CINESPHERE CHRONICLES: Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer

Christopher Nolan (2023)

PLUS

7'1/10

stars

SyNOPSIS

quote

Explore the secret story of the 1942 "Manhattan Project" and follow J. Robert Oppenheimer as he creates the first atomic bomb at the Los Alamos laboratory in the heart of New Mexico, with consequences that endure.

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon...

Oppenheimer, J. Robert Oppenheimer.

+ info

+ info

watch TRAILER

Discover Oppenheimer's intellectual legacy by delving into the twists and turns of the brilliant mind that shaped scientific history. Explore and be inspired by his indelible impact on modern physics.

CineSphere Chronicles

#0120

More knowledge

To convey reality

A singular cinema...

Nolan is known for the complexity of his cinema. Having already directed several successful films, he decided to take on the challenge of making a historical film. Here's a short interview about it.

A significant impact

Find out what the director and actors have to say.

Bonus video if you want to find out more

Distinctions:Presidential Medal of Merit (1946) + Knight of the Legion of Honor (1958)+ Foreign Member of the Royal Society (1962) + Prix Nessim-Habif (1962) + Prix Enrico-Fermi (1963) => Honorary doctorates

The real story

Who was he?

Known as "the father of the atomic bomb", Julius Robert Oppenheimer (real name) distinguished himself in theoretical physics and later as scientific director of the Manhattan Project. A major figure of the twentieth century, he was brought up in a wealthy, intellectual and liberal family, which enabled him to acquire a knowledge of languages and gain access to various works by famous chemists, physicists and mathematicians. Opposed to the development of thermonuclear weapons, he was discredited by the American government in the 1950s during the McCarthy era. Rehabilitated in the 1960s by Kennedy then, he finished his academic career with flying colours.

'Now i am become death'

Were his words in 1960. In 1943, in view of the results, it was decided to move on to the development stage. The Manhattan Project was born. On 16 July 1945, at Alamogordo air base, the first atomic bomb, Gadget, exploded in a test called Trinity.

Read more

Click on the + When you see his signature, please click on it (it will be more visible)

The answer is no. However, the important elements have been transcribed.

Here are the major moments, or at least the development. Click on the +

Timeline

Is it possible to sum up the business of a lifetime in 3 hours?

Court

Explosion

Begininng

End

5th

3rd

1st

7th

4th

2nd

6th

Deaths

Lies

Music

QUOTES

"When they've punished you enough, they'll serve you salmon and potato salad, make speeches, give you a medal, and pat you in the back telling all is forgiven. Just remember, it won't be for you... It would be for them."

Oppenheimer,Einstein.

"You don’t get to commit sin and then ask all of us to feel sorry for you when they’re consequences."

Oppenheimer, Kitty Oppenheimer.

"You’re the man who gave them the power to destroy themselves… and the world is not prepared."

Oppenheimer, Niels Bohr.

"They wont fear it, until they understand it. And they wont understand it, until they use it."

Oppenheimer, J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Mixed explanations

The atomic bomb and what it caused define Oppenheimer's legacy and shape this film. Nolan takes a long, in-depth look at the construction of the bomb, a fascinating and appalling process, but he does not re-enact the attacks; there are no documentary images of the dead or panoramas of cities in ashes, decisions that read like his ethical absolutes. The horror of the bombings, the scale of the suffering they caused and the arms race that followed permeate the film. "Oppenheimer" is a great achievement in formal and conceptual terms, and utterly engrossing, but Nolan's cinema is, crucially, at the service of the story it tells. Nor is this a story that builds gradually; instead, Nolan throws you abruptly into the whirlwind of Oppenheimer's life with vivid scenes of him at different times. In quick succession, the older, more watchful Oppie (as he is known to his intimates) and his younger counterpart appear on screen before the story briefly lands in the 1920s, where he is an anguished student tormented by fiery, apocalyptic visions. He suffers; he also reads TS Eliot's 'The Waste Land', puts a needle to Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring' and stands in front of a Picasso painting, defining the works of an era when physics folded space and time into space-time . The virtuosity of the film is evident in every frame, but it is a virtuosity without self-glorification. François Truffaut once wrote that "war films, even pacifist ones, even the best ones, voluntarily or not, glorify war and in a way make it attractive". I think this explains why Nolan refuses to show the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, events that left their mark on the whole world and that claimed an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 victims.

The virtuosity of the film is evident in every frame, but it is a virtuosity without self-glorification. François Truffaut once wrote that "war films, even pacifist ones, even the best ones, voluntarily or not, glorify war and in a way make it attractive". I think this explains why Nolan refuses to show the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, events that left their mark on the whole world and that claimed an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 victims. We do, however, see Oppenheimer witness the first bomb test and, crucially, we hear the famous words that he said went through his mind as the mushroom cloud rose: "Now I have become death, the destroyer of worlds". As Nolan reminds you, the world quickly turned the page on the horrors of war to embrace the bomb. Now we too have become death, the destroyer of worlds.

