21st July 2023, marked the release of the century’s most illustrious scientific biopic ever to be released. Thousands awaited with bated breath to watch Cilian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. transform and captivate audiences back to the enigma, euphoria and eccentricities of J. Robert Oppenheimer and Lewis Strauss in the 1940s. The 1940s were a period of extreme political instability for nations all around the globe. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was one such event that cast such dark a shadow on the coming years, we felt as though light would never reach us. Oppenheimer unveils the story of people on the other side, the story for which we perhaps, feel a simmering resentment but also a reluctant thirst for. Oppenheimer is not your monotonous rom com or a money minting action franchise, it delivers the ambiguities and the magnetism of the father of the Atomic Bomb, Oppenheimer himself. It revolves around Oppenheimer’s life before and after the war and his trysts with destiny, love, science and conscience. Oppenheimer is director Christopher Nolan’s creative vision forming a beautiful amalgamation with the complexities of America at war. It has an unconventional colour scheme of black and white and the conventional coloured. The black and white colours depict Lewis Strauss’s account of events of being Oppenheimer’s nemesis while the coloured scheme depicts Oppenheimer’s version. High resolution cameras were placed into focus while shooting Oppenheimer. Christopher Nolan encouraged people to watch Oppenheimer on the more unconventional IMAX screen to derive the maximum level of contentment with extraordinary clarity and quality of sound. Oppenheimer does not claim to be a movie which is easygoing and clearly comprehensible. It requires delving deep into the disasters of history and the people behind them. It is a film that stays with you long after you leave the theatres. With adrenaline pumping in your veins, it depicts the war between country and conscience, vying for a little more of a film of such magnitude and elusive creative vision.
– PARI BHANSALI XI C1
