Director: Christopher Nolan
Stars: Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey, Jr, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon
7/10
This much-awaited film tells the story of J Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) who directed the development of the atomic bomb during WW2. He’s depicted as knowledgeable of physics of course but also an avid reader of poetry and religions. He studies in Europe with luminaries in his field and becomes involved albeit tangentially with political causes of the day, including communism. That would be used against him years later.
Amid the war General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) recruits him to lead the Manhattan Project in a remote part of New Mexico – Los Alamos or what my father, an AEC scientist, called “Lost Almost.” He’s aware of the moral problem of developing such a weapon but sees it crucial to defeating Nazi Germany and after victory in Europe, ending the war in the Pacific. The scenes of testing the bomb in Alamogordo are excellent. Oppenheimer years later said he thought of the lines “I am become death” when the device exploded. Witnesses (including Oppenheimer’s brother) say he exclaimed, “It worked!”
After 1945, Oppenheimer is a celebrity and hopes to use his influence to see that nuclear weapons are used responsibly. This puts him at odds with other physicists, the military, and ambitious powerholders – most notably Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey, Jr). The conflict leads to a hearing that strips Oppenheimer of his security clearance and ends his influence.
Murphy is quite good as the beleaguered and remorseful physicist. He effectively assumes the haunted look Oppenheimer had after the war. Downey, however, overmatches his fellow cast members as Lewis Strauss – Oppenheimer’s nemesis and maker of the nuclear age. The security clearance hearing takes up about 40 minutes of the 3-hour film. It was intended to convey Oppenheimer’s integrity and the lack thereof among his tormentors, but it came across as a drama-less lecture on an old subject. It surely could’ve been done effectively in 15 minutes.
My father lost his security clearance while working at Hanford in the 50s. He knew Harry Gold – a member of the Rosenberg espionage ring who turned state’s evidence against them. My father wasn’t fired but he wasn’t allowed to do much. His future very much in doubt, he insisted on a hearing, handled his case without counsel, and won his clearance back.
©2024 Brian M Downing
Brian M Downing is a national security analyst who’s written for outlets across the political spectrum. He studied at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago, and did post-graduate work at Harvard’s Center for International Affairs. Thanks as ever to fellow Hoya Susan Ganosellis.