A desert. The most intelligent minds of the country assembled in rustical housing. The place locked down by the military. Finally, an event that profoundly changes the world and all those who live in it. This description fits the setting of two movies. Of course, it describes Los Alamos around which the movie Oppenheimer resolves. But quite similar is the Setting of Asteroid City in the film of the same name.
Despite the shared setting the two movies made by Christopher Nolan and Wes Anderson respectively, couldn’t be more different. One is a dark drama that takes itself very seriously while following the journey of Oppenheimer quite closely along his real life. The other is a light-hearted comedy in a surreal setting, that pokes fun at itself whenever it gets the chance to. Even their themes are the complete opposite of each other. Or are they? It could also be said that the two movies are about the same topic. Both movies ask the question “What is important?”. They differ in the way they seek to answer that question.
(Disclaimer: All judgements made in this article about Oppenheimer’s or any other real person’s character are only related to the way they are portrayed in the film.)
Different Framework
Obviously, there is a difference in the genre of the movies. One is a biopic of a person who had lived in real life. The other is a meta narrative of a play within a TV-documentary within a movie.
Asteroid City has a wide cast of characters with each their own life and interests, which become increasingly entangled with each other, as they are forced to stay at one place. For the most part the movie is about these relationships and the concepts they revolve around. There is the tension between Steenbeck and his father-in-law. There is also the tension between Steenbeck and his children regarding their mother’s death. Then there is the romance between Steenbeck and Campbell as well as the romance between his son Woodrow and her daughter Dinah. There is constant awe from other characters towards Midge Campbell’s fame. There are more side-characters scurrying around in the background entangling themselves in a web of relationships. Trauma plays a role too as Steenbeck suppresses his emotions due to what he lived through as a war time photographer. However, it helps him bond with Midge Campbell who is dealing with her own trauma in her own way.
The thing about Asteroid City is, that it does not only play in one time and space, but is multi-layered. Most of what we witness is actually a play within a TV-documentary within the movie we’re watching. On the documentary-level we meet the actor who plays Steenbeck. He’s struggling to understand the play and the purpose of his role. We might understand this as an insight into Steenbecks mind, as he’s a man lost in this world, desperately on the search for meaning in life.
Such a visualization of the inner workings of a character happens in Oppenheimer as well. Although, even though Oppenheimer shows off just as great of an ensemble cast, here, the other characters merely exist to support the man himself. The movie is exclusively about one man. According to Nolan Oppenheimer is the most important man in the last century of human history. In the film, Oppie certainly seems to think so himself. He enjoys to be important, to be needed, to matter. Ironically, that self-importance he casts on himself, comes with a terrible price. He has to take full responsibility for what he did. He greatly struggles with that, showcasing remorse but also self-pity. The b-story about his lover shows it in a smaller scale. The relationship makes him feel good, because he is important to her, but when she commits suicide, he has no one to blame but himself. After a breakdown caused by the suicide, his wife scolds him: “Don’t make us pity you for the sins you committed.”
Whereas the excursion into documentary-reality in Asteroid City are sidesteps to show the inner workings of the play-characters the insight into Oppenheimer’s mind is at the very core of his film. Nolan included four instances where we get an intimate look into Oppenheimer’s mind. I believe these four instances show the essence of Oppie’s psychological journey.These instances are four important occasions highlighted with surrealist episodes in an otherwise grounded story.
- At the beginning of the movie, as a student, Oppenheimer is plagued by otherworldly visions of atomic particles. I think Nolan tries to show Oppie’s gift in theoretic physics, yet it also creates an image of a “chosen one”. A man getting visions of his destiny.
- The next surrealist episode comes during the extraordinary event – the trinity test. Oppie sees the world on fire, as he gets confronted with the destructive result of his egoistic search of relevancy. “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds”, the famous quote, is taken out of context here, and once more paints a picture of theatrical self-importance.
- After the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Oppenheimer needs to give a speech during which he gets haunted by cries and images of his bomb’s victims. Visualizing the guilt plaguing him now.
- Lastly, during the hearing, when they question him about his personal life, he suddenly sits naked in front of them. It’s clearly meant to show his vulnerability but I think not only because they are talking about his affair in front of his wife. What makes him more vulnerable is the question why he was the driving force in building the A-Bomb and later tried to hinder the building of the H-Bomb. For the truthful answer is his greatest flaw. He was driven by the selfish wish of achievement, the need to prove himself, actively ignoring what his achievement would mean for everyone else. Now that he has nothing to prove anymore, he can be more concerned about the world around him and be more responsible.
