Where to start with Christopher Nolan's epic failure of a film? There are just so many things to hate about Oppenheimer. The Byzantine plot structure (Okay, it is Christopher Nolan)? The flaccid tension brought on by far too much screen time on far too little emotion? The untalented supporting cast (Matt Damon? Really?)?
The claustrophobic boardroom in which the camera spends WAY too much time? Yet another Senate committee hearing in Black & White in which we also spend too much time? Francis Pugh's all-over spray tan? The wan and ineffectual sound track? The wan and ineffectual Cilian Murphy?
Take that last one back. Murphy IS Oppenheimer. Won't deny that, and Robert Downey, Jr. should win the Oscar for his portrayal of Admiral Strauss.
How about the Left's continued fascination with the White Trash of Massachusetts, the Kennedys. There is the usual cloying nod to the young senator, JFK.
Cue the heavenly choir.
There are too many things wrong with Oppenheimer for a review of digestible length. Will concentrate on what the Federal government does with men of capability and character.
They destroy them.
While veneer-coated dopes like AOC, Nancy Pelosi, Bill and Hillary Clinton, the Bushes, Tom Foley, the aforementioned White Trash of Massachusetts, and the cool, hip, half-White dude are placed into a pantheon of bureaucratic laudation, the Americans who actually ACCOMPLISH things are scapegoated; chased from public life; and hounded mercilessly by a sycophantic press in league with untalented bureaucrats.
Condi Rice, Joe McCarthy (Yes, he punched the Communists in the FDR and Truman administrations in face. Deal with it.), Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and for your globalists out there, Elizabeth II and Winston Churchill.
Robert Oppenheimer, a brilliant scientist and a man of deep conviction, tasked with the building of the first atomic weapon, did EXACTLY what he was chartered to do. Beat the Germans (and the USSR) to the finish line of nuclear war ability.
He did that.
Oppenheimer also saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of American servicemen AND as many, or more, Japanese citizens by mitigating a need for the invasion of the islands of the Empire of Japan in 1945.
For that, and the movie is NOT the only source of information for this review, he was subjected to a Kangaroo Court; had his career mitigated; and was humiliated publicly for years.
And why?
Because he did what no one else could do. Robert Oppenheimer successfully built the first (Actually two) atomic bomb. His work ENDED the intractability of Hirohito. He saved American lives.
For that he was villified.
This should come as no surprise. The worst people work in government, which is why leadership at the state and federal level is just execrable.
Of late we have a treasonous door mat in the Oval Office, Joe Biden. His V-P is an amateur hooker with the I.Q. of a turnip. Pennsylvania elected a man suffering from severe cognitive damage. Several big city mayors and governors have allowed their jurisdictions to devolve into crime-infested sanctuaries.
Earlier, two former Klansmen occupied the Senate, Robert Byrd and Strom Thurmond. A known communist sympathizer, Bernie Sanders, still roams capital hill.
Against the backdrop of nefarious ass-covering, Robert Oppenheimer achieved what was expected of him. No one else could have done this. No one.
The politics of politics is a soul-crushing gestalt of mediocre people and actions defined by such low expectations. But these are the "leaders" we elect. This isn't on them to the extent they see a tremendous opportunity to make money off their positions in public life; hide behind their titles (The mayor of New York, Eric Adams, is the latest and most egregious example); and pay lip service to "working tirelessly" and "addressing the issue head on."
These homily-spouting, blame-shifting, inert parasites don't actually DO a darned thing. If they did, they'd be out of office in one term.
The ones that DO, are marginalized, haunted by the shadows of G-men tailing them in their everyday lives, and accused of crimes others commit.
This is on us. We want our goodies. We want to be "safe." We want someone to give us guarantees. Clean. No mess. God forbid. 100,000 dead Japanese! Jesus H. Christ, who is the devil who made this happen?
Why it was that narcissistic egg-head, Robert Oppenheimer.
Light the torches! Melt the tar! Gather the feathers!
We heed a rolling head to spin through the town square!
Oppenheimer.
Only in theaters.
But don't bother.
Thank Robert Oppenheimer. He saved countless lives.
Just not his own.
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