Christopher Nolan has taken up the task of a neck-to-heart – screening the biography of 1 of the most celebrated physicists of the 20th century, the creator of an atomic bomb (although it is undoubtedly a short thought), a prominent scientist, a controversial, different and very controversial figure from the point of view of ethics – Julius Robert Oppenheimer.
I believe that this is simply a movie of large importance and interest of our Readers, and having watched it in the cinema, I decided to share with you my thoughts, which will not be an easy task, due to the fact that the movie is long, multi-threaded and provides the viewer with a real burden of content. I was going to the movies and I was like, Christopher Nolan Will he bear the weight of the subject and be able to present the figure of a prominent physicist objectively? The opinions on this subject are divided, but I believe that he has fulfilled the above and I answer the question YES.
Christopher Nolan
Of course, that's mainly due to the fact that Nolan is simply a manager who doesn't gotta do anything anymore. With specified outstanding films as “Inception”, “Illusionist”, the trilogy “The Dark Knight”, “Intersellar” or “Dunkyerka” who, in addition, were place hits, gained undisputable reputation and is not forced to search the viewer. I admit I'm a large lover of his films, and the director's name is simply a warrant to me of good cinema. So I was not worried about this aspect, knowing that the movie would be a real treat, which was confirmed. However, it is the first in Nolan's career biographical film, which in addition is an adaptation of the prize-winning Pulitzer book pen of 2 authors: Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin “Oppenheimer. Triumph and the tragedy of the father of the atomic bomb.”
Of course, comments were made that Nolan and his band missed many threads and crucial characters. I read voices that at least 2 Poles who worked on the Manhattan task were left out. However, I do not make specified allegations to the manager due to the fact that he undertook to depict a very extended fragment of the life of physicist – from time to years after the war, erstwhile he inactive faced the stigma of "father of the most terrible weapons in human history" and that (as president Truman himself said) "he has blood on his hands".
From this period 1 could not only make a three-hour movie (there is so much of Nolan's painting), but besides a solid ten-series show, and there would most likely be 1 that would be small. Personally, more than discussing Oppenheimer's co-workers, I would be curious about the passages of his childhood, due to the fact that he came from a unique, intelligent household of German Jews, and himself manifested signs of a prominent head already in childhood.
By the way, after reading the opinion of any of the netizens who considered the movie weak due to the fact that it was "speakable, nothing happened, there was no shown fire caused by explosions, or (authentically) they expected something more 'nolan' in the kind of Interstellar" I find that before us there was a immense amount of intellectual work to be done in young generations of Poles, but not today.
The workshop championship!
This three-hour painting is simply a real masterpiece in classical cinema understanding! Taking into account the fresh guidelines of the 2020 movie Academy, which we discussed on our YouTube channel in the episode "12 films that would not be made today", Nolan's movie is an exact antithesis of what cinema is to be present and very well! The image perfectly and accurately reproduces the described world, reality, behaviour, customs, outfits and social functions. This has been the origin of attacks on creators who have created demoliberal, feminist and politically correct environments. The movie was considered racist, misogynistic, adhering to the patriarchal order of the world, and already this fact (as the editor-in-chief Jan Engelgard rightly pointed out) should be treated as an excellent advice and a reason to see it.
I very much like the process of cutting the timeline, which is Nolan's trademark. For real time, we can accept the hearings that the committee conducts with the distinctive character of the substituted prosecutor Roger Robb To take down a physicist. More characters are asked, and around their answers the manager builds further themes of the full story. Of course, the top emphasis was placed here on Oppenheimer himself, in which he was phenomenally incarnated Cillian Murphy well-known viewers from the lead function in the excellent tv series "Peacky Blinders", but besides having a relation with Nolan on "The Dark Knight".
An Murphy despite not much like physics for the movie just became Oppenheimer! It's a unique art and a immense challenge that the actor has truly done bravado, portraying not only the look, the mimicry or the way he speaks, but besides any "manieration", characteristic of the scientist. In combination with sensational costumes and phase design, we get an effect that, from the very beginning, makes us not only see this character, but besides identify with it in a way, and that is what a good cinema is all about. respective another truly outstanding creations deserve attention: Emilly Blunt as a wife, Kitty Oppenheimer – a poignant function for a female who struggles with her own alcoholism and another problems. Kitty and Robert are shown as terrible parents – she can't stand being locked up with children, drinking "male of the higher spheres", he's always absent, putting technological work above all else.
