Since the 1917 Russian Revolution, the American film industry has been overwhelmingly anti-communist. For example, Hollywood famously blacklisted suspected communist sympathizers during Ronald Reagan’s tenure as the president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). While the movie “Oppenheimer” is relatively unconcerned with the ideological debate between communism and capitalism, its sympathetic portrayal of leftists and critical depiction of U.S. anti-communist policy is quite groundbreaking for such a blockbuster.
In many ways, “Oppenheimer” spends far more time focused on anti-communism than it does leftism itself. The feature does not try to justify Stalin’s crimes nor make a case for the adoption of communism in the United States. Primarily, the movie is interested in showing how the U.S. was blinded by the threat communist revolutions posed to its global imperial interests, and how this blindness helped start a nuclear arms race that threatens the world to the present day.
The film’s commentary on anti-communism ties the ideology directly to the start of the Cold War and the nuclear arms race. The movie depicts the American effort at hiding atomic research from the Soviets to the detriment of nuclear development speed, all in the name of global military hegemony. In sharp contrast to the typical media depiction of U.S. action against the Soviets in which we are valiant defenders of freedom in the face of dictatorship (think “Red Dawn,” or the anti-communist propaganda films of the 1950s), “Oppenheimer” more accurately depicts the truth of American ambitions.
The U.S. historically sought a nuclear monopoly, a fact stated plainly in a scene with President Harry Truman. Total U.S. control over nuclear devices could have resulted in catastrophic mass murder, such as the proposed use of atomic bombs during the Korean War. Such a reality is even more terrifying than the threat of mutually assured destruction the world actually experienced.
Even though American goals of nuclear monopoly were not met and the Soviets developed nuclear weapons in 1949, the final outcome of American atomic militarism was not a positive one. The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. went on to engage in a nuclear arms race, building up vast arsenals of, as the film puts it, “weapons of mass genocide” capable of exterminating vast sections of the human population and rendering much of the Earth uninhabitable.
Aside from the film’s larger point about American nuclear imperialism, anti-communist policy hawks, also known as Cold Warriors, come off poorly on-screen. Lewis Strauss, the closest figure the film has to an antagonist, seeks to destroy Oppenheimer’s career for both his leftist ties and his opposition to the development of thermonuclear weapons. Strauss and other major governmental figures like President Harry Truman are largely portrayed as jingoistic bullies, willing to risk plunging the world into nuclear hellfire in order to get a slight edge over the communist threat.
Compare this characterization to a host of American media which glorifies the courage and ultimate, if not sometimes troubled, glory of the nation. Think “Top Gun” and “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” “American Sniper” and arguably certain films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Ultimately, “Oppenheimer” is not an all-encompassing ideological statement on anti-communism. With a three-hour runtime, the movie covers too much thematic ground to be the definitive blockbuster condemnation of anti-communism. However, its accurate and critical depiction of early anti-communist paranoia and American nuclear militarism are still significant. The movie highlights the pointlessness of American paranoia. Ultimately the Soviets stole nuclear secrets and developed atomic weapons regardless of U.S. efforts. The film also makes clear the consequences of said paranoia, namely the nuclear arms race, the second Red Scare and the Cold War.
The film has grossed more than $700 million, and as one half of the summer cultural phenomenon of Barbenheimer, will likely set the future tone in the public consciousness around nuclear weapons, the end of the Pacific War, Soviet espionage and the actions of the early anti-communist Cold Warriors. Cinema plays an indelible role in shaping our perception of reality, and just as a century of reactionary media has made Americans primed for violence at the mere mention of communists, movies like “Oppenheimer” can undo such propagandizing in equal measure.
