'Oppenheimer' is a Christopher Nolan masterpiece. The contemporary echoes are terrifying

The next time one of those government committees is being waylaid by some grandstanding blowhard senator or representative essentially arguing against science for political motives — you’ll remember COVID-19, perhaps — whoever is chairing the meeting should halt the proceedings for three hours and make everyone watch “Oppenheimer.”

Now that’s the kind of civics lesson I can get behind. Sen. Rand Paul can sit right up front. And it might actually do the country some good.

Then again, it might not. History has a way of repeating itself.

Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” is nothing if not a cautionary tale, a stunning film about brilliance and betrayal, arrogance and willful ignorance. It’s powerful, a technically dazzling achievement; so audacious is Nolan’s filmmaking that if it didn’t serve the story you’d think at times he was just showing off.

He’s not.

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Is Oppenheimer based on a true story?

The movie is essentially a biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist often called the father of the atomic bomb. Nolan adapted “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer,” by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin.

If that sounds dry and scholarly, well, have you ever seen a Christopher Nolan movie? “Inception?” “The Dark Knight,” maybe? It’s anything but boring; by the end it’s practically a horror movie and a thriller combined. After all, for a time, Oppenheimer, Albert Einstein and others wondered if exploding the bomb might actually ignite the atmosphere and destroy the Earth.

The stakes don’t get much higher than that.

Cillian Murphy is stunning as J. Robert Oppenheimer

Cillian Murphy, somehow still underrated despite “28 Days Later” and “Peaky Blinders” and several other Nolan films, plays Oppenheimer. He does not lack self-confidence. Nor does he lack the ability to earn it. “You’re not just self-important,” one character tells him. “You’re actually important.”

Or, as someone questions how his boorish actions might be taken, Oppenheimer says, “Brilliance makes up for a lot.”

Murphy’s line reading is perfect. He makes Oppenheimer seem not so much boastful as just aware of his gifts and what they let him get away with. This is an amazing performance. Nolan’s signature jumps through time require Murphy to portray Oppenheimer at different stages of his life. Each is convincing.

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What is 'Oppenheimer' about?

Oppenheimer gets tapped to lead the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, to develop a nuclear bomb. (Matt Damon is funny as the blunt Gen. Leslie Groves, who hires him.) He surrounds himself with his own small army of physicists. The excitement of the theoretical becoming actual is intoxicating — so much so that it’s easy to lose sight of the consequences.

Nolan juxtaposes the Los Alamos work with a confirmation hearing in which Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr., never better and it’s not even close), seeks a Cabinet position. Nolan shoots this in black and white (a new type of IMAX film was created for the scenes). Strauss should be a shoo-in, except for one thing: his early association with Oppenheimer, who has fallen out of favor with the government.

Why? Because while he supported the creation of the atomic bomb for use in Japan, Oppenheimer feared an arms race and where it would lead, and opposed the creation of a hydrogen bomb. During the Joseph McCarthy era, simply expressing a dissenting opinion based on science was tantamount to treason.

Sound familiar?

Other scenes show a rigged committee laughably questioning Oppenheimer in order to deny him his security clearance renewal. Laughable if it weren’t so absurd. The truth is unimportant here, only the preordained outcome. Again, the contemporary echoes are chilling.

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It’s all chilling. When Kitty Oppenheimer (Emily Blunt) speaks to the renewal committee, you want to stand and cheer. Finally, someone is willing to tell the truth. Not that it matters.

Throw in bits and pieces of Oppenheimer’s tempestuous personal life, including his relationship with Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh) and his marriage to Kitty, and the three-hour running time starts to seem not just reasonable, but necessary.

Nolan pulls out all the stops. He’s ably assisted by Ludwig Göransson’s score, which amps up the tension.

The testing of the bomb in Los Alamos is a cinematic pressure cooker. Everything works.

The acting is uniformly brilliant, with Murphy, Downey and Blunt simply astounding. Downey is getting a lot of buzz for his performance, and deservedly so. Tony Stark, this ain’t. His portrayal of the slow evolution of Strauss’ character is subtle and devastating.

Blunt’s scene in front of the committee is a marvel of controlled fury, spitting in the face of hypocrisy while never breaking a sweat.

But Murphy shoulders the biggest burden among the cast, and does so beautifully. His Oppenheimer is arrogant, of course. But Murphy’s portrayal is complex. When the bomb testing commences, he quietly intones the words from the Bhagavad-Gita he has studied (he read it in the original Sanskrit, because of course): “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

He took those words to heart, and it cost him. And maybe, Nolan’s film argues, all of us.

'Oppenheimer' 5 stars

Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★

Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★

Director: Christopher Nolan.

Cast: Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt.

Rating: R for some sexuality, nudity and language.

How to watch: In theaters Friday, July 21.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Oppenheimer' movie review: A thrilling, terrifying true story