(For the final day of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was for a poem in which the speaker is identified with a mythological figure. It may be on the nose, but I had to go with the “American Prometheus” himself.)
American Prometheus, they name me,
The man who stole the fire from the gods,
Never returned.
Shall I justify my actions
As the fairest of the factions
That ignited chain reactions
And left everybody burned?
I was spurned.
For no good deed goes unpunished
While the bad are not admonished,
And you’d frankly be astonished
At how in-between deeds fare.
I was there,
Leading teams so complex,
Daring dreams of what is next,
All for loyal intellects,
Intent to see the fire burst.
What is worse,
That I built this capability
Employed to end hostility
Or shirked responsibility
For everything it cost?
I am lost
In my chains, writ in ink,
Where the eagles barely blink,
As I think and I drink
And I offer up my liver to atone
For what I’ve sown.
_____________________________
MPA rating: R (for language and nudity)
This review certainly feels overdue! While everyone was hopping on the Barbenheimer bandwagon last year, I stuck with the more serious half of that mash-up, Christopher Nolan’s ambitious biopic of the “father of the atomic bomb.” Based on the biography American Prometheus, this film would have been very different in more conventional hands. I can envision a version of it that follows the chronological events of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s life and climaxes with the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, perhaps followed by a final scene where he grieves his role in the war and a footnote about how he was effectively disowned by the government. That might have been a great movie on its own, but it’s too pedestrian for Nolan, who instead created a non-linear epic to view Oppenheimer’s life and work from as many angles as possible.
In the role for which he will likely most be remembered, Oscar winner Cillian Murphy epitomizes J. Robert Oppenheimer in all his genius, hubris, and folly. From his time as a physics student admiring Niels Bohr (Kenneth Branagh) to his romantic rendezvous with Communist connections (Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt) to his being approached by General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) to lead the Manhattan Project and beat the Germans to the atomic bomb, the film presents Oppenheimer as level-headed yet prone to bad choices, aware of his own limitations yet confident in his expertise. By itself, this is the film that Oppenheimer could have been, and Murphy still would have excelled in it.
But interspersed with the scientist’s road to fame are scenes of later bureaucratic proceedings, including Oppenheimer’s security clearance hearing in 1954 and the Senate confirmation hearing of former Admiral Lewis Strauss (Oscar-winning Robert Downey, Jr.) for Secretary of Commerce in 1959. Though these parts can threaten to be dry, they offer a wealth of clues pertaining to Oppenheimer’s work and beliefs, how others viewed him, and the underhanded tactics used to besmirch suspected Communist sympathizers at the time. After years of struggling and building an impromptu town at Los Alamos, the testing of the first atom bomb in the New Mexico desert would understandably be the high point of the film, and indeed it made a friend of mine tear up in the theater with the grandeur of the historic explosion (made more impressive by not using CGI, according to Nolan). Yet this moment oddly serves as a false climax around two-thirds into the three-hour runtime, and Nolan instead manages to make those bureaucratic sessions into a riveting culmination of all that’s come before. It still may feel anticlimactic to some, but Nolan pulls it off better than anyone else could.
It’s hard to believe that Christopher Nolan had never won an Oscar before this film, considering his reputation for smart blockbusters. As much as I loved The Holdovers, I celebrated Oppenheimer’s seven Oscar wins last month, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Score, Best Cinematography, and especially Best Supporting Actor. (Like Brendan Fraser the year before, I’m so glad Robert Downey, Jr., has proven his talent beyond his action movie days.) If the Academy had gotten around to adding the Best Casting category this year, I’m sure that Oppenheimer would have won that too, since its huge cast is full of recognizable stars, even in mere cameos, including Rami Malek, Casey Affleck, Jason Clarke, Alden Ehrenreich, Josh Hartnett, and Gary Oldman.
With its convoluted method of presenting Oppenheimer’s story, the film is perhaps not the most accessible or entertaining of biopics, and I could have done without a few unnecessary nude scenes trying to justify its R rating. Its presentation of President Truman and the women in Oppenheimer’s life is far from flattering, and some complaints are also valid about how it omits Japanese perspectives of the bombings or the Native Americans and downwinders living around the bomb testing site. Yet any single movie can only present so much, and it’s hard to imagine a biographical film that is more comprehensive in its exploration of one man’s life and impact. Inception remains my favorite Christopher Nolan film, but Oppenheimer is a masterful history lesson and a well-deserved peak for his career as a filmmaker, one that I hope he can continue to top in future efforts.
Best line: (Kitty Oppenheimer, in a context different from the bomb’s development but no less applicable) “You don’t get to commit sin and then ask all of us to feel sorry for you when there are consequences.”
Rank: List-Worthy
© 2024 S.G. Liput
796 Followers and Counting
Rhyme and Reason 
Enjoyed your film review as much as your poem, S.G. My latest book of poetry (“Rainbow Warrior”) is mostly about Bikini Atoll & other Marshall Islands “downwind” of the nuclear testing, as you say. This poem is superb!