{"id":58466,"date":"2023-07-31T12:13:23","date_gmt":"2023-07-31T16:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=58466"},"modified":"2023-07-31T12:13:32","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T16:13:32","slug":"oppenheimer-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2023\/07\/oppenheimer-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Oppenheimer \u2013 Movie Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Bob Garver<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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            The other half of this summer\u2019s \u201cBarbenheimer\u201d phenomenon, \u201cOppenheimer\u201d did so well in its second weekend that it gets a full review all its own. Sure, it came in a distant second to \u201cBarbie\u201d both weekends, but with an estimated $174 million at the domestic box office thus far, it\u2019s more than on pace to become the biggest movie of all time to never win a weekend. The unofficial, counterintuitive, and highly-unusual \u201cBarbenheimer\u201d marketing campaign (\u201ccontrast the glittery comedy with a drama about the atomic bomb\u201d) certainly helped this film\u2019s box office, but it\u2019s a strong enough movie that I\u2019d like to think that it could have been a hit even without its unlikely pink ally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Cillian Murphy (who I could tell from the first publicity photo was perfect, Oscar-ready casting) stars as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man credited as the \u201cfather of the atomic bomb.\u201d Much like \u201cThe Social Network,\u201d the film intercuts its usually-linear historical portion with the framing device of two hearings, one involving Oppenheimer himself, the other involving nemesis Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.), chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. As Strauss is not a scientist himself, he and Oppenheimer never get along well professionally, but after a perceived derogatory comment made toward Albert Einstein (Tom Conti), he has it in for Oppenheimer personally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Much of the movie is standard biopic territory: we follow Oppenheimer from his days at Cambridge getting advice from Niels Bohr (Kenneth Branaugh) to his role as director of The Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where the bomb was designed and built. In his personal life, Robert takes up a relationship with the married Kitty (Emily Blunt) while having an affair with Communist sympathizer Jean (Florence Pugh). Oppenheimer and his colleagues go through the expected setbacks and successes, culminating in a high-stakes demonstration and one of the most massive explosions ever put on film. Soon the bomb is taken away from the scientists and used in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, and Oppenheimer has to forever live with the knowledge that he played an integral role in arguably the most devastating event in human history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            There\u2019s surprisingly little violence in the film, outside of an offscreen suicide and a sequence where Oppenheimer imagines the effects of the bomb. There isn\u2019t even that much \u201caction,\u201d really, unless you count carefully-orchestrated test explosions. But make no mistake, this is one of the most intense films of the year. Sure, some of it has to do with the urgency of the arms race and the stakes involved, but it\u2019s more than that. Director Christopher Nolan knows how to expertly craft a thriller, and his tight pacing and editing will make your heart pound whether it\u2019s bombs or tempers that are flaring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I\u2019ll be honest, a lot about \u201cOppenheimer\u201d went over my head, from science to politics to legalese to history. And even if I did know more about all these subjects, I still might get overwhelmed by the film\u2019s crowded cast and all the time-jumping. Yet there was never any doubt that what was happening was of great importance, whether to world powers or the world of one. And it\u2019s all done with Nolan\u2019s trademark crispness. The bomb-building and hearings may not be pretty or \u201csleek\u201d necessarily, but you\u2019ll get the impression that these things cannot be done by anyone other than the people doing them. If you\u2019re looking for a \u201cparty\u201d movie where everyone will find something to enjoy while they socialize and pay minimal attention, then \u201cBarbie\u201d is the way to go there. But if you\u2019re ready to be transfixed by a film that will occasionally blow you to the back of your seat (seriously, this is the time to spring for a premium theater experience like IMAX), then \u201cOppenheimer\u201d is the movie of the summer, maybe the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: B<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOppenheimer\u201d is rated R for some sexuality, nudity, and language. Its running time is an even 180 minutes, in a precision that seems only fitting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bob Garver             The other half of this summer\u2019s \u201cBarbenheimer\u201d phenomenon, \u201cOppenheimer\u201d did so well in its second weekend that it gets a full review all its own. Sure,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":58467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[2481],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58466"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58468,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58466\/revisions\/58468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}