The extraordinary event
Let’s compare the two extraordinary events of the two movies.
In Asteroid City, the alien visitation comes unexpected. In fact, it seems more like a disruption to the story, than part of it. It’s an event out of control of the characters, they have nothing left to do than to watch in awe as the slow descend of an alien lifeform drowns out all the intricacies of their relationships, they deemed so important before. In that moment all the trauma, love, tensions and even the fame of Midge Campbell seemed to not matter at all anymore. The fact that the visitation isn’t even meant to be a big deal, but just part of the alien’s mundane day to day work, seems to give a definite nihilist answer to Steenbecks search for meaning in life. There is none. There is a vast universe beyond the grasp of our understanding that doesn’t care about us. We are unimportant specks in a great sea of chaos. And we, or the things we do don’t matter.
On the other hand, in Oppenheimer, the entire film is about the extraordinary event. The characters, especially Oppie, actively work towards the Trinity test throughout the whole movie and spends the rest of the movie dealing with its consequences. Rather than a lack of control the invention of the A-bomb represents the human capability to understand the universe around us on a deeper level and even gain mastery over it. It is the direct opposite of the alien visitation. The character creates the extraordinary event. He fulfils his destiny as chosen one and brings about a new reality for the whole world. No doubt, that that makes him important, proving the human capability to matter.
Excursion: Or does it? There is a discussion to be had about the question if great people make history or if it’s history that makes great people. The movie doesn’t concern itself with that discussion however. Even though it does show, that the invention of the bomb was a group effort and Oppenheimer himself didn’t contribute much more than leading that group. It also shows that he wasn’t even the only choice being considered for that leading position. Certainly, the A-Bonb would have been invented around that time without Oppenheimer. However, the movie doesn’t question Oppenheimer’s importance. Rather it asks the question what such an importance for one person means for that person and their surroundings.
Consequences
Asteroid City ends on a higher note than the alien visitation leads us to expect. Soon after the event took place, the characters slowly return to their former life, caught up in the web of relationships. The only consequences of the event are how it affects their relationships. For example, Woodrow gets the courage to kiss his crush and Steenbeck and his father-in-law somewhat reconcile. The movie seems to indicate, that although there is no greater meaning of life and much of the world is outside our control, relationships are what makes life still worth living. During his struggle to attempt his role, the actor playing Steenbeck and the director have this exchange: “Do I just keep doing it?”, “Yes.”, “Without knowing anything?”, Yes.”, “I still don’t understand the play.”, “Doesn’t matter. Just keep telling the story.”
In Oppenheimer the test of the first A-bomb obviously changes the world forever, but more important is how it affects the main character. As already mentioned, it shifts his perspective, since he now has nothing to prove anymore and he can move on from selfish ambition to be concerned about the consequences of his creation. Unfortunately, he loses control over his own creation. Among others because of Admiral Strauss, his adversary.
Like Oppenheimer, Strauss is a man seeking to prove his importance. A self-made man determined to reach the president’s cabinet. Rather than scientific achievement, he seeks power. However, the movie seems to suggest that compared to the creator of a thing, the ones who yield power over that thing are still less important, because naturally, they couldn’t control it if it wasn’t created in the first place.
Strauss’ self-importance ultimately becomes his downfall, as he’s obsessed with what Oppenheimer said to Einstein. He is certain they talked about him, while in reality they are at a stage in their journey where they can look beyond themselves. They didn’t care about Strauss at all, and instead talked about the only important thing: The consequence of the existence of the A-Bomb and how it might have triggered a chain reaction that will destroy the world.
The answers
Now, are we important or not? Do we have the capability to matter? Both, Anderson’s Asteroid City and Nolan’s Oppenheimer explore this question. One showed a community passively react to an extraordinary event that put everything into a perspective of unimportance. The other followed a historical figure in his quest to gain mastery over a new aspect of nature, creating an extraordinary event that changed world politics and through that the life of billions for decades, if not centuries, to come.
None of the movies gives a conclusive answer, but their two different approaches of storytelling nudge the viewers into different directions in their contemplation.
P.S.
As so often, it’s a question of perspective too. After all, the Trinity-Test – what Nolan deemed worthy as topic of a three-hour blockbuster film – is a simple throwaway joke in Anderson’s movie. No doubt to say: Even the most important event in human history is of no importance in the scope of a cast, indifferent universe.