Matt Damon playing Lieutenant Leslie Groves – the manager of the Manhattan task for the USACE (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) or national agency. Damon gained quite a few weight and fell out truly convincingly as a hard, cold serviceman, dedicated officer and West point graduate, controlling all aspect of the lab's work in Los Alamos, which has virtually become a science-military town. Robert Downey Jr. As Lewis Strauss – a cynic who pretends to be Oppenheimer's friend to then plunge him in front of the committee. Strauss was a associate of the AEC, or government commission on atomic energy.
The full cast did a large occupation based on amazing characterization, specified as aging and rejuvenation of heroes, which came out amazingly well (Garry Oldman as president Truman is unrecognizable). In each scene you can see a immense commitment of actors who, after all, mostly appear occasionally, in fact providing background (but important) for history. It's been a long time since I've seen so many outstanding supporting roles on the screen, and there are characters truly crucial for the past of the 20th century, specified as Albert Einstein or Niels Bohr!
The love thread, which besides became the starting point for the attack on the physicist as a russian spy in my feeling was a bit overdramatic. large function Florence Pugh as Jean Tutlock – a communist activist is 1 thing, but her relation with Oppenheimer himself was somewhat grotesque. Well, love threads are not Nolan's strong suit, but luckily (unless being aware of it) the manager did not exposure them excessively, but only as much as needed to tie this part of the plot.
The work of the camera combined with the phase plan is besides a masterpiece. Hoyte Van Hoytema, Kathy Lucas and Ruth De Jong made almost all frame of the movie perfectly composed. You can truly see the coherence and titanium work here. In addition, I turned my attention to costumes and props, which were elaborated in the smallest detail. This is Nolan's domain, which takes care of these issues in all film, but here it is simply a real festival of “tasters” – suits, suits, shoes, hats, glasses, watches (always crucial to the director), and even so seemingly trivial props like a tube – everything perfectly selected and in line with the realities of the times.
Of course, I wouldn't be myself if I didn't mention the music. Christopher Nolan attaches large attention to this, and composers who work for him clearly make not only “for the movie but besides for the director”. We'll find any electronic sounds here, but the full thing is based on an orchestra. As expected, there are not many themes or circumstantial tunes here, and an highly effective and artistic sound background. There are, however, moments of awe that increase sensations.
It all makes the movie look large and in workshop terms you can't blame it for anything. The best example of this is the series of stages of the test explosion. Tension, acting, music, phase design, pictures and script – for specified images it is worth going to the cinema, although this movie can be successfully viewed at home and will not lose much. However, these values have not made Oppenheimer specified a loud movie that has awakened lively discussions worldwide.
Oppenheimer and Nolan – Russian onuce!
Both physicist and manager were hunted. The first was accused of straight agential ties with the russian Union, and the second collects criticism for not presenting the Russian side badly enough. Of course, these discussions are supported by the geopolitical situation – present and then described in the film. These allegations seem to be exaggerated, but they surely stimulate imagination, in fact, as an excellent run for the film.
Robert Oppenheimer was the victim of specified accusations for respective reasons. First of all, he and his brother had “communist” beliefs (as many Americans did at the time) – it is of course a shorthand but justified in the request to describe the film. The physicist himself never enrolled in the party, but the brother was an activist, and besides the wife was sympathetic in her youth. This subject is discussed perfectly in the film. I was truly caught up in the scene erstwhile university academics are doing a gathering where they discuss the request to establish their own professional union.
Robert Oppenheimer
Secondly, an affair with Jean Tatlock, who was not only a progressive psychiatrist, but besides a associate of the Communist organization of the United States and a Western individual publicist. During the Manhattan Project, they barely had any contact with each other, but the information gathered on their intimacy was adequate to warm public opinion.
Thirdly, Oppenheimer, as a scientist who knows that the Russians are besides working on a atomic bomb and will have it and the resulting consequences he advocated for the creation of an agreement between the powers. He advocated any form of cooperation with the USSR in the technological field to avoid a war which could consequence in atomic destruction. He appeared here as a realist, but this phase only started after he dropped bombs on Japan and this was besides featured in the film. I personally believe that his remorse and realism were a small "under the public" and served even partially to wash distant the stain of being an enthusiast of the usage of the scariest weapon he had previously created with the team. As for the director, I met with opinions that in besides good a light he appeared in the movie Russians, USSR and the background of communism. This is indeed a curiosium, due to the fact that the objectivity with which Nolan approached the form of a controversial scientist and his attitude towards the russian Union is truly notable.
