Oppenheimer, it’s a political film with some science and biographical value on it. The film progresses with nonlinear storytelling of Oppenheimer’s espionage trial as the main plot. Atom bomb-making and his personal life were side plots.
There is one interesting aspect in this film to correlate. In history along with Robert Oppenheimer, there was another scientist who shared one common thing. Apart from their stellar scientific successes, some even serving humanity, this scientist (Sergei Korolev) also faced a similar fate. i.e. government persecution. Sergei Korolev, the godfather of the USSR space program prosecuted by its government for espionage-related charges in 1938. He lost all his teeth and suffered a heart attack when he was in jail, forced to work in mines as bonded labor. Later he was released at the mercy of a few Soviet generals. He died at 59 in an ill-fated failed colon operation. The Soviet space program, once it was in pole position ahead of the US(at least 15 months), suffered a death knell to its ambitions in the space race with the death of Korolev. The Soviet space program wasn’t able to proceed further in making powerful rockets that can push toward the moon, thus losing the space race. Soviet space program got orphaned thereafter. During the cold war, scientists were often thrown with false espionage charges and made to suffer. Specifically, the US government was searching for alleged communists occupying positions of power. As per the film, Oppenheimer was shown sympathetic to communism in his initial days of research and allowed the functioning of unions (F.A.C.T.E) inside the radiation lab for workers. This sympathy later helped his enemies to frame a false espionage charge that he is a spy agent of the USSR. But in reality, real spies were working for the Soviet, inside the Los Alamos laboratory stealing the Manhattan Project secrets. These spies include Klaus Fuchs, Ted Hall, Harry Gold, David Greenglass, Ethel Greenglass, and Julius. With stolen secrets of the Manhattan Project, the USSR built its first nuclear weapon(plutonium-based) called RDS1, similar to one used in the Trinity project
In a scene when the US secretary of war was reviewing the final list of Japanese cities for atom bomb targets, he was shown casually saying “Remove “Kyoto” from bombing, me and my wife spent a holiday there last time’. The moment this dialogue appeared, there was laughter from the audience. Is this true? Yes partially. Kyoto was removed majorly from the list due to its cultural significance in Japanese civilization. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were final atomic targets but why not Tokyo? There is some underlying reason behind it. Tokyo is a big city as well capital, all war decisions were taken from here. The reason behind choosing Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the U.S. wanted to access the damage caused by its new destructive weapon. They need a town that until then stands fine, doesn’t have any major effects of bombings, and should have a significant population. But Tokyo was almost 80% razed due to multiple bombings earlier, doesn’t have any research value for new weapon. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed later causing collateral damage. In another scene, when a researcher asked why we need to use an atomic bomb as already Germany surrendered?. The sublime answer to this question is also the same as Japanese targets
Throughout the film, multiple Nobel prize-winning physicists like Albert Einstein, Neils Bohr, Edward Teller, Richard Feynman, Isidor Rabi were shown. By the end of the film, Oppenheimer visualizes a bleak future, with multiple nuclear warheads crossing the atmosphere, creating nuclear arms race and destruction among nations. Though nuclear weapons are dangerous, In reality, they had created a strategic restraint among powerful nations, postponing/preventing any third world war.
