This is probably the movie I looked most forward to this year. As you may know, I love physics there aren't really that many physics movies in Hollywood. The only good one I can think of is The Theory of Everything. However, what I've noticed about these science and math movies is that they don't really focus on the math and science. For example, The Theory of Everything focuses on Hawking's disease and how it affected his personal life, and The Man Who Knew Infinity focuses on how racism affected Ramanujan. These movies always have a scene that shows how smart the main character is but the rest of the movie is just about their personal life. You almost forget that the main character is an academic by the end of the movie.
While Oppenheimer does focus on Oppenheimer's personal life with Jean Tatlock and Kitty Puening, I felt like a large part of the movie was also his journey with physics. He starts off the movie terrified of the complexity of quantum physics, as can be seen in his chaotic visions, but through the soundtrack "Can You Hear The Music," his visions become more organized as he delves more into the theory and understands the subject better. This is probably one of my favorite soundtracks in a movie. The horns (I don't what the instrument is) in the background sound so ominous yet the strings are so triumphant. I feel like this matches Oppenheimer's excitement of learning theoretical quantum physics but at the same time foreshadows the problems that await him in the future. It just sounds so cool and it fits what's happening on the screen so well.
After Oppenheimer comes to the US and starts working on the bomb, Nolan does a great job showing Oppenheimer's obsession with pushing the frontiers in science. I found this part very relatable since physics can sometimes just be beautiful. For example, consider Maxwell's Equations. Just four sets of equations can describe all possible ways electromagnetic fields can behave and when I learned this, I simply found this fact amazing. The equations are not even that complicated. Therefore, I would imagine discovering physics like this by yourself must be such a great experience. Similarly, I feel like this was probably the main motivation for the scientists, especially Oppenheimer, working on the Manhattan Project. For example, when Germany surrenders in the movie, Oppenheimer urges the scientists to continue working on the bomb in order to end the war in the Pacific but I feel like the true reason he wanted to continue working is because he wanted to complete what he started. He didn't care what the implications were, but all he wanted to do was expand humanity's knowledge of science -- just like every other scientist.
However, Nolan shows how this obsession with science and not considering the implications can be dangerous. After the bomb is dropped in Japan, Oppenheimer's guilt takes over him and one of the scenes I loved that showed this was when he's giving a speech to an audience of patriotic Americans. While the audience members are loudly stomping their feet and cheering in the background, Oppenheimer sees these people melting away and slowly dying. When I watched this, I was genuinely creeped out since the withering bodies and deformed faces were just a horrifying sight. It almost reminded me of the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where the Nazis start melting when they open the Ark. I feel like this scene does a great job at showing the innocence of the people Oppenheimer has just killed with the bomb. These visions of Oppenheimer really emphasize his guilt and how it's slowly taking over him. Additionally, just like all Christopher Nolan movies, the sound was also extremely loud in the theatre so I actually got jump-scared when the sound of the stomping suddenly went from quiet to loud. I don't know if this was the intended purpose but this definitely added to the horror of the scene, at least for me.
I feel like all of this guilt is beautifully tied up in the ending scene of the movie. Oppenheimer says to Einstein that even though he didn't physically destroy the world as they were scared of before, he created a much bigger problem -- nuclear warfare. This shows that Oppenheimer has realized the mistakes he has made by pursuing science blindly and this scene does a great job of bringing in the main lesson of the movie. Additionally, I love how the horns from "Can You Hear The Music" kick in, reminding you of the beginning of Oppenheimer's journey and making you realize how much his journey has spun out of control. This scene also makes you think about the present day and all the problems in the world that have been caused by Oppenheimer's decisions so I would say this was close to a perfect ending.
I also loved all the physics easter eggs throughout the movie. For example, when the scientists discuss how to build an atomic bomb, Nolan actually gets the mechanisms of the two types of atomic bombs they built during the Manhattan Project correct. It's always fun when something technical leaks into pop culture. This movie also had some of my favorite physicists like Feynman and they even had him playing the bongos! It was almost like seeing a cameo in a movie and getting all excited. I had a lot of fun throughout the movie trying to guess who the different physicists and mathematicians were.
Other than the physics, I was also looking forward to seeing Robert Downey Junior. I loved watching him in Iron Man growing up since I felt like he was such a natural actor. It really felt like Tony Stark was a real person. However, even though his role in this movie was completely different, I still feel like he did a great job bringing the character of Lewis Strauss to life. It was definitely interesting seeing RDJ act in a villain role. This brings me to what I call the black-and-white plot of this movie. If I have to be completely honest, I was pretty confused about what was happening when I was watching the movie and I had to consult the Wikipedia page after leaving the theatre. However, I'm still confused about why Strauss hates Oppenheimer so much. The only two reasons Nolan gives in the movie are that Oppenheimer made fun of him in a meeting and that Strauss thinks Oppenheimer said bad things about him to Einstein. The first point I maybe get but I don't at all get the second point. First of all, why does Strauss interpret Einstein not responding to him as Einstein not hating him? If I try to say hi to my friend but he or she seems worried, I would either try to ask what's wrong or leave them alone. I wouldn't think they hate me all of a sudden. Second of all, why does Strauss think Oppenheimer caused this? I don't see any motivation for Oppenheimer to tarnish Strauss's relationship with Einstein. Maybe these are natural questions that show Strauss's foolishness, but at least for me, this seems a little unrealistic. Or, maybe there's a deeper meaning that I'm not able to uncover.
Now I want to talk about the Trinity Test scene. This is what everyone was looking forward to and if I had to be honest, it wasn't as good as I was expecting it to be. I know Christopher Nolan loves talking about how CGI is bad practical effects are better since they're real, but I feel like the Trinity Test scene would have been much better with some CGI in it. Instead, we just got plumes of fire that didn't even look that powerful. I don't even remember seeing a mushroom cloud. I think the main problem was that there wasn't a sense of scale. There were only a few shots of the scientists looking at the explosion, but other than that, it was just close-up shots of the fire. They looked cool but since I couldn't see the surrounding area, I couldn't tell (or at least I don't remember being able to tell) how powerful the explosion really was. It just looked like fire from a Mr. Beast video but shot more dramatically. Maybe they could gotten a close-up aerial shot, with the help of CGI, of the mushroom cloud taking over the desert. This would have been so cool since no one has really seen a mushroom cloud from this perspective. For being one of the most anticipated scenes going into the movie, I have to say that I was pretty disappointed.
Finally, the last thing I was looking forward to going into the movie was watching it in a theatre that showed IMAX 65mm film. This is why I didn't watch it until now since the closest theatre to me is in Irvine and it was so hard to get a seat. In fact, the only available my sister and I were able to get were at the very end so the viewing experience wasn't the best. Despite this, watching the movie on such a big screen was still super cool. This might be a controversial take, but I didn't really like the IMAX aspect ratio scenes. Watching the movie as a square just didn't feel like a movie. I don't know how to explain it but I kind of didn't take these scenes seriously and it just felt weird.
However, I loved watching the movie on film rather than digital. The colors were richer and everything on the screen just felt more lively. This is why I love watching old color movies like The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, or even the old James Bond movies. Watching them makes me want to live in the world on the screen and I just feel so much more connected to the movie. For example, every time I watched The Sound of Music when I was young, I always wanted to be one of the kids in the movie since their world looked so nice to live in. Liking movies shot on film might just be nostalgia but nevertheless, I always feel comfortable when watching them.