Vison of the war + opinion

Summary of these 2 questions:

What vision of the war does it convey?

Christopher Nolan's biopic follows a man devoted to warning the planet of imminent danger. But is it a warning itself? Or something else?This film shows the whole creative process: from thought to reality. The vision of war that is shared with us is one of dehumanisation. Pure scientific madness, in an era where the Second World War left its mark: communism, rebels... More importantly, the film did an excellent job of conveying the destructive capacity of nuclear weapons, even relatively small examples and the horrifying potential of these devices. Oppenheimer was terrified of his own invention and upon seeing the human toll, he resigned. War sometimes has a hidden side... Diplomatic issues...

What role does communication play in it?

The importance of communication in Oppenheimer leads us to reflect on the major role of the nuclear bomb. People were still categorised, and political differences and differences of opinion caused tensions. The procedural part of the film immerses us in this downward spiral.Communication is the film's major problem. If the scientists had all consulted each other, if they had listened to each other... If they had allowed themselves to fail? If some of them had accepted criticism, perhaps the scientific world of the twentieth century would not have been like that. Or maybe it would have. The result remains the same: Oppenheimer and his team developed a devastating bomb that set off a chain reaction. Moreover, in this film, the communication is only linked to the talkative aspect. There is also some secret messages such as coding but it's not the main topic nor the main way of communication.

Personal opinion

The non-glorification is shown so well. These 3 hours of film remain breathtaking, as much for the images as for the story. Going through the intricacies of the mind of such a character is interesting and lead us all, each and every one of us, to think about it. By the end, we're left speechless: there's nothing to say except breathe, blink and accept that you're in for a cinematic slap in the face, because this is Nolan. Limiting the narrative to that of the scientist limits hope. The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation exists because there is hope for a peaceful future. Decades of efforts by diplomats, military leaders and arms control professionals have not only avoided nuclear war but led to the gradual dismantlement of more than 80% of all the nuclear weapons to have existed. Of course, there is still much to do. While we should not credit the cinematic vision that we are all doomed, we should also avoid the illusory sense of security provided by nuclear weapons. As we continue to think about Oppenheimer and what it means today, we should not accept the baleful view of the future or reject Nolan’s vision because it has not yet come true. Rather, we should understand the vital roles arms control and non-proliferation can play in providing future leaders with effective tools for managing the dangers that emerged from Oppenheimer and his colleagues’ work. I am not advocating for this man, I recognize his hard work, driven by passion and a thirst for discovery. When he and Einstein talked, he should have stopped there. But practice is sometimes necessary for the theory to satisfy the scientists. He knew it: "the chances of destroying the world are near zero", he once said, "what do you want from theory alone?" to which someone responded in amazement "near zero? zero would be nice"

A little more information... At the time of the cinema release, here are their figures!

Barbie VS Oppenheimer?

Two incomparable films released on the same day! This raises ethical questions, and there have been controversies...They have also got off to a flying start worldwide, with sales figures far exceeding commercial expectations.

511 millions of dollars

The films, directed by Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nollan, took in a combined total of 511 million dollars at the box office, and set a number of records along the way, including the record for the biggest release in cinema history.

Congratulations to both films...

CineSphere Chronicles!

Read us

Oppenheimer is the first Christopher Nolan film to include a sex scene. He's been surprisingly chaste up to this point in his filmography, and he's also earned a meme-worthy reputation for the way he treats relationships between men and women. Often, the women are dead and the men are sad about it. So when it was announced that Oppenheimer not only had a sex scene, but that it would be explicit and contain nudity, ears perked up. What could a Nolan sex scene possibly look like? Well, in a way, he outdid himself in a strange and rather perfect way. Oppenheimer and Tatlock's lovemaking is surprisingly vulnerable. In the midst of the couple in their actions, Tatlock stops in mid-stride, looking disinterested and bored. She then walks over to a bookshelf, marvelling at all the languages Opp seems to be able to read, before pulling out a book, the Bhagavad-Gita, one of the holy scriptures of Hinduism.

Both still naked, she turns round and asks him to read the book to her. He began to describe the text before she stopped him, asking him to read it as it was written. It is then that he utters the famous phrase "I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds", before their intimate moment resumes. Pure Nolan to make it look like nobody's really having fun. Dude is simply never wrestling with the sad allegations of the relationship! Of course, this is where the seeds of the tragedy of Tatlock and Oppy's affair are sown, as this little moment of intimacy brings out their respective flaws: him with the ego and her with the reins of emotional manipulation. Yet despite the strangeness of the scene, there is something deeply erotic about it. They're simply two nerds who find each other's brains terribly exciting. The fact that these two weirdos found each other is a marvel in itself. Source: GQ magazine

The court scene... What is it about?

