On August 6, 1945, a gun-triggered fission bomb dubbed "Little Boy" fell on Hiroshima, killing an estimated 70,000 to 130,000 people. Three days later, the implosion-triggered "Fat Man" was dropped on Nagasaki, adding another 45,000 human casualties. The United States won the war, but at a horrific cost.
Nolan's film—and this latest trailer—naturally focuses on the drama surrounding the birth of the atomic bomb. Damon's Grove features prominently as he and Oppenheimer set about getting the future laboratory in Los Alamos off the ground. They need to recruit scientists and quickly build a town to house those scientists and their families.
And, of course, there are many glimpses of preparations for the Trinity Test as Oppenheimer wrestles with the moral quandary that creating such a weapon imposes. At one point, Groves questions Oppenheimer about the possible risk of destroying the world when they push the detonator button. "Chances are near zero," Oppie responds, like a typical physicist. "What do you want from theory alone?" Groves responds, "Zero would be nice."
This is a story that has been told many times in film and television, and I'm looking forward to seeing how Nolan (and Murphy as Oppenheimer) sets this latest iteration apart. We know the entire film was shot with a combination of IMAX 65 mm film and 65 mm large format film, and there are scenes shot in IMAX black-and-white analog photography. Real explosives were used to re-create the Trinity Test rather than relying on CGI.
But if the film follows the book's arc, Oppenheimer's subsequent fall from grace should also feature prominently. I hope it does because it's quite a dramatic story in its own right. It's promising that Downey Jr. has been cast as Lewis Strauss, who chaired the AEC during the 1950s and was openly hostile to Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer served as chairman of the AEC's General Advisory Committee (GAC) after the war. But suspicion over his communist ties grew stronger, culminating in the infamous 1954 security hearings to determine whether he was guilty of treason. Oppenheimer had several communist acquaintances dating back to the 1930s, including his mistress, Jean Tatlock, who committed suicide in January 1944. His outspoken opposition to the hydrogen bomb did little to allay suspicion.
The AEC found Oppenheimer innocent of treason but ruled he was "not reliable or trustworthy" and thus should not have access to military secrets. His security clearance was revoked on the grounds of “fundamental defects of character” and for communist associations “far beyond the tolerable limits of prudence and self-restraint” expected of those holding high government positions. The lone dissenting opinion came from Commissioner Henry DeWolf Smyth, who found no evidence that Oppenheimer had ever divulged secret information during nearly 11 years of constant surveillance. The black mark against Oppenheimer's name wasn't fully cleared until December 2022.
Oppenheimer hits theaters on July 21, 2023.
Listing image by YouTube/Universal Pictures
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