There has been a lot of anticipation for Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus, Oppenheimer, since it was first announced, and after seeing the trailer, we believe that it is going to live up to the expectations. We are quite sure that we will get to witness some powerhouse performances and be privy to compelling conflicts. So, let’s find out a little more about these characters, how they were as people, what obstacles they faced in their professional and personal lives, and if they were ever able to make peace with themselves.
Spoilers Alert
Robert Oppenheimer
Cillian Murphy plays the protagonist, J. Robert Oppenheimer, in Christopher Nolan’s film, and we are excited to find out how he brings this complex character to life. There are dilemmas and conflicts that every human being goes through in their life, but rarely do they face something as convoluted as Robert Oppenheimer did after he was put in charge of the Manhattan Engineering Project. The moment Oppenheimer learned about the discovery of fission, he was eager to know if making an atomic bomb was a possibility.
After overcoming all the challenges, when he finally made the atomic bomb, his creation led to the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and that’s what changed the narrative for him. Robert saw how catastrophic the impact of the bombings was, and he witnessed the plight of the innocent people who had nothing to do with the war and were living their lives peacefully but were still dragged into it. The guilt of being responsible for orchestrating a catastrophe of such magnitude and giving the world something that they didn’t have control over devastated the genius scientist. He could never resolve his internal conflicts, and he felt their burden till the very end.
We know for sure that Christopher Nolan would definitely plunge right into the conflict and dissect it to give us a meaty narrative. The moment Robert Oppenheimer started advocating that the world did not need a hydrogen bomb, he became an enemy of the state, and President Harry S. Truman just wanted to get rid of him. Robert Oppenheimer didn’t mind losing the trust of the state, but all he wanted was to get rid of his guilty conscience and get a chance to redeem himself or compensate for his actions somehow.
Katherine Oppenheimer
The role of Robert Oppenheimer’s wife, Katherine, aka Kitty, has been played by Emily Blunt in the film. Katherine had just come out of a marriage with Steward Harrison when she met Oppenheimer for the first time. She was smitten by the genius scientist the moment she saw him, and she didn’t hesitate to express her feelings to him.
Robert and Kitty were happily married for a long time until the former decided to become the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory. After that, Robert was always piled high with work, whereas Kitty’s life came to a standstill. She was a botanist and biologist, but after they moved to New Mexico, she could never go back to work in the manner she would have wanted, and that really started bothering her after a point. Katherine did whatever she could in the laboratory itself, but that feeling of frustration, loneliness, and not having anyone to confide in started taking over her.
Katherine felt neglected over time, and to cope with her loneliness, she started drinking and soon became an alcoholic. Robert made a little effort now and then to cheer her up, but that was never enough. We believe that Katherine would definitely have had a problem with Jean Tatlock too, since it was out in the open that her husband was having an extramarital affair with her, and since the world knew about it, we believe that she too wouldn’t have been oblivious to it. We believe that even after all these conflicts, Katherine always had her husband’s back in times of need, and he always looked up to her whenever he felt stuck in a moral dilemma.
Lewis Strauss
Lewis Strauss took over the leadership of the US Atomic Energy Commission, and he had a lot of personal and professional conflicts with Robert Oppenheimer. Lewis Strauss’ character has been played by Robert Downey Jr. in Oppenheimer, and we caught a glimpse of him in the trailer. Lewis Strauss had been mocked and humiliated by Robert Oppenheimer in front of a community of physicists, and that hurt his ego, as he believed that Oppenheimer’s rude behavior was uncalled for. Lewis Strauss was a conservative Republican, and he was against Oppenheimer’s communist associations.
Lewis Strauss judged Oppenheimer for having an extramarital relationship, and he felt that he had abandoned his Jewish roots and become someone of questionable character. Strauss didn’t have any trust in Oppenheimer, and he was adamant about proving that the celebrity scientist was, in fact, leaking information to the Soviet Union. After being made chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Lewis Strauss made it very clear that he didn’t want Oppenheimer to be included in the scheme of things since he believed that he would leak classified information to the Soviets. Lewis Strauss wanted to make a hydrogen bomb, something that after the Japan bombings, Oppenheimer was clearly against. We believe that Christopher Nolan would delve deep into the conflict between these two physicists, and we would get to witness what perspective the filmmaker has on them.
Leslie Richard Groves, Jr.
Leslie Groves Jr., played by Matt Damon in Oppenheimer, was a member of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, and he met the physicist when he was asked to take charge of the Manhattan Project in 1942. Leslie Groves was very fond of Oppenheimer, and they struck a chord the moment they met. It was strange because Leslie was a very tough man, and people were intimidated by him, but for some reason, he went out of his way and vouched for Oppenheimer to lead the Manhattan project.
In the beginning, a lot of people were against Oppenheimer being put in charge of the project as he had little or no experience leading any kind of initiative before, but Leslie saw something in him that others didn’t. Leslie was well aware of the communist affiliations Oppenheimer had, and even after knowing that it could become a concern for them in the future, he provided him with all the security clearances, and it could be said that he, at times, overlooked a lot of things that had the potential to disqualify his candidature for the post. Leslie had a lot of faith in Oppenheimer’s abilities, and he made sure that he got a conducive environment to do whatever he wanted to. He became one of those trusted allies who stayed with Oppenheimer till the very end.
Jean Tatlock
Jean Tatlock had come into contact with Oppenheimer when she was studying at Berkeley University, and the latter was a professor there. The two got very close to each other, and if things had worked out the way they wanted, they would have liked to spend their lives together. Though they rarely met after Robert got married to Katherine, there were times when Robert went all the way to San Francisco to meet her, even when he knew that people would judge his character and also his affiliations since Tatlock was a communist.
Robert’s allegiances were called into question because of his closeness to Tatlock, and Lewis Strauss and others from the administration wanted to use it to prove that Oppenheimer was not worthy of being a part of the Atomic Energy Commission. Jean Tatlock died under suspicious circumstances, and though the investigation concluded that it was a suicide, there were people who always believed that she had been murdered. The character of Jean Tatlock is played by Florence Pugh in Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
Final Words
The world has seen what Christopher Nolan is capable of delivering, and though it might be a little premature of us to say this, we believe that Oppenheimer will be the kind of film that will stand the test of time. After reading about Robert Oppenheimer’s life, we witnessed how complex his internal conflicts were, and we believe that a storyteller like Nolan would want to delve deep into them. Had it been any other filmmaker, the chances of them showing a black-and-white reality would have been quite high, but we know that with Nolan that is not a possibility since he is not afraid to ask questions that matter. We are sure that Oppenheimer is not going to be one of those biographical dramas that try their level best to project the protagonist in a good light and somewhat turn a blind eye towards his flaws.
