Christopher Nolan is known for his film making style when it comes to describing even the smallest details. When we as an audience watch his movies, we can be rest assured that he has taken a 360 degree view of his storyline. From his last venture on the second world war events, Dunkirk, I was sure that he won’t miss the fine details surrounding the second world war incidents. But, did Christopher Nolan take it too far this time? Let’s examine ourselves.

I had an outside view of the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos and was slightly short sighted due to my exposure through Richard Feynman’s book Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman: Adventures of a Curious Character. Nolan didn’t miss this detail either and you can see Richard Feynman’s character is played by Jack Quaid. Nolan based his adaptation on a book, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. 

But, in the book where Robert Oppenheimer put cyanide in the apple to kill his professor, it is portrayed as a rumor or something that might not have happened. Nolan took the liberty to actually showcase that scene. In the scene, Oppenheimer later rejected that apple when picked up by Neils Bohr and not his professor. That creative liberty was objected by even Oppenheimer’s grandson, Charles, as this was just a rumor and neither the professor died nor there was any proof that such an incident ever happened. I believe as a critic I can only justify this scene if Nolan tried to show Oppenheimer’s self-obsessive behavior that later Lewis Strauss played by Robert Downey Junior exploited for his revenge.

Nolan categorically defined two parts for this movie. One that deals with the fission where Oppenheimer was recruited by the U.S. Army General, Leslie Groves, played by Matt Damon to lead the Manhattan Project. And, the second part that deals with the fusion where not supporting the hydrogen bomb became a nightmare for Oppenheimer.

The first part introduces many characters who were involved in the project and also who were part of Oppenheimer’s personal life such as his girlfriend Jean Tatlock played by Florence Pugh. This also involves an intimate scene between them which is much criticized in the Indian media. The objection was why the verse “Now, I have become death, destroyer of the world” was quoted from the Bhagavad Gita just before the intimate scene. Frankly, I neither see any logic in putting that quote in that scene nor do I see any problem with that. In fact, that’s the creative liberty I believe any filmmaker can take. Because none of it is a lie or rumor. Oppenheimer, in fact, followed Sanskrit to read Bhagavad Gita as he did to Das Kapital for German. That only shows his purist image. He tends to read the texts in the original form and not from any translated version. The most interesting aspect, however, was Matt Damon from the first part. His quick and witty responses were indeed the best part of the humor. Matt Damon is an excellent actor in a comic role. If you have watched his 2009 movie, The Informant, you would know what I mean.

Now the second part is a bit disheartening and deals with the Fusion problem that Lewis Strauss took advantage of. The issue was Oppenheimer rejected the idea of creating Hydrogen Bomb which requires fission to propel fusion reaction. Edward Teller who proposed the idea of hydrogen bomb felt ignored and dejected and later collaborated with Strauss to humiliate Oppenheimer’s public image. A security investigation was carried out in 1954 to explore Oppenheimer’s ties and links with the communist party and Soviet Union. Strauss used everything in his book to turn scientists against Oppenheimer to revoke his security clearance and remove him from the US government’s policy making body. However, Strauss never got the revenge and all his idiotic plan was revealed by David Hill played by Rami Malek.

In the entire movie, we see Oppenheimer vulnerable and often self-loathed. He even admitted to having a relationship with Ruth Tolman during his marriage. All this makes me think that whatever creative liberty Nolan took to portray Oppenheimer’s image is somewhat justified as he was just a human with higher IQ but also with human flaws. The movie is filled with subtle references if you’re a nerd. Only a few of them I can highlight such as the ripple effect in the pond where Oppenheimer discusses the implications of fission with Albert Einstein. There’re references to Black Hole where Oppenheimer sees it as a death of a star and later succumbs to its own glory. And also, where we hear the stomping sound that grips Oppenheimer all throughout the movie which was, in fact, related to his first public appearance in a devastated state after the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. 

Overall, the movie experience is surreal and you would definitely get a 360 degree view about Oppenheimer which was expected from Christopher Nolan anyways. My advice is to sit through the movie with attention and open mind as it’s a three hour long journey which can be exhaustive.