2023-07-19 05:25:08
On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb in history exploded in the desert of New Mexico (United States). Two more would detonate a few weeks later, wiping out Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, and bringing World War II to a swift end. These weapons of mass destruction were developed as part of the Manhattan Project, an unprecedented initiative launched by President Roosevelt and led by physicist Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967), one of the most brilliant minds of his time. For the media and the general public, he quickly became the “father of the atomic bomb”. But his leftist past, and his doubts about the consequences of his work, come back to torment him after the conflict…
Christopher Nolan, the director of the Batman trilogy between 2005 and 2012, of “Prestige” (2006) or “Inception” (2010), could only be fascinated by such a historical character, located at the crossroads of two of his subjects of predilection: the Second World War, already mentioned in “Dunkirk” (2017), and physics, discussed in “Interstellar” (2014) or “Tenet” (2020). Based on a work awarded the Pulitzer Prize (“Robert Oppenheimer: Triumph and tragedy of a genius”, by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, Ed. le Cherche Midi), he delivers a fascinating biography which does not take gloves with his “hero”.
Three hours is (a bit) long
Oppenheimer is shown as he was, brilliant, enthusiastic, pioneering, but also often haughty, limited, fickle… Areas of shadow and light for which the presence of a great actor was necessary. Good pick with Cillian Murphy (“Peaky Blinders”), who had already collaborated five times with Nolan, without ever landing the main role. But the wait was worth it. The Irishman holds the dragee high here to the rest of the cast, which still includes Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr. or Emily Blunt.
Nolan, he allows himself to alternate sequences in color and in black and white, and displays some very psychedelic visions, in a register that almost brings him closer to a David Lynch or Lars von Trier. But above all he succeeds in depicting with talent an incredible story, the race for the atomic bomb, the end of which we already know. We will be a little less laudatory on the courtroom scenes, a genre popular with American spectators but often a pretext for long exchanges as verbal as they are static. Ditto for the duration of the work, a good three hours, which risk putting off a French public for whom Oppenheimer does not have the same symbolic value as on the other side of the Atlantic.
Editor’s note:
“Oppenheimer”, American biography of Christopher Nolan, with Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt, Matt Damon… 3 hours.
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