Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, 2023)

[thirtyframesasecond]

Has anyone read American Prometheus, the non-fiction book it's based on?

I didn't like Tenet at all, but this looks very promising.

[colinr0380]

[hearthesilence]

Has anyone read American Prometheus, the non-fiction book it's based on?

I didn't like Tenet at all, but this looks very promising.

I agree. I'm not a big fan of Nolan's work, but I think this may be his most promising film for a number of reasons. It seems to play up to his strengths while inherently addressing his drawbacks as a filmmaker. (I haven't read American Prometheus yet, but having an excellent book as his source could make up for his deficiencies as a writer. I also think it helps that it's a non-fiction story rather than something purely of the imagination - I have reservations about Dunkirk but I think adapting a real-life story definitely avoided some of the things I didn't like about his past films.)

[colinr0380]

I'm afraid that I have not read any source material surrounding this subject, but was the 1989 film Shadow Makers (aka Fat Man and Little Boy) based on any particular source novel?

Tenet really grew on me over the months after watching it and starting to realise that its rather annoyingly blank characters did fit really well into the Nolan universe of 'unreliable narrators' or rather 'protagonists as the unstable element in a chain reaction'. This could be another form of that idea, just with a real historical figure. And given Nolan will inevitably be unable to keep from doing things involving time manipulations, I wonder if this is the director moving into the literary territory occupied by things like Gravity's Rainbow and Time's Arrow, or if it will remain a resolutely straightforward historical biopic. Given that Dunkirk became a temporal puzzle box, hopefully the former!

And as well as thinking about Futurama from the trailer, this looks like Nolan taking on The Tree of Life and Melancholia simultaneously! Maybe with a little bit of There Will Be Blood thrown in!

[beamish14]

I'm afraid that I have not read any source material surrounding this subject, but was the 1989 film Shadow Makers (aka Fat Man and Little Boy) based on any particular source novel?

I need to fish out my copy of Smoking in Bed: Interviews with Bruce Robinson, but I believe it stemmed from Roland Joffe’s extensive knowledge and research on the Manhattan Project. I used it once while dealing with a very unruly science class. Not a bad film, but I remember that Paul Newman displays a mostly one-note gruffness throughout the proceedings, as he tells the scientists under his auspices to pick up the pace, damnit.

[Roscoe]

There's also an opera by John Adams, DOCTOR ATOMIC, about Oppenheimer and his internal struggles in the days leading up to the first detonation. The libretto by Peter Sellars, as I recall, is taken from pre-exiting documents, memoirs and the like, including the memorable aria "Batter My Heart" taken from John Donne.

[Computer Raheem]

Count me in as another of the excited, though I imagine that I'm a bigger fan of Nolan here than most (the only film of his I dislike is Tenet, which appears to be the consensus). I do wonder how much the film will incorporate Nolan's time obsession (the tagline and the black-and-white hearing footage seem to indicate the structure, at least), but it would be very interesting if we spent all this figuring that out and he decides to tell his first linear story

[yoloswegmaster]

AFI Silver has confirmed that they will be screening 70mm prints, and here is a list of the other theaters that has been confirmed to screen it in 70mm.


The Cineplex site has the runtime listed for 191 minutes.

[yoloswegmaster]

List of theaters that will be screening this in IMAX 70mm film:

SpoilerShow

US Theatres:

Arizona

Harkins Arizona Mills 25 & IMAX – Tempe, AZ



California

AMC Metreon 16 & IMAX - San Francisco, CA

Universal Cinema AMC at CityWalk Hollywood & IMAX - Universal City, CA

TCL Chinese Theater IMAX Hollywood CA

Regal Edwards Ontario Palace & IMAX – Ontario, CA

REG Irvine Spectrum 21 + IMAX Irvine CA

Esquire IMAX Sacramento CA

Regal Hacienda Crossings & IMAX – Dublin, CA



Florida

AutoNation IMAX, Museum of Discovery & Science - Fort Lauderdale, FL



Georgia

Regal Mall of Georgia & IMAX - Buford, GA



Indiana

IMAX Theatre at Indiana State Museum - Indianapolis, IN



Michigan

Chrysler IMAX Dome Theatre, Michigan Science Center – Detroit, MI

Celebration! Cinema Grand Rapids North & IMAX - Grand Rapids, MI



New York

AMC Lincoln Square 13 & IMAX - New York, NY



Pennsylvania

Regal UA King of Prussia & IMAX - King of Prussia, PA



Rhode Island

Providence Place Cinemas 16 and IMAX – Providence, RI



Texas

AMC Rivercenter 11 & IMAX - San Antonio, TX

Cinemark 17 & IMAX – Dallas, TX



Tennessee

Regal Opry Mills & IMAX – Nashville, TN



Virginia

Airbus IMAX, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center – Chantilly, VA



Canada:

Scotiabank Chinook & IMAX – Calgary, AB

Scotiabank Edmonton & IMAX – Edmonton, AB

Cineplex Cinemas Langley & IMAX – Langley, BC

Cineplex Cinemas Mississauga & IMAX – Mississauga, ON

Cineplex Cinemas Vaughan & IMAX – Woodbridge ,ON

Kramer IMAX, Saskatchewan Science Centre – Regina, SK



UK:

