Some folks think Christopher Nolan should have ended Oppenheimer with the nuclear explosion.
But they’re wrong.
It can be said thatChristopher Nolanhas always known how to end a movie.
From Leonard Shelby concluding his journey where it began and asking now where was I?
I remember it well, what of it?
Its a chilling signoff for a film that plumbs the ambiguities of Oppenheimers life without offering easy answers.
We had a governor who was dictating to the board of trustees to fire faculty with left wing tendencies.
So I went through this in my own family.
Oppenheimerdramatizes these elements, and does so with spectacular detail and specificity.
He should be thanking me!
Of course Strauss fury also articulates why the film is so much richer and, ultimately, ambiguous.
And J. Robert learns about it just like every other Americanby listening to the radio.
Then comes Nolans cinematic flourish.
He lets you live in Oppies nightmare just as it is beginning to coalesce.
It is a new world for Oppenheimer, America, and the whole the human species.
There is an argument to be made thatOppenheimershould have shown the nuclear holocaust inflicted on the Japanese people.
There is also the uncomfortable fact that this story is bigger than just World War II.
Did you think if you let them tar and feather you that the world will forgive you?
his wife Kitty (Emily Blunt) asks.
Well see is Oppenheimers cryptic response.
He was then banished to the duck pond next to Einstein for his troubles.
In the end though, the finale asks the audience to interrogate Oppenheimer the man.
Can you forgive him?
Should you even bother entertaining the idea?
Until one day, maybe it wont.
