SpectralTime
Since: Apr, 2009
07/28/2023 00:00:00
By the by, I would also recommend Copenhagen as a good companion piece to the film. I can\'t speak to the quality of the film adaptation that allegedly exists (and man, I\'m also not sure how they adapted such a stage-y premise to the big screen), but the play itself is short, readable, explains a lot of the relevant science, lets you know what some characters who aren\'t in the film much after their introductions are up to, and, at least in the fictional context of both films that I\'ve heard criticized, adds some nuance and tragedy to the American team\'s belief that if they didn\'t build the bomb someone else would.
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The most cogent advice I can give about whether or not you'll enjoy Oppenheimer is simple: if you don't like non-linear storytelling, you probably won't like it any more than you've probably liked any of Nolan's other films, so don't bother. If you're a prudish American like me who's not too keen on nudity, it does serve an artistic purpose here beyond "creative likes bewbs," but you might be well-served by taking a strategic bathroom or refill break during the relevant portions of the film if it's a bit much for you. And If you just don't care much about long, serious historical dramas, well, I don't watch bloodbath slasher movies and then complain about idiot teenagers gettin' cut up just because the subject matter's not my thing.
In that vein, Oppenheimer is the story of the men who built the atom bomb, before during and after that fateful moment when a bunch of uranium explodes out in the New Mexico desert and puts humankind into a new and frightening era. All the actors and actresses are giving it their all, the script presents more twists and turns than you'd expect, especially in the flash-forward parts of the film set in the midst of the post-war era, and the special effects are used properly to heighten the drama and story rather than getting lost in their own technical achievement. It takes a lot to make an explosion look impressive in this desensitized age, and the detonation of the first atom bomb had my theater speechless.
Sadly, I also feel the need to add that at least in my theater, there weren't huge problems of sound mixing drowning out dialogue that previous Nolan films have suffered from, but I have heard reports that this is not a universal fact.
Beyond that, I can see the biggest obstacle here being the thick and fast maze of important early 20th-century physicists the film throws at you. After many years of varsity academic team in high school, I actually did know who a fair few of these scientists by achievement without knowing who they were as men, and that did make the film pretty gripping, but without that background I might've gotten lost. If that sounds like a humblebrag, well, I've worried about how to articulate the one without the other basically since realizing the film was really throwing those scientists at you, but hey.
Again, Oppenheimer is a really good movie of its kind, and if you're up for it I do think it is a very rewarding movie of its kind. But I can see it not being for everyone too.