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Oppenheimer
2 years ago
General
In eternity, where there is no time, nothing can grow. Nothing can become. Nothing changes. So death created time to grow the things that it would kill and you are reborn but into the same life that you've always been born into.
I saw it! First off, no I did not do the "Barbenheimer" double-feature. I did not have that kind of time lol!
The development and use of atomic weapons is a subject that has fascinated, and terrified, me since I was in the 4th grade. One of the persisting narratives that you will still hear is that, when physicists began researching atomic energy, they did so with the intention of making a new means of energy to power our electricity and so on, and that the weaponization of it was something that a number of more militaristic-minded scientists conceived of and got funding for. That's not really true, as when the various scientists known for their work in the field made strides in the theoretical physics of the subject, they were well aware that it could and would be weaponized. Many of the very same people opposed to creating a bomb willingly worked on and developed it. Why? They had to make a choice. Who would they rather see make and use atomic weapons: the Americans or the Nazis?
That is ultimately the driving narrative behind Oppenheimer, the biopic of the titular scientist played by Cillian Murphy, and written, directed, and produced by Christopher Nolan. In this movie, Nolan does his weird timeline thing that he enjoys doing in movies like "Dunkirk", "The Prestige", and "Memento". The movie swaps between three different narratives: Oppenheimer's education, employment at a university, and his work on the Manhattan Project; his interview/interrogation concerning his security clearance renewal with concerns to his ties to members of the Communist party from his past affiliations; and Lewis Strauss' (played by Robert Downey Jr.) attempts to be confirmed at the Chairman of Commerce by the Senate and his continued animosity towards Oppenheimer for a perceived offense. This movie has a pretty hefty runtime of about 3 hours. I'll discuss that length in a bit.
What I didn't like about the movie:
Nolan's sound editing in his movies suck. His movies are edited so that tense musical scores blast through the speakers while the characters speak quietly and discuss important plot points that you WILL miss without subtitles. There were fortunately only a couple of scenes where this was an issue, but it was still very noticeable and I wish Nolan would kindly stop that!
Most of Nolan's mainstream films carry a PG-13 rating, but this one got an R rating I had some hopes for the unusually high rating, but most of it was relegated to two or three uses of the word "fuck" and a couple of scenes showing tits and ass that didn't really add anything. This brings me into what you could consider a separate issue, but I'll tie these two together, which is the effects of the atomic bombs on Japan. There is a scene later in the movie where Oppenheimer attends a lecture/seminar on the injuries and effects sustained by the Japanese people of Hiroshima when the bomb was dropped. The audience is not shown these images, though they are available if you care to google them (warning, it is not pleasant), but Oppenheimer's reaction to the photos is shown. I can only guess that they were trying for a "less is more" or "nothing is scarier" impact, but again these are photos that are easily found online and showing them would have been a good use of the film's R rating while also showing the audience why Oppenheimer has a crisis of conscience during the film.
The 3-hour runtime is not a bad thing in and of itself, as this movie was pretty well-paced. However I have said before and will continue to say that if 2.5+ hour movies are going to be the norm now, theaters need to bring back intermissions. Let audience members get up and stretch, use the restroom, and whatever else.
What I liked about the movie:
The movie's main plot was true to history as far as the stakes. By the time the Manhattan Project was greenlit, most military strategists were sure that Germany was ahead in their development efforts by a fair amount. What the movie did not show was that, alongside overseeing the project, Gen. Leslie Groves was also overseeing attempts by the Allies to sabotage and set back the German development of the bomb. Many of these attempts were serious failures. What set the Germans back was, among other things, their institutionalized anti-Semitism, as the Nazi party would not allow the teaching or usage of "Jew Science" (many of the scientists who developed the theories and science of atomic energy were Jewish), and a number of missteps in their scientists' own development by using "heavy water" over a more efficient catalyst like graphite. Another operation that was conducted to hinder the Nazis was not shown, but we do get to see the result is another scientist being smuggled out of Europe and brought to America to provide assistance and information on development as well as what he knows about the Nazis' progress on their own research.
