Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, July 21, 2023) Movie • Page 39

I saw this for a second time, and I still think the Trinity Test itself is depicted in an odd and visually underwhelming way that makes it come across as small, but it doesn't detract from how great everything else about the movie is. This movie is packed with incredible actors all bringing their absolute A-game to every single scene. Josh Hartnett in particular really stood out to me in a very crowded field, but honestly, everyone was great.

 

I agree about the Trinity Test being visually underwhelming, especially compared to the visions of the explosion he has at the beginning of the movie.

 

The best runtimes for a movie are either 90min or 3 hours.
The worst runtime for a movie is 2.5 hours.

Obviously 90 min are tight, short and sweet.
Directors allowed to make a 3 hour theatrical cut are usually given a blank check and tons of control to release something incredible.

2.5 hours is usually a blockbuster that has gotten out of control.

(Obviously there are exceptions to these rules - no good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough blah blah blah)

Anyway, Oppenheimer is probably the best film i've seen of this decade (the 2020s) thus far. It's such a fucking masterpiece. Maybe Nolan's best work.

 

There's a scene shortly before the test where Oppenheimer climbs up the wooden tower to look at the bomb, and the terror conveyed by this inanimate object just sitting there is palpable and visceral - it comes across as this unknowable beast from some other dimension coiled and waiting in the shadows to just unleash unimaginable fury on the world, which it basically sorta is. Everything about that scene is absolutely masterful.

I think it was a mistake for Nolan to hamstring himself with the 'no CGI' gimmick, especially when you look at what the guy can do with CGI, like the black hole in Interstellar, and it would have been better to do a lot of it practically but also use some CGI too. I think he sorta painted himself into a corner by completely avoiding CGI for that scene, and the seams kinda showed a bit in the lack of scale, and in the short awkward shot with Matt Damon and the others laying down with the explosion in the background.

The rest of the movie is so strong though that the fact that the explosion is a little underwhelming is just a minor hiccup. I don't know if I would say it's Nolan's best at this point, but I am a huge fan of his work and I can see that argument being made.

 

Sorry the nuke wasn’t cool & badass enough for y’all.

 

It’s okay Mr. Nolan, I forgive you

 

Shoulda looked like something from Quantumania, duh.

 

Still would’ve been better than what The Flash looked like (I liked the actual movie more than Quantumania though)

 

I interpreted all the other non-Trinity explosion visuals to be visions of the world being set on fire so it made sense for the trinity blast to be a bit smaller in comparison

 

I have a pet theory that movies and the proliferation of, well basically everything Marvel's done, have made people expect things to look different than they would in real life.

 

I don't think anybody wanted it to be cool or badass... I also didn't think it would be less frightening than what David Lynch did on a Twin Peaks episode either though.

 

We've seen actual footage of the trinity test though, and it's massive and overwhelming. The movie opted to go practical, which meant it had to be a series of short closeups. I still think it looked sick, but I understand the criticism.

 

I am a huge fan of Christopher Nolan and his films, but I also do think that sometimes he gets hung up on strange technicalities to the actual detriment of the vast majority of people who will end up seeing the his movie, such as when the dialogue in Tenet is completely drowned out by other sounds and music.

When I was slightly underwhelmed by how the Trinity Test was portrayed visually, my first thought was that it probably looked and came across great in IMAX and it made me want to see the movie in real IMAX, which I still have not been able to do yet.

 

Going to see it tonight in 70mm. I've amazingly avoided almost all the discourse around it, and I've only seen the teaser. Incredibly excited.

 

Was the depiction underwhelming or has the proliferation of nuclear imagery (including the incredible Twin Peaks visuals) created a preconceived idea for many of what the depiction should have looked like. Are we engaging with what is in the text of the film and asking what it’s doing/what it’s making us feel/think or are we just comparing it to outside ideas and imagery (including the No-CGI meta-narrative) and dismissing/reducing the scene based on that

 

These?
Trinity Remembered | Historical Videos

 

Yes.

That was a joke. Really, I do think that I was likely doing both of the former things that you mentioned to some extent, but even just within the film itself, I felt physical, palpable fear and dread and anxiety when Oppenheimer was standing next to the bomb inside the wooden tower - honestly it was fucking terrifying - but I didn't have any of those feelings at all when the test itself happened.

I will say though that I have a problem when watching movies where I focus too much on something technical - in this case the fact that Nolan had publicly said that the bomb was done without CGI was mind boggling to me - and I was hyper focused on that when the Trinity Test finally happened.

 

yeah, i wish they had included that full first shot of the mushroom cloud in it's entirety. but again, I'm saying it was still sick

 

It was absolutely still awesome. I was just expecting something like the vision he has at the beginning of the movie is all I was saying at least.

 

Nolan said something along the lines that adding CGI would cut the resolution in half, and since he’s got such a hard-on for the 70mm format, wouldn’t do it. Meanwhile a bunch of 70mm projectors have had intermittent issues.

 

In the general scheme of things, Trinity was a very small bomb. And a huge theme of the movie is that we definitely, absolutely do not need bigger ones. I think the visuals could support both the history and the theme here.

 

I saw this again yesterday in IMAX (well the best "IMAX" screen in Denver that isn't at the Natural History Museum that is). It really did enhance the viewing experience. There's something about those close-ups of Cillian Murphy on a massive screen that just pierce into you.

I liked it a tad more the second time around, there was less whiplash from all the new characters now that I was more familiar with the story. I really love the black-and-white vs color decision for Oppenheimer's and Strauss's points of view. Oppenheimer's worldview is more nuanced and hard to pin down, whereas Strauss is a figure who lacks any real imagination. It's not necessarily subtle, but it works.

On the topic of the bomb visuals, yea, they might be a little underwhelming compared to expectations, but the sound design is top-notch. But I've been thinking about the visuals a different way since I've rewatched it. Oppenheimer has been chasing these dreams of a world beyond reach, shown to us in dazzling visions plucked from his head. Then contrast that to the actual sum of his work and it doesn't live up to that, because ultimately what he's worked towards is an ugly creation. Was that Nolan's intent? Honestly probably not. Is it a stretch? Yea, a bit, but it's just how it struck me on the second watch.

There are still some major issues that keep it from the masterpiece level some have given it. But I've ended up liking it more on the second watch.

 

The explosion looked real big in IMAX 70MM