Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120910490#Comment_120910490

Yep, 35mm is an analogue film format. Light House and Palas are the only two cinemas I know of projecting in that format (actually IFI have a 35mm print too for some screenings, but you want to see it 70mm there). The only format with non-standard aspect ratio sequences is 70mm IMAX (not standard 70mm) - everything else is a set widescreen aspect ratio. Slight difference in the ratio between the two different film formats, but nothing major.

Im recommending IFI for 70mm, IMO the best way to see the film in the country. Reliably good projection quality in IFI too. It’s a big screen but there are bigger screens in several cinemas. But film formats and reliable, good-quality projection easily trump raw screen size IMO.

Spon Farmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120910511#Comment_120910511

Okay, to the IFI it is.

Thank you.

What size is their IMAX screen? Couldn’t find any details on their website or on Google.

Curse These Metal Hands

Really enjoyed it. Reminded me a lot of JFK with similar pacing and the use of black and white, as well as the all star cast. I thought RDJ was particularly excellent. Matt Damon wasn't great.

Riddle101

Saw it today. Decent enough film and as others have said Cillian Muphy really nailed it with this film. I'd be surprised if he doesn't get the Oscar for it.

Spoiler Warning

Question. Did Cillian and Florence film that sex scene in the room with all those other people in the room with them or was that some editing trick? If they actually did that scene with the other actors then that must have been really awkward to film.

PaoloGotti

Just home. Still can’t settle. Great viewing experience.

Cillian Murphy is the greatest Irish actor of all time.

xtal191

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120914190#Comment_120914190

Fine actor but def not the greatest

Tony EH

Both of those guys are English.

zig

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120898151#Comment_120898151

Christopher Nolan tends to do that in all his movies I notice.

TedBundysDriver

Went last night with the wife and really disappointed with it. Great acting but found the whole thing slow and dull.

JP Liz V1

What is the full run length?

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120918823#Comment_120918823

https://letterboxd.com/film/oppenheimer-2023/

181 minutes

shinzon

Went to see it the other day the experience was ruined by 5 morons in front of me who just wouldnt shut up through the entire film, a lad a few seats along from me told them to shut up twice they did for a few minutes but just started up again a few minutes later. I went out to complain the usher came in and just stood at the bottom of the stairs for a few minutes (they were up at the top) and then walked out. Thinking of going to see it again so I can actually watch it this time.

Shin

zig

I saw it yesterday, amazing cast and acting, however maybe it was my own hype but I was a small bit disappointed. Considering it was such a notable time in history, and considering it's quite obvious Oppenheimer was a far more fascinating character to talk about than I expected, I felt the film (or at least the decision to do a film about that specific book) wasn't great. I am just not sure if there is enough of a story in doing a film around Oppenheimer wanting to keep his security clearance, which is essentially what the film was about.

I'd love if the focus of the movie was more on his character (it would have brought even more out of Cillian Murphy), the story of the manhattan project and the fallout of the influence of scientists years later (I know that was all covered but it wasnt really the point).

Also, I know it was intentional, as it's supposed to be about Oppenheimer, not about what we think of nuclear weapons, but I didn't like the decision to hold off the graphics of what happened in Japan.

That being said, it's very possible Ill watch it again in a years time or something and appreciate it alot more. That has happened me before with Nolan movies.

Spon Farmer

Three people I know have expressed disappointment about the film to me in the last couple of days.

Brilliantly acted, etc. but nothing shown about the bombings in Japan and the suffering there. You see the characters reaction to photographs of it but nothing else.

One said “but they happily take the time for scenes t*ts and ass”.

martco

just saw it last night was my first time at the IFI would def like to watch something there again sometime, I haven't really worked out why yet lol but I really enjoyed seeing it in that 70mm format

I like a bit of history and tech so I read up a little before going which maybe helped me follow it

some things for me were impressive...like how he managed to translate onto the screen the turmoil going on inside the lads head at times

there were a couple of actors that just seemed to me a bad fit e.g. Matt Damon

decent movie 4/5

Electric Nitwit

I agree about Matt Damon being miscast, but he was nowhere near as bad as I was fearing after the trailer

A few people have mentioned the lack of coverage of the bombings. I actually think the way it was handled was pretty fitting, showed the lack of control and influence that Oppenheimer had once the bombs were made. His visions after during/after the speech hinted at the horrors enough for me

Spon Farmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120919286#Comment_120919286

It shouldn’t hinted at though it should be shown.

I wonder if Nolan had intended to show it but the studio feared it would put off the domestic audience.

It hasn’t opened in Japan yet and apparently doesn’t have release date.

The Americans deliberately murdered civilians m. Never understood how it isn’t considered a war crime.

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120920448#Comment_120920448

If only the central character and thematic tension of the film was the appalling, catastrophic consequences of creating the atomic bomb.

Oh wait!

Electric Nitwit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120920448#Comment_120920448

But Oppenheimer himself didn't witness it, and it's his film. And he was removed from the process at that stage, I think not showing it highlighted that

I see what you're saying, but I don't think it was left out to hide away from it, and I don't think it's disrespectful of the victims to exclude it

Spon Farmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120920599#Comment_120920599

But he did see the photos and film footage didn’t he? At the very least show that stuff to the audience.

Only the Japanese can say whether it is disrespectful. I’m not being snarky with by saying that - I respect your opinion especially as I haven’t seen the movie myself yet. I was just posting about what others have said.

