Movies OPPENHEIMER ($700M Worldwide; Dragonlord's Review)

[Streeter]

This isn't the thread but it is no stretch to say that Tarantino got progressively worse and masterbatory after Resevior Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Jackie Brown.

I don't think so at all. I think QT movies were great after those as well. Imo he's a director that's been fairly steady in quality like a Nolan or Scorcese.

 

[Sano]

Almost a week later and this is the line that stands out to me:
(President Truman)
"Do you think the Japanese care who made the bomb?"
"They care who dropped it on 'em."



Killers of the Flower Moon I imagine will get a lot of nominations, Barbie will get it's share. Napoleon may surprise with a few.

Killers of the Flower Moon, Oppenheimer, Dune 2, Napoleon, Spider-Verse and a few others will probably compete for most of the awards.

 

[Anung Un Rama]

I wonder if Oldman is the only actor to play both Churchhill and Truman?

I'm sure that there are dozens of actors who have portrayed both. Maybe hundreds.

edit: thousands


I honestly can't think of any Truman related movies, even though I know there are a couple.
I'm sure Gary is the only one.

 

[ufcfan4]

I'm sure that there are dozens of actors who have portrayed both. Maybe hundreds.

edit: thousands


I honestly can't think of any Truman related movies, even though I know there are a couple.
I'm sure Gary is the only one.

Another Gary- Sinise- played Truman in a good tv movie a couple of decades ago from what I recall. But yeah I’m sure no one played both those guys other than Oldman.They certainly didn’t portray Harry very positively in this film.

 

[Dragonlordxxxxx]

Box office update:

Oppenheimer dropped 44% and earned an estimated $46.2 million on its second weekend for a U.S. total of $174.6 million. The movie's worldwide box office total is now at $400.4 million.

 

[aunshi189]

I went to see it today. I can see why they left out scenes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as the film is broadly through Oppenheimer's viewpoint and he never saw it. I think they played it safe on his hallucinations of people affected by the bomb looking more like they had PVA glue on their face rather than they were melting.

Overall, I enjoyed it. Felt quicker than it was and I had a good time. 8/10

 

[SmoothPies]

I personally loved it, but I'm a Nolan fanboy.

I'd put this as maybe his 5th best movie. Feels like he's really just making it impossible for him not to get some oscars for this one

 

[europe1]

Watched in IMAX

A funny thought occured to me... this movie is a 3-hour long picture of people talking. Its so engrossed in the world of the scientists that it doesn't even show Hiroshima and Nagasaki getting nuked. Yet Nolan keeps such a high pace, cuts so swiftly, and injects his storytelling with so many special effects that it feels more like a sensoary experience than an dramatical one. You're involved in the "rush" of Oppenheimer's life, the compounding pressures and momentums and events all going off at once. The movie depicts no battlefield but still feels hectic like one.

Not sure what I think of this approach. My preliminary thoughts is that it mitigates the films weaknesess but maybe also prevents it from reaching certain heights. If one beat doesn't land (like the Robert Downey Jr segments which many viewers have pointed out) then zip-zip-zip in two seconds its over and you're on to another beat entierly!

In this way the whole movie feels like you're cascading down a river of Oppenheimer's personal and interpersonal triumphs and defeats. You get the experience Oppie is flowing through all this scarcely having time to think or hope that it'll amount to something good. While many segments feel kind of enfeebled or slight when you think back on them the sheer quantity of it all has a breathless quality of its own.

A strong 7.

Also feels like a roll call for the great scientist nerds of yesteryear.

 

[dc007]

I also gave it a 7. It was visual beautiful and had incredible performances particularly RDJ but it was a slow 3 hours and that annoying use of score over dialog was infuriating.

 

[ufcfan4]

Watched in IMAX

A funny thought occured to me... this movie is a 3-hour long picture of people talking. Its so engrossed in the world of the scientists that it doesn't even show Hiroshima and Nagasaki getting nuked. Yet Nolan keeps such a high pace, cuts so swiftly, and injects his storytelling with so many special effects that it feels more like a sensoary experience than an dramatical one. You're involved in the "rush" of Oppenheimer's life, the compounding pressures and momentums and events all going off at once. The movie depicts no battlefield but still feels hectic like one.

