Oppenheimer: The Best, Best Picture In Oscars Ages

Perhaps not unexpectedly, Oppenheimer cleaned up at last night’s Oscars. Of the top-six Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress), the epic biopic reeled in four of the awards. (Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress went deservedly to Emma Stone and Da’Vine Joy Rudolph, respectively). The film won other awards, as well, including best score courtesy of Ludwig Göransson. With all its accolades, it would be extremely difficult to understate its success. Still, a close examination of Christopher Nolan’s work reveals just what an accomplishment the film really was.

With Oppenheimer, Nolan took on telling the tale of one of the most controversial figures in human history…. While, of course, also addressing one of the most controversial moments in human history. That’s no easy feat. Robert Oppenheimer is the most recognized figure behind the “Manhattan Project” with which we’re all (or should be) familiar. Getting the story of the “Father of the Atomic Bomb” correct, with all of the nuances that went along with it? There are few who could pull that feat off. Christopher Nolan did it with aplomb.

Oppenheimer: a most-deserving Best Picture

If Nolan’s task was formidable, Best Actor winner Cillian Murphy’s was downright Herculean. In portraying the once-revered, then disgraced Oppenheimer, Murphy deftly navigated the depths of a man haunted by his achievement. Murphy brought an elegant melancholy to the character few actors could have achieved. Robert Downey, Jr., likewise, in his first Oscar-winning performance, portrayed the narcissistic paranoia of Lewis Strauss, the figure responsible for the physicist’s fall from grace, in exemplary fashion.

Not to be overshadowed by the enormity of Murphy’s portrayal, Emily Blunt turned in an equally deserving, Oscar-worthy performance as Kitty Oppenheimer. Steadfastly loyal to her husband, even through his infidelity, Kitty was as equally complex a character as her husband. Blunt played the part to perfection.

If there was, perhaps, any flaw in the film’s success, it was Florence Pugh’s overlooked performance as Robert’s lover, Jean Tatlock. Her role was small, but pivotal in shaping the man Oppenheimer would become. Pugh fueled her performance with raw emotion, showcasing the depth of her talent as an actor. Though the Best Supporting Actress field was already chocked full of worthy candidates, perhaps Pugh deserved more attention than she received.

All in all, Oppenheimer tallied seven Oscar Awards in total. It deserved every one of them, and then some.