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Oppenheimer, a swing and a miss [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-08-03

Oppenheimer, a Swing and a Miss

I saw “Oppenheimer” last Saturday afternoon. Since then, I have read several reviews raving about the movie. They say that Christopher Nolan has done it again, approached perfection. I disagree.

Note: this review may contain spoilers

A lead—off double to open the inning

The acting and casting is excellent. With the exceptions noted below, the screenplay was well-written. I think many of my issues lie with directorial choices rather than the writing. The scenery and settings were wonderful.

The runner steals third

I am a sucker for guys in fedoras.

A swing at a slider obviously out of the strike zone

Let me open with an absolutely trivial point. There are several shots of laundry hanging on a clothesline in Los Alamos. I have the feeling that whoever devised that mise-en-scene has never hung laundry out to dry. If I were hanging out two towels, I would use three clothes pins, not four. The pin in the middle holds the inside corners of two towels. Maybe that’s just me.

A slow roller back to the mound, the pitcher look the runner back to third and throws the batter out at first, One out.

First, the narrative is broken up somewhat haphazardly and centers on three main stories. There is a through-line of the events of Oppenheimer’s life. There is also a section of Oppenheimer at a table explaining his life to a board of security inquisitors across from him in a small room. Finally, there is a part of the story that shows a senate hearing process. All three sections are randomly shuffled together, with no identification or dating. Even within the sections, events are related in jumbled, chopped up sequences and often returned to for additional insights or viewpoints. What worked for Quinten Tarantino in “Pulp Fiction” failed in this biopic.

Second, there were too many cinematic tricks. Too many times that random swirling patterns of CGI lights were used to convey the idea, “Deep Thoughts”. There were too many sudden noises designed solely to make the audience jump. The one time that trick was used effectively was about ten seconds after the Los Alamos device was shown exploding. And it was entirely appropriate and I should have known it was coming.

Almost all of the film was in color. I can only presume that the reason why the Senate hearing scenes were in black and white was to lend an air of authenticity to the film. Another cheap cinematic trick.

Third, there was a very quick shot of the atomic pile under the bleachers at the University of Chicago. The shot was accompanied by the eerie blue of Cherenkov Radiation in a sci-fi-setting and a low bass thrumming note. The actual pile really looked like a big pile of bricks. Showing that instead would have accentuated the primitive state-of-the-art of that time.

Next, the story is almost entirely devoid of context in relation to the world around him. For example, there was no mention made of “Tail Gunner Joe” McCarthy. There was nothing said about antisemitism as it related to his story. It is left to the viewer to know about the early German persecution of Jews before the Holocaust began. Then, a shot of the trains rolling into Auschwitz could have illuminated Oppenheimer’s dilemma quite effectively.

In the inquisition set of scenes, there is considerable effort toward ascertaining if his wife is a card-carrying member of the Communist Party. A five second clip of McCarthy and his famous list would have placed that in context. How is it possible to understand a person without at least a glimpse of the world around him.

A line drive to second base. Two out. He throws out the runner at home plate. Inning over.

I’ve saved the worst for last. Oppenheimer had a wife and a mistress. In two different scenes with his mistress, she is shown topless. I don’t object to breasts in general or even in movies. And they are a very nice pair. But that thirty seconds was enough to earn the movie an R rating, which means that a fairly large number of young people cannot see the movie. When I mentioned it to my brother, he pointed out that not many would see the show anyway. I disagree with him on that; there are plenty of smart kids interested in science and history.

Even more, those two brief shots served no purpose in advancing the narrative. For Heaven’s sake, this movie is a story about the development of the weapon that could end life on Earth. The story could have been told with the famous L-shaped sheet. Or tilting the camera up five degrees. As it was, this was the very definition of exploitative.

Slut-shaming circa 1940. I note that the wife character was not ever shown in bed at all. Even through she was no paragon of virtue, having cheated with Oppenheimer when she was married.

I resent that. On behalf of the actor who was made to do this. (If the woman was completely on board and not coerced, I withdraw this paragraph) And I notice how I am a lone voice crying in the wilderness.

Overall, I am not sorry I went to see Oppenheimer. But it is not the work it could have been. It struck me as a director being self-indulgent.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/3/2185021/-Oppenheimer-a-swing-and-a-miss

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