It may be paling in comparison to the box office numbers being put up by Barbie, but in no way should that detract from any accomplishments that Oppenheimer has laid a claim to so far. Without a doubt, Christopher Nolan‘s impossibly kinetic biopic on the father of the atomic bomb is instant awards-season material, with an enchantingly unconventional storytelling style, a cast that fires on all cylinders, and a uniquely haunting weight that will follow audiences long after the credits roll.
Indeed, though the ever-looming shadow of nuclear war has hung over the world for decades now, Oppenheimer‘s handling of the subject is nothing short of devastating; it’s one thing to have felt such dread with a passing understanding of history, but being transported into the guilty mind of the man responsible, however impossible of a situation he found himself in, opens up whole new worlds of psychological debilitation.
But second only to such a threat on the list of Oppenheimer‘s most terrifying components are the more pathological players that permeated the ranks of the United States military and the Manhattan Project, one such character being the U.S. Secretary of War Henry Stimson, who had one of the most bone-chilling lines in the whole film. The kicker? It wasn’t even in the script.
In an interview with Variety, Nolan credited actor James Remar, who portrayed Stimson in the film, for dreaming up a line spoken by the character during a scene where he and other government officials are laying out their offensive strategy for Fat Man and Little Boy. The line in question is when Stimson, quite matter-of-factly, says not to drop any bombs on the city of Kyoto, since he and his wife honeymooned there, perfectly capturing the terrifyingly apathetic psychology of those who pushed that fateful button, completely unconcerned with the fact that they were about to wipe out over 220,000 people, but could spare a second thought for a city they once vacationed in.
It just goes to show that no matter how small your role is, it pays to put the work in, because Remar left one hell of an impression in the peanuts’ worth of screentime he did get.
