What a wonderful time we live in, philosophically speaking. Part of becoming an adult is the awareness that ambiguity and gray areas are part of life, all life. Very few things in the adult world come down to black and white, good and bad. Nuclear weaponry is one of these things. Donald Trump, however, is not. We live in an age in which the biggest story of our time is easily definable on moral, philosophical, and eschatological grounds: Donald Trump is a criminal as well as a vile, weak, narcissistic trainwreck of a human being completely unfit for the presidency or any other position of responsibility. The only people who continue to support him are either liars or suckers, or both.
We’ve known this for years. Since 2016 to be certain. Maybe before. Unlike so many evolving parts of life, Donald has not done or said a single thing in seven years since to make any objective person think otherwise. Not one. Isn’t that amazing? Not even by accident has the clownish orange shit-gibbon done a single thing to make an objective person believe he is not a piece of shit. Twice. Twice in that span I almost happened upon a contradictory moment. Once was over Trump’s desire for us to leave Afghanistan (certainly a net positive for the US and the world), however, his desire was muddied considerably by his cozying with the Taliban and then sticking Biden with the actual job of leaving under a condensed timeline. The second moment (chronologically first) was when Donnie Trashbag promised to donate his presidential salary, and yet the facts showed this was yet another thing he lied about, because why do anything positive when you can just say you did and get credit all the same from your cult? I used to think Donald Trump was the embodiment of the seven deadly sins. And while he is, I now primarily think of him as exactly the opposite of integrity: he constantly does the wrong thing even when everyone is watching.
And in that small way, it is so much easier to live in 2023 when the threat of fascism doesn’t require doing the unthinkable because it comes from the very same internal source (Trump and MAGA) as the one we’ve already been fighting for years.
J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy, in his best role and best work to date) lived entirely in the gray area. It’s probably one of the main reasons writer/director Christopher Nolan chose to shoot much of Oppenheimer in black & white. Oppenheimer’s cause was just, but his product killed more instantly than any other invention in human history to date. He was family man who cheated on his wife. He was an amiable friend who was despised by many. He was by all accounts a genius, the man who brought quantum physics to the United States, and yet he proved not smart enough to secure his place in history despite having ushered humans into the atomic age almost single-handedly.
Nolan compares Oppenheimer to Prometheus, the mythical Greek hero who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man … and was punished severely for it. Oppenheimer is told in two timelines: one from 1928 to 1945 in which Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer (eventually) directs and oversees the construction of the first atomic bomb – a necessity born out of Nazi aggression—and another in 1954 in which Oppenheimer’s entire life is put on trial –both literally and figuratively- behind closed doors. The latter essentially nullified any good that came of the former.
The film singles out Oppenheimer as the driving force in the Manhattan Project – the desire for the United States to create an atomic bomb before the Germans developed one. As Oppenheimer studied under German physicist Werner Heisenberg (as namedropped, often, in “Breaking Bad”), he had good reason to believe not only that the Nazis would go after an atomic bomb, but that they were well ahead of their rivals. Oppenheimer reasons (I paraphrase) that he doesn’t know if the United States would use such a weapon for good, but guarantees the Nazis wouldn’t, hence his motivation.
And from the first when he meets the project’s military commander General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon), Oppenheimer spells out what it will take to make the project happen: a megaton of money and inconvenience all centered upon a new town constructed exactly for one purpose and born entirely out of necessity. I have no idea where Los Alamos is … and apparently that was true of every last scientist, 
mathematician, and military man (and all their families) who was dragged there in the early 1940s to work on “the most important thing to happen in the history of the world.” I cannot find the words to describe the sorrow in my heart knowing that the people who would have applauded with the greatest enthusiasm the work at Los Alamos as necessary to fight fascism are the same ones currently embracing fascism in the form of the MAGA cult. Have we learned nothing as a nation?
While Nolan is relatively silent about what it means to construct the tool with which one might destroy the world, he certainly isn’t silent about condemning the voices who would use that power or the sentiment behind it for political gain. A world in which everything is political was novel in WWII. Now, we take it for granted. However, it will never not be true that condemnation or praise of an idea or person or group entirely for political gain is the value of the scoundrel. And that’s where the entire GOP is right now. Nolan is more subtle than I am, but it should be lost on no viewer that Oppenheimer’s communist ties were insignificant compared to loyalty for home and country …. And, yet, that’s pretty much the best reason why your home town doesn’t have an “Oppenheimer Blvd.”
Oppenheimer felt a great deal (to me) like a poor man’s JFK – an in-depth interpretation of modern American history, a mix of film styles often highlighting b&w, and everywhere you look, a name actor in a small role (is that really Gary Oldman playing Truman? He’s now played larger-than-life historical figures Truman, Churchill, Beethoven, and Lee Harvey Oswald. Quite a mix, huh?) Now, I love JFK –whether I agree with Oliver Stone or not, it was an absolutely brilliant film—so Oppenheimer is in good company. I think there are going to be better films in 2023, but I don’t have a beef with anybody wanting to call Oppenheimer the best film of the year. If nothing else, this film is a technical masterpiece and will almost certainly gain nominations for sound mixing and editing. As of this writing, I set the over/under on total Oscar noms at 6.5.
Handling delicate physics with aplomb
The guy could tell you where all things come from
When it comes to the latters
He knows all dark matters
J. Robert Oppenheimer was the bomb
Rated R, 180 Minutes
Director: Christopher Nolan
Writer: Christopher Nolan, Kai Bird, Martin Sherwin
Genre: Underrated history
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Physicists
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Lewis Strauss