Not sure what I think of this approach. My preliminary thoughts is that it mitigates the films weaknesess but maybe also prevents it from reaching certain heights. If one beat doesn't land (like the Robert Downey Jr segments which many viewers have pointed out) then zip-zip-zip in two seconds its over and you're on to another beat entierly!

In this way the whole movie feels like you're cascading down a river of Oppenheimer's personal and interpersonal triumphs and defeats. You get the experience Oppie is flowing through all this scarcely having time to think or hope that it'll amount to something good. While many segments feel kind of enfeebled or slight when you think back on them the sheer quantity of it all has a breathless quality of its own.

A strong 7.

Also feels like a roll call for the great scientist nerds of yesteryear.

Was glad to see Feynman depicted (Jack Quaid played him). He was a brilliant guy and I've read some of his stuff (he would write really accessible reflections on his life and career). His wife was dying of tuberculosis at the time of the Project so he would go back and forth between Los Alamos and the hospital where she was in Albuquerque. He spoke highly of Oppenheimer, saying he legitimately cared about the scientists and their personal situations and was responsible for arranging the details of her being at the facility in Albuquerque.

What I recall from Feynman's writing about the aftermath of their work was that it was a lot of handshaking and celebrating immediately after the war ended but then they had to sit with the implications and stark reality and horror of what had happened. He also said that for a while he felt a great sense of pointlessness because he was sure that destruction was imminent. As in, he would see people working on bridge construction in NYC and think, what the hell is the point/polishing brass on the Titanic type of thing.

Definitely recommend checking out some of his writing. He was also on the commission to investigate the causes of the Challenger explosion shortly before his death from cancer.

 

[europe1]

Was glad to see Feynman depicted (Jack Quaid played him). He was a brilliant guy and I've read some of his stuff (he would write really accessible reflections on his life and career). His wife was dying of tuberculosis at the time of the Project so he would go back and forth between Los Alamos and the hospital where she was in Albuquerque. He spoke highly of Oppenheimer, saying he legitimately cared about the scientists and their personal situations and was responsible for arranging the details of her being at the facility in Albuquerque.

What I recall from Feynman's writing about the aftermath of their work was that it was a lot of handshaking and celebrating immediately after the war ended but then they had to sit with the implications and stark reality and horror of what had happened. He also said that for a while he felt a great sense of pointlessness because he was sure that destruction was imminent. As in, he would see people working on bridge construction in NYC and think, what the hell is the point/polishing brass on the Titanic type of thing.

Definitely recommend checking out some of his writing. He was also on the commission to investigate the causes of the Challenger explosion shortly before his death from cancer.

I'm only familiar with Feynman from the phrase "Isaac Newton probably never had sex in his life while Richard Feynman probably had sex with everybody in his life" as well as various anecdotes about Feynman solving equations on napkins in strip bars and other establishments of ill repute... so its cool to hear that he has such a noteworthy literary career as well!

 

[The Good The Bad The HBK]

Memento

Doesn't have the same replay value imo

 

[The Good The Bad The HBK]

I find it more rewatchable than the prestige

You just want Trinity to spit in your drink

 

[rj144]

the town they built was in my state of washington, watched a docu on it, pretty fascinating and it was hard work, for whatever reason, they needed a real workforce just to make an itty bitty part for the bomb. I'd assume that area is probably closed off and still radioactive or whatever but I don't know.

Yeah, but they are talking about Los Alamos in New Mexico.

 

[tomjones]

After the bomb test, I lost interest in the film.

 

[mozfonky]

Yeah, but they are talking about Los Alamos in New Mexico.

yes, i've watched a lot of info recently, there were several plants where work was being done with Los Alamos as the center. I still don't get why they needed all that manpower for so little elemental material. They built towns for this stuff.

