March 10 is right around the corner — Oscar Night at the Dolby Theater. Among the 10 films nominated for Best Picture stand two giants, each about three hours long, both boasting top directors and talent.

They couldn’t be more different in style and substance.

While “Killers of the Flower Moon,” directed by Martin Scorsese, tells a story of good old American greed, “J. Robert Oppenheimer” explores this nation’s moral dilemma with dropping the atomic bomb over Japan to end World War II and the “father of the bomb’s” personal anguish over what he and the assistance of Albert Einstein and others had unleashed.

While “Oppenheimer” appears to be more of a docudrama, “Killers” emerges as a straight story narrative. Both films are based on books (in the longstanding Hollywood tradition). If “Oppenheimer” wrestles with universal questions about the survival of mankind, “Killers” investigates the survival of the Osage people who own oil rights..

While motives are clear in “Oppenheimer” — the U.S. government’s need for a device to end the war and Oppenheimer’s singular determination to develop the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, NM — the intentions of the Oklahoma town fathers are hidden and hence, more sinister.

Hats off to the casting directors, as well as the auteurs. Many have been nominated for Oscar acting honors in both films. Some have already won awards here and abroad.

“Killers” nominees include the subtle but always on point Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone, who capably plays the wife of the protagonist, Leonardo DiCaprio (who was not nominated this year). Ms. Gladstone is chief among four devoted sisters, a core of the movie.

“Oppenheimer” boasts the talents of Cillian Murphy, polished and precise in his layering, and Robert Downey, Jr., a standout as Lewis Strauss, who was complicit in the making of the Bomb but turns against Oppenheimer in the latter’s trials. We see the bomb explode, and with it, Oppenheimer’s career and his national standing.

In summary, both pictures are blockbusters, each with considerable merit. Both offer good, sometimes great acting. Both are relevant to American society and history. And each is worth seeing, enjoying and internalizing.

My bet on which picture will win? Make it “Oppenheimer,” which seems to have the buzz. Should “Oppenheimer” win? “Killers” has more raw emotion; “Oppenheimer” is more cerebral. Both offer good writing.

You be the judge.

Be sure to leave your comments on both films in this space. Tell us what you think. Oscar is looking over our shoulders.

And now that I’m back to work in the blogosphere and podcast world, tune in next week for more on films and such.

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