BFI IMAX, British Film Institute - London ,UK

Vue Manchester IMAX & The Printworks – Manchester, UK

The Ronson Theatre at the Science Museum – London, UK



Australia:

IMAX, Melbourne Museum – Melbourne, AU



Czech Republic:

IMAX Theatre, Palac Flora – Pragu

They also posted the technical specs on the official website:

OPPENHEIMER was shot using a combination of 5-perf 65mm and 15 perf IMAX FILM. When presented on 70mm IMAX, the sequences shot on 15 perf IMAX are printed full quality in their native format - the highest quality imaging format ever devised, offering ten times the resolution of standard formats, and filling the giant IMAX screens from top to bottom. The 5-perf 65mm sequences fill the IMAX screen side-to-side. The finished picture is fully analogue and switches between the 2.20:1 and 1.43:1 aspect ratios throughout the film. This is combined with an IMAX uncompressed 5.0 digital sound mix for the most immersive presentation of the film.


The Digital Cinema IMAX presentation has been created from 8k scans of the original film elements, graded specifically for the high contrast dual-projector IMAX digital projection, before being scaled to 4K resolution and packaged with the uncompressed IMAX 5.0 sound mix of the film.


When presented on regular 70mm film, the sequences shot on 5-perf 65mm are presented in their native format, the IMAX sequences have been optically reduced to 70mm 5-perf film to produce a grain-free, ultra-high resolution image, cropped top and bottom to fill the wider frame. This process is photochemical, preserving the original analog color of the imagery and presented in a 2.2:1 aspect ratio. The sound is carried on a separate DTS disc to produce state-of-the-art 6-track digital sound.


The 35mm prints have been made photochemically, preserving all the rich analog color of the original 65mm photography, and cropped top and bottom to create a seamless 2.35:1 anamorphic image. The sound is coded on the prints in Dolby SR as well as Dolby 5.1 and DTS for 6-track digital playback.


The Digital Cinema presentation of OPPENHEIMER has been created from 8k scans of the photochemically color-graded film elements, scaled to 4K, fine-tuned in the digital realm to maximize the color and contrast attributes of digital projectors, and dust-busted to achieve the cleanest and most stable image presentation possible. The film was finished in 4k for the highest digital resolution currently available.


The sound on OPPENHEIMER has been specifically mixed to maximize the power of the low-end frequencies in the main channels as well as in the subwoofer channel. This effect is present is in all available presentations of OPPENHEIMER, all of which have been designed to play back at the volume level designated by the industry at 7 on the Dolby cinema processor.

[flyonthewall2983]

Rated R for language, nudity and some sexuality

[Matt]

The movie is actually a secret remake of the 1980 “Get Smart” sex comedy The Nude Bomb

[Farley Flavors]

List of venues is not quite accurate as the Manchester Vue no longer has an IMAX film projector.

[domino harvey]

The movie is actually a secret remake of the 1980 “Get Smart” sex comedy The Nude Bomb

*Oppenhymie

[Farley Flavors]

List of venues is not quite accurate as the Manchester Vue no longer has an IMAX film projector.

Ignore that, as I've just been informed that the Vue is reinstalling film projectors, having ditched them in favour of laser a few years ago. Which is quite remarkable if true.

[yoloswegmaster]

Just a heads-up for anyone watching this on IMAX 70mm, no trailers will be shown before the movie and the film will start on time.

[hearthesilence]

For non-subscribers, The Day After Trinity is streaming exclusively for free on the Criterion Channel in anticipation of Oppenheimer.

I haven't been a fan of Nolan's work, but as I posted upthread, I'm cautiously optimistic about this film because it plays up to his strengths. I think I also posted this about Dunkirk, but the most potent element of that film was how it hits at the blunt and inescapable truth about warfare - it's an endeavor to kill as many people as possible as efficiently as possible. With that in mind, Oppenheimer's story feels like a logical progression for Nolan and a chance to explore the moral implications more effectively.

[therewillbeblus]

This is exactly what one will expect a Nolan biopic to look like, which is to say I liked it! It's also a warning for Nolan detractors. The way the melodramatic pitches are thrown around in Downey's arc are some of the worst offenses of the complaints many charge at Nolan, in how he weaves his overwriting with collage-editing for emphasized, concise tonal achievement. Those parts didn't work for me, but I've been able to forgive them in most of his other work, so your mileage will vary there I suppose.

The history is well-orchestrated, spliced in an interesting and engaging narrative, with maybe a few too many figures to keep track of - but that doesn't really affect one's comprehension of the important questions the film is asking, or enjoyment of the big-name players showing up in cameos. The cast is stacked, though Casey Affleck walks away with the movie in his two minutes. Why isn't this guy in everything again? Oh ye-

The film's emotional and philosophical side is less pronounced in real time, but it's seethed in my mind since I left my screening. Oppenheimer says he likes "a little wiggle room" early on in response to requests to join specific causes. He doesn't want to become myopic, understands that evolution is natural -that history and culture and ideas and people will morph and change over time- but also must be fixated on his work to achieve success; must not worry about certain moral issues for too long. Is indecisiveness an asset or a defect? What about ignorance? Is it cowardly or unhelpful to not commit to a cause, even if it allows you to see more peripherally. It's in interesting question rhetorically posed that couldn't be more appropriate in today's climate, and seems primely yet gently aimed at those of us who can't help but see the world as grey.

