Oppenheimer ★★★★½

“AND now I have become death…the destroyer of worlds.”

The words of J. Robert Oppenheimer, as portrayed by Cillian Murphy in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, present the awful moral quandary that haunts the man known in history as the father of the atomic bomb.

Nolan’s stunning new film is based on the 2005 biography American Prometheus about the theoretical physicist who was instrumental in leading America’s Manhattan Project and achieving victory in the race to build a nuclear weapon.

Like Oppenheimer, many of the hundreds of scientists who worked under him on the project reluctantly believed they had to help their country beat Germany and Russia to the punch in order to end the devastating Second World War.

But they equally hoped use of the weaponry would never be required and sharing the technology with other countries would help achieve this outcome.

Were they incredibly naïve as well as intelligent? We all know that it took just a couple of months of the bomb being created for the United States to drop them on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The nuclear race then continued unabated but without the involvement of Oppenheimer whose moral questioning had been further deepened by crushing guilt.

His vehement advocacy of either a non or shared nuclear future led to a campaign of vilification by the very government that had embraced his intelligence, commitment and patriotism.

I digress because this review isn’t meant to be a statement on history. But Oppenheimer’s story is just so damned fascinating that you can get carried away.

So, let’s get back to Nolan’s almost three-hour biographical drama which is in a word ‘stunning’ in every technical aspect.

The use of music and sound in particular brings gravitas and tension to every scene, many of which simply involve people talking to each other.

There is a propulsive nature to the combination of sound and editing and the earnestness of the acting that constantly propels the film forward and holds the attention.

This is typical of Nolan’s style of film-making and, combined with an extraordinarily strong cast, ensures Oppenheimer maintains his position as one of modern cinema’s great directors.

Cillian Murphy is terrific in the lead role, probably giving his best performance, and is ably supported by Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh who play the two equally strong women in his life.

The phenomenal supporting cast, including Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, Matthew Modine, Kenneth Branagh and Jason Clarke, give performances that ensure their involvement doesn’t become the constant distraction it could have been in other hands.

Some could many of the supporting characters are not fleshed out. Maybe, but it’s not their story and there is still enough in each and every scene to understand the motivations within and how they advance the overall story.

I can’t find any significant fault with this film.