Overall, it was a good, solid movie that I recommend. I wouldn't say it's Nolan's best, but he has a lot of bangers so this one not representing him in top form isn't saying much! Check it out if you get the opportunity!
The development and use of atomic weapons is a subject that has fascinated, and terrified, me since I was in the 4th grade. One of the persisting narratives that you will still hear is that, when physicists began researching atomic energy, they did so with the intention of making a new means of energy to power our electricity and so on, and that the weaponization of it was something that a number of more militaristic-minded scientists conceived of and got funding for. That's not really true, as when the various scientists known for their work in the field made strides in the theoretical physics of the subject, they were well aware that it could and would be weaponized. Many of the very same people opposed to creating a bomb willingly worked on and developed it. Why? They had to make a choice. Who would they rather see make and use atomic weapons: the Americans or the Nazis?
That is ultimately the driving narrative behind Oppenheimer, the biopic of the titular scientist played by Cillian Murphy, and written, directed, and produced by Christopher Nolan. In this movie, Nolan does his weird timeline thing that he enjoys doing in movies like "Dunkirk", "The Prestige", and "Memento". The movie swaps between three different narratives: Oppenheimer's education, employment at a university, and his work on the Manhattan Project; his interview/interrogation concerning his security clearance renewal with concerns to his ties to members of the Communist party from his past affiliations; and Lewis Strauss' (played by Robert Downey Jr.) attempts to be confirmed at the Chairman of Commerce by the Senate and his continued animosity towards Oppenheimer for a perceived offense. This movie has a pretty hefty runtime of about 3 hours. I'll discuss that length in a bit.
What I didn't like about the movie:
Nolan's sound editing in his movies suck. His movies are edited so that tense musical scores blast through the speakers while the characters speak quietly and discuss important plot points that you WILL miss without subtitles. There were fortunately only a couple of scenes where this was an issue, but it was still very noticeable and I wish Nolan would kindly stop that!
Most of Nolan's mainstream films carry a PG-13 rating, but this one got an R rating I had some hopes for the unusually high rating, but most of it was relegated to two or three uses of the word "fuck" and a couple of scenes showing tits and ass that didn't really add anything. This brings me into what you could consider a separate issue, but I'll tie these two together, which is the effects of the atomic bombs on Japan. There is a scene later in the movie where Oppenheimer attends a lecture/seminar on the injuries and effects sustained by the Japanese people of Hiroshima when the bomb was dropped. The audience is not shown these images, though they are available if you care to google them (warning, it is not pleasant), but Oppenheimer's reaction to the photos is shown. I can only guess that they were trying for a "less is more" or "nothing is scarier" impact, but again these are photos that are easily found online and showing them would have been a good use of the film's R rating while also showing the audience why Oppenheimer has a crisis of conscience during the film.
The 3-hour runtime is not a bad thing in and of itself, as this movie was pretty well-paced. However I have said before and will continue to say that if 2.5+ hour movies are going to be the norm now, theaters need to bring back intermissions. Let audience members get up and stretch, use the restroom, and whatever else.
What I liked about the movie:
The movie's main plot was true to history as far as the stakes. By the time the Manhattan Project was greenlit, most military strategists were sure that Germany was ahead in their development efforts by a fair amount. What the movie did not show was that, alongside overseeing the project, Gen. Leslie Groves was also overseeing attempts by the Allies to sabotage and set back the German development of the bomb. Many of these attempts were serious failures. What set the Germans back was, among other things, their institutionalized anti-Semitism, as the Nazi party would not allow the teaching or usage of "Jew Science" (many of the scientists who developed the theories and science of atomic energy were Jewish), and a number of missteps in their scientists' own development by using "heavy water" over a more efficient catalyst like graphite. Another operation that was conducted to hinder the Nazis was not shown, but we do get to see the result is another scientist being smuggled out of Europe and brought to America to provide assistance and information on development as well as what he knows about the Nazis' progress on their own research.
Overall, it was a good, solid movie that I recommend. I wouldn't say it's Nolan's best, but he has a lot of bangers so this one not representing him in top form isn't saying much! Check it out if you get the opportunity!
Vix
Barbie was actually damned good. Kinda women-empowering in a cute way. :D