In the aftermath of World War One, T.S. Eliot penned the most influential poem of the 20th century. The Waste Land, which captured the spiritual disillusion of the The Lost Generation in disconnected and allusive fragments, was a favourite of J.R. Oppenheimer, who hosted Eliot at the Institute for Advanced Study in 1948.
Such historical detail is not lost in Nolan’s latest blockbuster—the giant biopic, Oppenheimer—a fragmented PTSD narrative that pays homage to The Waste Land’s disjointed structure and esoteric allusions. An early rapid montage cuts from close-ups of our young, gaunt, and troubled genius to stunning shots of Europe’s great cities and cathedrals. We follow our lonely dilettante as he absorbs Picasso in galleries, studies Eliot in solitude, and has terrifying visions of waveforms and particles, wondering where the new developments in quantum physics will ultimately lead us.
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