I had intended to go on Thursday. Going to Dublin to the IFI is just too awkward though. Buses don’t get get me to the train station to get there in time.

Might have to go next week instead.

BattleCorp

Myself and the missus went to see it last night. I thought it was very good as did she. The only downside, I missed a couple of minutes of it while I had to go out for a leak. 3 hours is too long for a movie for people with a weak bladder like me.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120920707#Comment_120920707

I would say perhaps reserve judgement of the film and what 'should have been shown' until you actually see it?

Electric Nitwit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120920707#Comment_120920707

Ah yeah, not being snarky either. I've seen several people with the same opinion and I respect it too, that it should have been shown, but I think the way it's done suits the film well

It's funny, here I am defending the film after saying it didn't work for me. Now that it's settled I do think higher of it. It's not perfect and there's some bits that I don't think were good but it has a lot going for it. When I saw someone ask how long it was, it reminded me I didn't think it was too long at all, and that's saying something at 3hrs

zig

Not sure many would agree but I would love to have seen Martin Scorsese do this movie, I loved The Aviator.

Become Death

I was entirely unimpressed on my first watch of it.

I had promised my nephew I would take him so the thoughts of sitting through another 3 hours of tedious and unintelligible film was off putting to say the least.

Turns out I must have fallen asleep on the 1st watch for a good 45 mins without noticing. One of those "I thought my eyes were only closed for a second types of sleep (I had spent the night previous sitting up with my child who has a bad cold).

Absolutely loved it second time around.

I wonder if I go again will it be even better :)

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120920707#Comment_120920707

I'm not sure if Oppenheimer did, in fact, see that much first hand evidence from the result of the bombings. But he did receive some reports, albeit reports that would have been heavily censored. I don't think he ever went to Hiroshima or Nagasaki to view things first hand though, although he did go to Japan a few years before his death.

However, Oppenheimer was well aware of the effects his creation would have had, including possible damage on an urban area, possible death tolls, and the longer lasting effects of radiation. While neither he nor the other scientists involved would have had had exact details, the knowledge certainly fell within a pretty damn good idea and knowing full well. There's a very good reason why Leo Szilard drafted his petition to Truman to demonstrate the bomb to the Japanese and not just tip one onto a "virgin" city that hadn't been bombed yet. However, the Americans were determined to test their new weapon in wartime conditions, where civilian life could be practically discounted, and no amount of reasoning would have changed their minds in 1945. The Japanese were finished and looking for a way out, and the US knew that the clock was running down.

After the war Oppenheimer went to great lengths to play a fairly duplicitous role with respect to his part in the bombings. On the one hand he'd express "anguish", but not so much that he didn't "feel worse tonight than last night". He'd play the part of a remorseful soul, while still coming across not all that remorseful about "his" terrible creation. But, he absolutely did share the fear that many did about the subsequent consequences of the "gadget", namely the Hydrogen bomb that would have dwarfed the Atomic bomb by comparison. We live in a world today where a single warhead could completely destroy the city of London and the sourounding areas.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120920555#Comment_120920555

Was it though? I really don't think the film was that invested in the idea of Oppenheimer, conflicted soul over the use of the bomb. He seemed more pragmatic about it all rather than having any sense of kinship with those scientists who genuinely were appalled by what they were building.

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120922563#Comment_120922563

I thought it was extremely invested in Oppenheimer’s efforts to reckon with the legacy of the horrible creation he helped bring into existence. It’s built into the very formal fabric of the film, where he’s haunted by the ‘celebratory’ stamp of feet and visions of destruction. While much of the film is of course a recounting of his early life and work of the Manhattan project - where he was indeed a pragmatist - the final hour of the film is, amongst other things, heavily focused on Oppenheimer’s efforts to halt the destruction he helped set in motion (and there are also several scenes, such as the meeting where they discuss the ‘target’ and the scene where we watches the finished bomb being carted away, where he clearly has reservations about the bomb’s initial use).

It’s one of the main things I took away from the film, and indeed the very last scene just underlines that sense of regret. Perhaps ‘a’ central tension is more accurate than ‘the’, but it IMO is clearly invested in the idea of Oppenheimer struggling to come to terms with the human suffering of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - and his advocacy against further nuclear weapons research & development.

metaoblivia

Saw this last weekend (I did a Barbenheimer day with Barbie first, then Oppenheimer), and I really enjoyed it. I think it's one of Nolan's best films. Cillian Murphy was amazing. RDJ was also very good as were Emily Blunt and Matt Damon. The whole cast really sold it. I wouldn't be surprised to see Murphy, RDJ and Blunt get nominations and I think Murphy has a particularly good shot at winning.

The devisive last hour - I enjoyed it. Given that the movie is based on American Prometheus, it was important to show Oppenheimer not only bringing fire, but then being tied to the stone for torture. One thing I thought was intersting was how easily the petty greivance between Oppenheimer and Strauss eventually led to both of their careers being ruined - mutual destruction. Oppenheimer did have a bit of revival in the 60s, but the damage had been done by then. And Strauss' political ambitions were snuffed out by the Senate hearing. It's just an interesting and unsettling parallel to the final scene.

The Trinity test scene was magnificent, and I'd encourage people to see this movie in the cinema for that scene alone.

Spon Farmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120921584#Comment_120921584

i didn’t think you were being snarky at all so we are snark free. ;)

If I am enjoying a movie I don’t notice the amount of time I have been watching. Quite a few movies lately have been close to two and a half hours and I don’t feel it.