In the more than one hundred years of history of the film industry, few three-hour films have garnered the level of critical and financial success as Sir Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, which was released in July 2023 after languishing for years in so-called "development hell." The film, which Nolan adapted from a non-fiction book called Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, chronicles the career of American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy). Oppenheimer, who was an enigmatic and oftentimes misunderstood character, was an integral part of the creation of the atomic bomb. He led a team of top-flight scientists who raced against the clock to build an atomic bomb before Adolf Hitler and the Nazis created one. But his journey was not without challenges, as Oppenheimer and his team met with a number of challenges, including accusations of being in bed with communists and potential leaks. Those accusations continued after the war when Oppenheimer was investigated because of his unique personal life and potential ties to Communism, which were later proven to be unsubstantiated.
Oppenheimer was nominated for thirteen Academy Awards, later winning seven, including Best Picture and Best Director for Nolan. It has likewise been called one of the best films of the twenty-first century so far, earning nearly $1 billion against a budget of $100 million. In their glowing review of the film, The New York Times said that "Christopher Nolan’s complex, vivid portrait of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb,” is a brilliant achievement in formal and conceptual terms." However, not every critic felt positive about the film. Several critics (most notably Takashi Yamazaki) complained that the film did not adequately address the experiences of Japanese people affected by Oppenheimer and his team's invention.
