You probably already know from somewhere, most likely from your History teacher, that the US took Pearl Harbour bombing as a straight up insult. A shit right in your face. And we know how they dealt with it.
Oppenheimer is a story about different ways one could take on humiliation, the naivety of scientists, and quantum theory.
Here I will try to breakdown how Nolan put these big ideas into brilliant metaphors.
I.
Oppenheimer and Strauss represent two opposite poles on how people or an entity could react to humiliation.
Both Oppenheimer and Strauss were jews and former outcasts. Quantum physics was not popular at the time Oppenheimer opened a class at Berkeley. Strauss was selling shoes before he stepped into the politics. They shared same dark history and same difficulty to get along with people in their community.
In the beginning of the movie, Oppenheimer was having hard days in Cambridge. He was distracted even when he was in the lab, and got mocked by his professor and colleague. Fed up, he injected a dose of potassium cyanide into his professor’s apple.
He later had another breakdown and second thought. He took back the apple which almost killed Niels Bohr, instead of his professor.
Quantum physics is a discipline that rely on theory more than experiments, at the time before the bomb development. As someone working in this field, Oppenheimer had ideas, but his approach was rarely empirical. He did not know the consequences of his act, beyond his calculation. He was not a good mathematician also (at least that was what he said). But as Bohr told him (after almost died of eating an apple), “Physics is like music. It’s not important if you can read the sheets. The only thing matters is if you can hear it.”
Oppenheimer can hear the music. He had intuition that led him to choose what he thought was right. Getting rid of the apple was one of them.
Meanwhile, Strauss did not have the compass. He let his jealousy and resentment guiding his way. He wanted to punish anyone who threw shit onto him.
He made scenario in his head, where he was the patriot that became a victim and everyone against him was planning to take him out. And to follow up his delusional story, he used all means to destroy his enemy.
I bet you can name a country that can fit the narrative.
I haven’t watched all Nolan’s movie, but I can draw a same line between Oppenheimer and Dunkirk.
The main objective of Dunkirk was to send the British soldiers back home after their defeat in France. All characters in the movie managed to go home, except one.
Two Spitfire pilots, two British soldiers (the main character and Harry Styles), the boy and his grandfather with boat, all went home. Except the character played by Barry Keoghan.
The history recorded the “deliverance” of the British army as a coward move. Then Nolan put Keoghan as an unsignificant character who eagerly hopped on the boat without military permission, determined to save the soldiers stranded on Dunkirk shore, and died.
Nolan also used this contradictive narration in Oppenheimer.
Oppenheimer started to wonder, whether anyone would tell the truth on the court, overcoming vengeful perspective thrown by Oppenheimer’s colleagues.
David Hill was a man under Szilard, who deserted Manhattan Project because of it conflicted with moral value he held. In the movie, Oppenheimer treated him badly, twice. First one was when Oppenheimer visited Szilard’s lab in the field, the second was when Hill asked him to sign the anti-bomb petition.
But Hill was the one who gave the fairest testimony to the court, and finally freed Oppenheimer from charges. Except his clearance permit was still denied.
I will write another more. Maybe after I rewatch the movie.
