Oppenheimer (2023)

Plot: Biopic of Physcist Robert Oppenheimer, Head Scientist at the Manhattan Project
Stars: Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jnr,  Elizabeth  Blunt

First, my hats off to Christopher Nolan, not many film-makers could make even a C+ movie about a subject so intrinsically boring and un-dramatic. The acting and cinema-photography were great and kept me awake, but all the flashbacks, cut edits, horse rides, sex scenes, train rides, explosions, B&W photography, wonderful set design, and period authentic costumes’, couldn’t make what was actually said very interesting, or the actual story being told engaging. Or make me care about Oppenheimer.

It was a puzzling choice by Nolan. 

Why did one the 21st Centuries most successful Directors decide to tell the now obscure stories of Oppenheimer’s 1954 security clearance trial and 1957 Admiral Strauss’ Senate confirmation hearing? Or dwell on Oppenheimer’s private life? Even the one part of the movie that should be fascinating, the building of the A-bomb, really wasn’t, because we know the bomb worked, and “building the bomb” isn't dramatic - it’s just talk about physics and formulas on a black board.

And then there’s Oppie himself.

Like most scientists, Oppie wasn’t a fascinating dramatic character. And other than being one of many important scientists involved in the Manhattan project, did nothing to deserve a $100 million movie.

Why was I supposed to care about any of this? 

Nolan seems to think we’re supposed to root for Oppie against all those “nasty anti-communists” who are trying to get him. But since there’s nothing particularly likable about Oppenheimer and he REALLY WAS communist, there was no emotional engagement.

The focus on Strauss was even more puzzling, he wasn’t confirmed as Secretary of Commerce, and…so what? 

 Summary: Frankly, it was a struggle to get through 3 hours of it. And I’ve read several books on Oppenheimer and the Manhattan project. You could make an interesting movie about Oppenheimer, but he would have to be the villain: the cagey traitor trying to help the USSR, while the heroes at Army intelligence tried to uncover him. Needless to say, that movie will never be made.

Addendum: The Movie’s Leftwing Slant
The left of course, never forgives, and never forgets. For years the Left denied Oppenheimer was a communist or even a communist sympathizer. He was just a wrongly accused Liberal, completely innocent, unjustly persecuted by those dastardly McCarthyites.

Verona and Soviet archives showed otherwise, but the Left is still in there pitching, now trying to claim that Oppie may have had communist sympathies, but he was no Soviet Spy. And those right-wingers who accused him are still evil. Well, OK.

The fact that Oppenheimer didn’t PERSONALLY give atomic secrets to the NKVD means little. It would have been stupid for the Soviets to jeopardize their key spy by having him do that. What the soviets needed was for Oppenheimer as the project leader, to be unconcerned with security, approve communist scientists and technicians for the project, and establish an “open workplace” where ideas could widely circulate. And that’s exactly what Oppenheimer did.

When his brother Frank was contacted by Soviet intelligence, Oppenheimer did not report it. Later, after the war, he opposed construction of the H-bomb, and argued for giving Soviets the A-bomb secrets as part of a “deal”. Which is exactly what the Soviets wanted.

A History Lesson on American Communists
People don’t seem to understand that large numbers of Americans were communists but did not have communist party membership or pay dues. Sometimes CPUSA refused to allow people to join the party, or had them leave, thinking they would be more useful as Non-members. For example: Harry Dexter White and Alger Hiss both “left the party” – because it was more useful to be able to pose as Non-communists. Many of the most significant Stalinists, who cooperated with the Party, attacked anti-communists, and provided information to the party/USSR, were not FORMAL members. They never joined or they “left the party” when they became more famous. Like: Lillian Hellman, Betsy Blair, William Wyler, Martha Gellhorn, Anthony Blunt, Kim Phil by, William Straight,

Oppenheimer claimed to have not joined. But his wife, brother, mistress, and closest friends were all communists. And when he hired his lab assistants, they were all communists. And when the Nazi-Soviet was signed, Oppenheimer flipped on a dime and wrote pamphlets opposing the entry of the USA into ww ii, until June 22, 1941, when he flipped back to being a warhawk.