just hard to sit through. Not only that but we forget that the atom bomb isn't really at the top of modern warfare threats. Today the possibility of unleashing chemical or biological or even cyber-attacks could push casualties into the millions instead of the hundreds of thousands.

A stunning film but far too long and comprehensive to be as gripping as it should be.

C+

WSS