Oppenheimer biographer offers glowing co-sign of Christopher Nolan's film

Historians agree: Oppenheimer rocks. Christopher Nolan’s new film is one of the summer’s most hotly anticipated films (tied with Barbie, which also premieres July 21). In the wake of Dunkirk, a historical tale that marked a departure from Nolan’s usual fare, one trusts that the auteur is bringing a high level of attention to detail to accompany the nuclear-level spectacle. This is seemingly confirmed by a glowing review from Kai Bird, co-author of American Prometheus: The Triumph And Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the biography that inspired the film.

“I am, at the moment, stunned and emotionally recovering from having seen it,” Bird said during a conversation with David Nirenberg at Leon Levy Center for Biography in New York (via Variety). “I think it is going to be a stunning artistic achievement, and I have hopes it will actually stimulate a national, even global conversation about the issues that Oppenheimer was desperate to speak out about—about how to live in the atomic age, how to live with the bomb and about McCarthyism—what it means to be a patriot, and what is the role for a scientist in a society drenched with technology and science, to speak out about public issues.”

Not surprisingly, given that Nolan chose to adapt American Prometheus to film, the director has a similar view of Oppenheimer as a vessel to discuss the 20th century’s most pressing concerns. Presenting footage from the movie at CinemaCon in April, Nolan said he knew of “no more dramatic tale with higher stakes, twists and turns and ethical dilemmas” (per Deadline). Explaining his fascination with the tale, he went on, “The finest minds in the country were in a desperate race against the Nazis to harness the power of the atom in World War II. Picture those same minds realizing the possibility that they might set fire to the entire world, yet they went ahead and pushed the button. I wanted to be there and see what that might be like.”

“Like it or not, J. Robert Oppenheimer is the most important person who ever lived,” the filmmaker proclaimed. “He made the world we live in, for better or for worse. His story has to be seen to be believed. This is a cinematic tale; this is an experience of this extraordinary individual. The story poses the most unsettling questions, it’s both dream and nightmare. There are no easy answers but the most fascinating paradoxes.” Strap in, folks, this is gonna be a heavy one.