The Life and Travails of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Nuclear Scientist
Authors:   Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences The University of Texas at Arlington, Texas 76019, USA, Shanumugam G 
Published: December 2023

‘Oppenheimer’ is a 2023 epic, biographical film about an American theoretical physicist Julius Robert Oppenheimer. He is considered the “father of the atomic bomb”. The film is brilliantly written and directed by Christopher Nolan. The film, based on the 2005 biography “American Prometheus” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, chronicles the complex and consequential career of J. Robert Oppenheimer. The story begins with Oppenheimer's postgraduate studies at the University of Cambridge (England) and at the University of Göttingen (Germany), details his direction of the Manhattan Project during World War II in developing nuclear weapons at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico (USA), and ends with his eventual fall from grace due to his 1954 security hearing based on the false premise that J. Robert Oppenheimer was a communist spy who was passing secret information on nuclear research to the Soviet Union. Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ is the pinnacle of movie making. Nolan has delicately interwoven the intricate domains of quantum physics, human ingenuity, cruel politics, morality, legality, and ethics into a timely masterpiece and into an explosive emotional thriller. The four principal cast members (1) Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, (2) Emily Blunt as Katherine "Kitty" Oppenheimer (wife), (3) Matt Damon as Gen. Leslie Groves, and (4) Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss perform their role flawlessly. Murphy, in particular, uncannily acts and resembles the real─life J. Robert Oppenheimer. In addition, the performances by Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock and by Tom Conti as Albert Einstein are superb. The story is told in alternating black and white (Strauss’ version of events) and color (Oppenheimer’s version of events) scenes. The haunting musical score by Ludwig Göransson synchronizes perfectly with the movie plot. When the bomb explodes at the Trinity climax scene, the sound goes totally silent! Oppenheimer’s story is the real─life vindication of the truth after 68 years (1954─2022). A must watch Nolan’s thriller for this Nuclear Age! Thus, the said movie has triggered me to make an attempt to comprehensively capture the chronology of events covering 153 years of history (1870─2023) associated with J. Robert Oppenheimer, some events not covered in the movie plot is included in this review article with 48 Figures and 8 Appendixes. The purpose is to permanently etch in history the scientific contributions made by J. Robert Oppenheimer and by his colleagues at the Manhattan Project, which not only ended the World War II, but also sprung open a new world of freedom for humanity. Let there be no doubt that J. Robert Oppenheimer was a genuine patriotic American of our time and therefore, my only fervent hope is that our generation acknowledges, remembers, and admires their contributions and sacrifices, without which the fragile freedom that we enjoy today, even after 80 years later, would not have been possible. His legacy is one of historical greatness.