Oppenheimer: The American Prometheus

Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer | Courtesy Universal Pictures

The biographical film ‘Oppenheimer’ was released this year on July 21^st. The esteemed director Christopher Nolan known for creating intellectually challenging films made his first biopic no different. Starstudded with Cillian Murphy playing the lead and shot on stunning 70mm IMAX film it is a feast for the eyes in this era of CGI and other forms of cinematic degeneration.

In the midst of the second world war, the United States of America is desperate for a decisive victory against Nazi Germany. A new weapon is needed to create destruction of a scale and kind unfathomable, and physicist Julius Robert Oppenheimer is the man for the job.

Born in New York City in 1904 to a non-observant Jewish family. Oppenheimer had a comfortable childhood and excelled at his studies, graduating from Harvard a year early and going on to study at the University of Cambridge which he left in 1926 for the University of Gottingen to study under Max Born who was instrumental in the development of Quantum Mechanics – winning a Nobel prize for it in 1954. Here, Oppenheimer made the acquaintance of many who went on to become great names in Science such as Werner Heisenberg known for the ‘Uncertainty Principle’ and awarded the Nobel Prize in 1932 for ‘the creation of quantum mechanics’ and Edward Teller the ‘father of the Hydrogen Bomb’.

After obtaining his Doctor of Philosophy in 1927, Oppenheimer was awarded fellowships at Harvard and Caltech and was sought after by top universities for his diverse interests and intellectual virtuosity. He brought and expanded Quantum Mechanics to America – a new field at the time. In 1942, Oppenheimer was recruited to work on the top-secret Manhattan Project and in 1943 he was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory to produce the first Atomic Bomb. Two of which were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 by US President Harry Truman.

The film focuses heavily on his moral dilemma of guilt and confusion, he was praised as a hero and great scientist but the title ‘Father of the Atomic Bomb’ came with blood on his hands. It leads us into an attempt at understanding Oppenheimer’s conflicted conscience and erratic behavior as well as the antagonist Lewis Strauss.

Strauss, (played by Robert Downey Jr) was the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, a politician and a successful businessman. His enmity with Oppenheimer had several reasons. Strauss was a supporter of the Hydrogen Bomb program but the more popular and beloved scientist was not. Strauss was a conservative Republican and Oppenheimer was a liberal with communist ties. Oppenheimer caused him public humiliation by giving a mocking answer to his question about the export of isotopes – something he would never forgive. He also disliked that Oppenheimer left his Jewish heritage behind. Discovering his past associations with the Communist party, he accused Oppenheimer of being a Soviet Spy requesting the FBI to track his movements, his phones were illegally tapped and conversations with his attorneys were also caught on record. Giving Strauss an advantage in the month-long hearings of which he was the driving force.  The case revoked Oppenheimer’s Q-Level security clearance and left him with a destructed spirit. Strauss then accepted the position of Chairman of the AEC from President Eisenhower since his condition that Oppenheimer be stripped of his security clearance had been met.

The development in nuclear physics was certainly a milestone that Oppenheimer and every man of science was enthusiastic about, paired with the spirit of victory against the Nazis it was an exceptional moment in history. It can be perceived that Oppenheimer passionately participated in the creation of the nuclear bomb as a scare tactic and did not expect such dire consequences. It was also a duty he was assigned to, had he refused he might’ve been named a traitor. Physics was essential to him and every scientist desires to serve their field as much as they can. Was the atomic bomb an achievement in Science or in war? Should the man who gave the world the power to destroy itself be forgiven or cast into fire and burnt for eternity like Prometheus? Perhaps we will never know.

Thought-provoking and raising questions about morality, ethics and power in human hands; Oppenheimer (2023) is an essential film as well as a spectacular achievement in filmmaking.