It’s a brilliant film…but it is a film. Paying that much to see a film is ludicrous.
2 Likes
Summary
My favorite film by Christopher Nolan to date. He has mastered the intercutting of different time frames, and created a series of fascinating echoes/reverberations between scenes.
His mise en scene is impeccable with multiple areas of interest in many shots.
The script is verbose without being wordy, the acting effective, and the fidelity to history impressive.
My one caveat is that the film simplifies Strauss’ enmity to Oppenheimer to being a result of Oppenheimer dissing him, especially at a Senate hearing, and underplays the huge desire of the United States to develop the H-bomb. Teller & Lawrence (major financial beneficiaries of H-bomb funding. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory anyone?), Truman, and the U.S. military apparatus desperately wanted the edge on the Soviet Union, and were willing to develop a weapon of genocide to achieve it. Strauss’ strong antipathy to Oppenheimer made him the perfect attack dog to sic on Oppenheimer, since beside his perceived humiliations by Oppenheimer, Strauss was an ardent anti-Communist and proud Jew, who thought Oppenheimer downplayed his Jewishness.
Nolan’s take is (melo)dramatically effective, and to include this information would have given us a four-hour movie (at least), so my caveat is more than a quibble, but less than a deal-breaker.
3 Likes
SPOILER (tag won’t work on my phone)
I kind of want to watch it again before I talk to you about the bit specifically, because whilst marketing went with “Black and White is objective” in practice, at least on first viewing, it wasn’t. It still seemed like Oppenheimer’s view of everything. The one he didn’t like became a cartoon villain and all the scientists, including one who had only met them for about 30 seconds (hello the villain who actually killed James Bond) were taking his side and proving the establishment wrong. Given the era we were placed in - isn’t it Oppenheimer’s fictional view of the world in black and white?
I don’t think his view ever drops, we get his fantasy, we get his nightmare and what he imagined happened when he wasn’t there.
I will talk to you about this again once I’ve rewatched it.
1 Like
I drove two hours and twenty minutes to Dallas to see Oppenheimer in 70mm IMAX. Was well worth it. I sat on the back row and was able to here the hum of the projector. I hadn’t seen a 70mm IMAX film since Nolan’s Interstellar. Oppenheimer is a great film and a great experience.
Normally I would have seen it on Thursday night previews or an early Friday showing but I missed pre-sale tickets going live by only an hour or two and had to go all the way to a Sunday morning screening to find good seats. Later my friend wanted to go but could not good seats for Dallas’ 70mm IMAX. He thought about going to San Antonio to see it in 70mm IMAX since it was a larger theater with more seats. It’s a four and a half hour drive from my house (5 1/2 for him) but I told him if he went I’d go too.
So that’s what we did this past Thursday.
We were on the fourth row which is not ideal but wasn’t as bad as I thought for being so close. I did get a little singed when the bomb went off.
I plan on seeing it again at my local digital IMAX.
1 Like
The 70mm IMAX at Lincoln Square in Manhattan sold out before the movie opened.
Agreed. I thought the whole film was a cinematic fantasia on a segment of American history. A significant reason for the film’s success, I would argue, is the overall accuracy of the history and the creativity of the fantasia.
4 Likes
2 Likes
https://twitter.com/Bosslogic/status/1767014136024895761?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^tweet
Random fun fact: one of the winners (I forget who or for what) actually called out Barbara Broccoli in thanks!
2 Likes
Good to hear she’s found something to occupy her days.
2 Likes
Must have been the Eilish siblings.
1 Like
It was Da’Vine Joy Randolph: “I’m so grateful to all the women who have been by my side. Colin Camp, Barbara Broccoli, Tracy Brennan, Sarah Fargo.”
3 Likes
https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1767553634131182002
He was talking with Paramount about a Prisoner remake shortly after Memento, and theres definitely a huge influence from it in his (and his brother’s) work.
2 Likes
3 Likes
Christopher Nolan to be knighted, according to Sky News.
He will then truly be… The Dark Knight….
Lol, I’m happy for him. One thing that I like about Nolan is how humble he is. His ego is subtle, mostly shown only in his movies, for the most part. James Cameron is pure ego.
3 Likes
Academy Award winner Sir Nolan.
Maybe that will finally qualify him to direct a Bond?
5 Likes
Or over-qualify him?
2 Likes
How should a knighthood over-qualify him? He’s still the same person with the same skills and everything. I don’t think the Sam Mendes who directed Skyfall and Spectre was less qualified than the Sir Sam Mendes he is now. Congratulations on the knighthood, but frankly…
2 Likes
I was making a dumb joke. It’s not about knighthoods or Academy Awards. Nolan is not a guy for hire but his own industry, and Emma Thomas is his producer. It would need a complicated relationship with EON to get him the kind of control he wants and needs.
1 Like