According to him, he was "a spy in the service of the Soviet Union"... But Oppenheimer defends himself, with his wife by his side, because although he was never officially part of this political side, his lover was, and his wife had left him many years ago. To sum up, in 1953, during McCarthyism, Oppenheimer had his security clearance revoked because of his positions on thermonuclear weapons (Strauss) and in 1963 he was politically rehabilitated when the US government awarded him the Enrico-Fermi prize.

Lewis Strauss, chairman of the US Atomic Energy Commission, had a grudge against Oppenheimer, in particular because of a public humiliation he had suffered during a debate on the circulation of isotopes. He distrusted Oppenheimer because he was against the creation of a hydrogen bomb. Oppenheimer had insisted on the need for international control of nuclear weapons, convinced that the aim of atomic weapons was to put an end to all wars. Strauss is also convinced that Oppenheimer criticised him to Einstein.

Cast

Many actors played in this film. Here you can see the main actors. All as important as the others. The list is long, if interested you can go and see on the attached link.

Casting

A gripping scene

If the video doesn't work, here's a link . I couldn't find any extracts for copyright reasons...

This scene plunges us into the character's psychology. What he sees. His speech at the beginning is an illusion, an illusion: he no longer believes it, but has to face up to the audience... The politicians. The glare he suffers shows that he is reliving the explosion. He realises that he has gone too far. In human terms, the outcome is unfortunate: more and more people who have been exposed are showing symptoms... Symptoms they won't know the outcome of until it's too late.

The sequence is truly striking. In it, Oppenheimer celebrates the bombings. It's not just the sound design that is used to evoke his feelings of guilt, but also horrific visions of a young woman whose skin is peeling off, representing the potential effects of an atomic explosion on a human being. After his speech, Oppenheimer also sees two young people kissing, but his visions conjure up an image of pure terror. The physicist's greatest fears are crystallised in the shocking and uplifting final sequence.

THE HORRIBLE BEGINNING OF THE END

Einstein replies, "What about it?" Oppenheimer's answer is the last line of the film. "I think we've done it," he says before showing us a sequence showing the world destroyed by modern nuclear weapons. What he means by this is that while his work did not directly lead to the destruction of the planet, the mere creation of the bomb set in motion a chain of events that would eventually lead to a nuclear holocaust. At this point, he realises that he has "become Death, the destroyer of worlds". The quote "What about it?" is also significant. It's a question Einstein may have asked himself, as well as a question Oppenheimer is asking the world. What does it mean to have created a weapon of such destructive power? What are the implications for humanity? The film "Oppenheimer" does not provide simple answers to these questions. However, it does raise important questions about the ethics of scientific research and the responsibility of scientists for the consequences of their work. A moral dilemma ensues.

Einstein & Oppenheimer

The meeting

The lives of J. Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein intersected more than you might think. For about eight years, Oppenheimer and Einstein were neighbours at Princeton, and a lakeside encounter between the two men features prominently in Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer". Towards the end of the first act, Oppenheimer approaches Einstein at a pond, and the two exchange an unheard-of conversation. It's only in the film's final scene that we find out what was said. "When I came to you with these calculations, we thought we could set off a chain reaction that would destroy the whole world."

If you want to know more about him

This page will tell you everything.

Wikipedia

07/16/1945

"We knew that the Trinity nuclear test had to be a key moment in the film," Christopher Nolan tells us in an interview. "It had to be one of the most important moments, because it's the hinge point of the whole story." A few seconds before 5.30am on the morning of 16 July 1945, the bomb exploded in the New Mexico desert, producing a blinding flash of light and a shockwave felt for more than a hundred kilometres around. In just seven minutes, a mushroom-shaped cloud rose more than 11,500 metres into the sky. It left a crater just under a kilometre wide and nearly two metres deep, made of a radioactive green glassy material known as trinitite. Horrific as it was, the test was considered a success: less than a month later, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forcing Japan to surrender and ending the Second World War.

Synopsis

In 1942, convinced that Nazi Germany was in the process of developing a nuclear weapon, the United States initiated, in the greatest secrecy, the "Manhattan Project" aimed at developing the first atomic bomb in history. To oversee the project, the government hired J. Robert Oppenheimer, a brilliant physicist who would soon be dubbed "the father of the atomic bomb". It was in the ultra-secret Los Alamos laboratory, in the heart of the New Mexico desert, that the scientist and his team developed a revolutionary weapon whose dizzying consequences continue to have an impact on the world today...

A breathtaking moment

The only extract I wouldn't explain is this one. After watching this film for 3 hours, this scene takes our breath away even more and shows us the seriousness of the situation. Closely poetic, it traces the tragedy of this creation but also the project of a lifetime. Although the two scientists on stage are not friends, their love of science has brought them to this point.