Surprising objectivity
That is the reason why so many discussions have been over the film. The image is simply a denial of what we have been accustomed to with the cinema of fresh years, or bright, zero-one depiction of the planet and the events and characters about which it tells. The movie is not a artist painted by the manager in honor of Oppenheimer and the USA, which must always be the “good sheriff of the world”. Yes, at times 1 might get that impression, but a attentive viewer will catch quite a few flavors making the movie interesting and ambiguous. J. Robert Oppenheimer here is neither a bad nor a good character (in terms of contemporary movie ratings). On the 1 hand a superb scientist – a physicist, a theorist, a visionary consistently striving for the goal. On the another hand, a cynical and cold egoist possessed by his own ambitions, and besides (which clearly falls in the film) a man politicized and fascinated by Roosevelt's military plans.
I met somewhere with a very naive opinion that says it's a communicative about how discipline falls victim to politics, and mediocre scientists with Oppenheimer were manipulated. I didn't feel anything like that in the movies for a moment. The movie perfectly shows the pervasiveness of the worlds of politics, discipline and military. The physicist himself includes technological management of the Manhattan task perfectly aware of what they will be working on and what the consequences may be. He chooses his associates as ambitious and politicized as he does. Establishing a laboratory in Los Alamos is entering the race for the creation of an atomic bomb and everyone working there is aware of that. They know precisely what kind of firepower they're after, and they besides operate with circumstantial measures describing the effects of a bomb explosion.
Oppenheimer is obsessed with winning this race with Germany not only to end the war faster and save millions of people, but besides for purely ambitious reasons. erstwhile this race yet wins and the 3rd Reich capitulates is disappointed that the bomb will not be utilized on the Germans! It's all in the movie.
That's enough! Expressis verbis falls into the script of the issue, which the Americans themselves are reluctant to talk about – dropping atomic bombs on Japan had no military justification! The 3rd Reich capitulated, and defeating Japan was a substance of days, but this bomb had to be dropped somewhere, due to the fact that the unused 1 would not be as effective, it would not change the destiny of the planet as it did after it had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. During the trial detonation there was a conference in Potsdam and the American side was waiting for a signal from Los Alamos (it was brilliantly shown on the screen along with all the weight and tension of the situation).
The movie shows a scene erstwhile Oppenheimer, after a successful bomb test, tells his colleagues how much he regrets that the bomb could not be utilized in the Germans, but sees the request to drop it on Japan. As a result, horror arises – the most powerful weapon of all time has been utilized and has since become a terrible ghost hanging over humanity. The movie besides shows how Oppenheimer suffers terrible remorse that can be honest, but they don't have to... possibly a scientist, as a theorist, has indeed crushed the magnitude of death and suffering that has brought applicable usage to his “works of life”? possibly it was just a cynical game, though?
The movie you talk about
From Nolan's picture, it is alternatively the sincerity of Oppenheimer's conscience, but it did not take me by surprise how many uncomfortable threads were taken and rather objectively presented in the film. Rather, the conclusion had to be beneficial to a superb scientist – or it was Hollywood production. It is besides apparent to me that the movie was released just now to remind people that the horror of atomic weapons did not disappear. Its usage is, indeed, the final option, but is actually considered... The effectiveness of this variant has been demonstrated practically, even though the weapon itself has constructed an ambitious theorist. By the way, he proved that discipline is frequently a tool of politics, which present many people forget to make it a religion and a priestly scientist.
Nolan's depiction of all these problems with Oppenheimer's biography made us receive a full-blooded movie that touched the full world's public opinion by giving a pretext for discussion – both more and little serious ones. By the way, I am glad that the loudest movie of this year (who knows or knows for longer?) is an image that slips distant from modern standards, and which in the success of cinema could face specified a “pop boom” as “Barbie” – these productions have long gone “head to head” erstwhile it comes to the number of viewers, which shows that there is inactive a request for good cinema and adequate people to give it! Christopher Nolan just did it – he gave us a very good movie that is being talked about!
Bartosz Iwicki
"Oppenheimer", Universal Pictures / Atlas amusement / Syncopy, directed by Christopher Nolan, screenplay: Christopher Nolan, photos: Hoyte Van Hoytema, music: Ludwig Goransson, setography: Kathy Lucas, Ruth De Jong, costumes: Ellen Mirojnick, budget: $100 million, planet premiere: 19 VII 2023, in Poland: 21 VII 2023; Boxoffice – almost $800 million already earned
photo public domain
Think Poland, No. 37-38 (10-17.09.2023)