Is worrying about one's impact the most natural thing, carrying factual truths but also self-indulgent skewed perceptions based on a desperation for existential value? I like how he wants to make space for more ideas, possibilities, moral questions, his own evolution in friction and accordance with his world around him... and I like how he also retreats and fights from these things too. Because he's a human being, with competing parts, the thing that Nolan has always been interested in - how our cognitive obsession with tangibles relates to intangible emotional and philosophical parts of our fiber. Just like his teachings of quantum mechanics, multiple things can be true: Oppenheimer can be responsible and also be inflating his agency; the bomb can be necessary and an irreversible fatalistic seal on humanity; we are so incredibly important and also not important at all; life is graspable, understandable, infinite.. and also alienating, unfathomable, restricting. I guess could go on, but why? I'd rather go appreciate the wonders before me, while I still can... The film has been called a horror movie, but it's also a celebration of all of life's complex experiences, highs and lows. It's a history lesson self-consciously filtered into an art-film blockbuster (the first twenty minutes are borderline-experimental cinema) including narrative contrivances and catharses. So many paradoxes, and the self-reflexive ones embedded in the form itself might eventually propel this from good to great, (as the movie reminds us) with time.

[beamish14]

Just a heads-up for anyone watching this on IMAX 70mm, no trailers will be shown before the movie and the film will start on time.

The standard 70mm print I saw opened with trailers for The Holdovers and the hilariously awful-looking Exorcist continuation from perpetual case of squandered talent David Gordon Green

[hearthesilence]

I've actually met Green. Totally nice and down-to-earth guy, he was heavily involved with BAM back when they had a Cinema Club and a new honorary chair every year. Noah Baumbach served one year, Darren Aronofsky and Rachel Weisz served another (when they were still married) and Green was another. I didn't think to ask at the time, but when I came across some interviews he did in the wake of his earlier arthouse films, I got the impression he was really despondent and frustrated. He knew he was getting great press, but he was still working hard to raise shoestring budgets, and even then his films were struggling to break even despite the extremely low cost (and presumably low pay for everyone involved). Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if he finally got burned out and gave up on projects that had both limited budgets and commercial prospects. Still a damn shame, but I can't hold it against him - I can think of plenty of promising low-budget filmmakers from 10-15 years ago who AFAIK stuck with admirably low budget art films and have since disappeared from theaters.

[MichaelB]

I once lived with a bloke whose sole ambition was to become the latest arthouse darling - I was constantly trying to corrupt him with base commercial stuff.

Unlike a lot of dreamers, he not only became a director but seems to have been pretty successful, but precisely none of his various film and (mostly) TV projects could be described as "arthouse" in any way, shape or form. Although it'll be interesting to see what he does with the upcoming TV adaptation of Lampedusa's The Leopard, as he's certainly well aware of the Visconti film and Visconti (and golden-era Italian cinema) in general.

[ford]

Loved it. Some of the RDJ stuff didn't quite land so smoothly but I didn't care. Cannot believe something like this -- a historical drama about the Cold War with avant garde flourishes -- is playing in every movie theater in America (to a packed house, if my Thu night screening is anything like the rest of the country's). And at an obscene volume!

Movies are back, baby! Or at the very least: they're not going down without a fight!

[therewillbeblus]

Loved it. Some of the RDJ stuff didn't quite land so smoothly but I didn't care

That was the only part that didn't entirely gel with me either. Neither he nor Damon stray very far from their limited ranges (not a dis, I like both actors), but I actually thought Damon exercised a hard edge while also letting his organic sensitivity breathe in a balanced manner that led to a great performance. It's not a loud one, but I think he made his character a lot more interesting than he was written out to be, and I loved watching his complex, rather enigmatic relationship with Murphy's Oppenheimer evolve in the kind of subtle, understated way a lot of male work relationships do

[beamish14]

It was Rami Malek’s performance that didn’t jive with me at all. His ultra-heightened awkwardness seemed at odds with the proceedings

[therewillbeblus]

He just came across as a stereotype of a nerdy scientist

SpoilerShow

appearing timid until he used the same disposition to deliver an eviscerating disruptive speech in the same tone - which I suppose evoked two conflicting responses, one intentional and one unintentional. First, intentionally, his change-up demonstrated that the affable politicians underestimated the scientist's ability to wield agency in a dominant manner - a little progressive nudge to where our current culture is, celebrating the skilled engineers at the forefront.. But, unintentionally, this also kinda highlights the stereotype - 'other'ing this type of person as unreadable and thus antisocial by eliding characterization and presenting him as emotionally flat during an emotional act

[ford]

In all seriousness, if movies simply started shooting in 8K (god forbid actual IMAX) and cranking their sound up to insane levels like this...maybe people would go back to the theaters?