Movie was good, a bit hard to follow, a pbs docu was superior and clearer. As biopics go, Oppenheimer was way more accurate than most biopics.

Also, with all the intrigue, betrayal and supposed espionage mostly spawned of jealousy, it's dissapointing that even the sharpest scientific brains on the planet are not above teen level pettiness.

 

[BisexualMMA]

Also feels like a roll call for the great scientist nerds of yesteryear.

I think I said way back in the thread that the movie kind of glaringly downplays and even disrespects Leo Szilard. Like Leo banged Christopher Nolan's grandma or something.

 

[europe1]

I thought the movie could have created some investing scenes and interesting dilemmas about Leo Szilard's letter from the scientists to make a display detonation on an uninhabited area to persuade Japan to surrender without civilian casualties. But this letter was just barely touched upon in passing and the movie breezes by it.

I mean I kinda think the movie speeds past most things. That's just the structure of it. Everything happens in a rush to communicate Oppie's mounting sense of pressure which partly explains why he acts as he does.

The scenes that you say didn't quite work as intended was I believe due to the overarching problem with the movie, that being a failure to create emotional stakes or sufficient reason to worry about the outcome of the hearings or things like whether Oppenheimer has his security clearance reinstated. The movie just didn't build this up and justify it as the climax of a three hour movie.

Ummm... I'll hit the disagree button.

In the Security Clearing

The stakes are what others will say about him. The Clearing essentially serve as a culmination for all the various characters relationship with Oppie. Greves, Teller, that one dude who faked an ilness, etc. That's where the juice of it lies. Interpersonal stuff. If Oppie gets science-banned or not is a more overarching point.

Thats partly what I meant earlier when I said the movie feels like you're cascading through Oppie's life, floating through triumphs and defeats on a quick-moving river. Its replete with these little moments of catharsis.

Yeah the movie really took a stance on Truman. It was interesting.

I got the impression the movie allowed Truman to play the part of the "ultimate authority figure" rather than himself more as a character. ie: the Truman scene more represents Oppie facing the "powers that be" and what that'll entail for his work than focusing on Truman's character. Oppie's legacy overtaken by the establishment and now its out of his hands.

 

[BisexualMMA]

I mean I kinda think the movie speeds past most things. That's just the structure of it. Everything happens in a rush to communicate Oppie's mounting sense of pressure which partly explains why he acts as he does.

Well as I mentioned before Oppenheimer pronounces his name "Zillerd" and I think this is done three times if I remember right...and I think these were the only times Szilard was mentioned by name by anyone. So the movie's stance is mispronunciation of his name. I wondered aloud earlier if Oppenheimer was known to pronounce it this way.

I also mentioned the humanitarian petition from the scientists about the bomb. It's not clear from the movie that Szilard had anything to do with it...or even if this was the Szilard Letter. Oppenheimer swats it away and the movie more or less presents it and its proponents as a nuisance.

Ummm... I'll hit the disagree button.

In the Security Clearing

The stakes are what others will say about him. The Clearing essentially serve as a culmination for all the various characters relationship with Oppie. Greves, Teller, that one dude who faked an ilness, etc. That's where the juice of it lies. Interpersonal stuff. If Oppie gets science-banned or not is a more overarching point.

Thats partly what I meant earlier when I said the movie feels like you're cascading through Oppie's life, floating through triumphs and defeats on a quick-moving river. Its replete with these little moments of catharsis.

Everything hinging on how Oppenheimer is remembered seems a little petty in the big picture. And like I said he was dismissive about the petition in the movie and this isn't addressed by the film other than kind of casting those scientists like nuisances. The movie could have spent more on the moral dilemmas of the scientists and Oppenheimer himself if how Oppenheimer is remembered in humanitarian terms was going to be the crux of the film.

You can make very nuanced and interesting films about these sort of grey area WW2 characters like say Albert Speer or Petain for instance...but you have to actually delve into that moral grey area to do it.

 

[Dragonlordxxxxx]

Box office update:

Oppenheimer earned $28 million in the U.S. on its third weekend and $52 million internationally for a global total of $552 million.