Saw
Oppenheimer in theater. I was ambivalent on watching it, thinking it was geared towards history nerds like me, but I couldn't see myself enjoying a three hour long historical biopic about a scientist who I really didn't have much interest in learning about generally. And I saw the reviews by
Red Letter Media and
Critical Drinker and others who were positive on it, but they had their own reservations voiced. Finally one of my friends saw it (in an IMAX) and said it was really good so I decided to give it a watch.
After taking a few hours taking it in, I think
Oppenheimer is the best movie I've seen in a long time, like maybe years. I liked it that much. Like others have said, its a beautiful, visually stunning, well crafted and edited movie but the criticisms that it felt awkward or the characters weren't well developed, I disagree fully. All of the characters were very well developed and I think their dialogue and interactions were utterly fascinating. RLM stated the musical score eclipsed the dialogue but I didn't really get that when I was watching the film. Anything relating to non-linear storytelling that people bring up about Christopher Nolan... it wasn't an issue in the least. It accentuated the quality of the film. Christopher Nolan did a great job editing and piecing the film together to make it an even stronger story.
Amazing acting. Amazing characters. Great story. Not boring in the least. Now the main reservation when I say this is the best movie I've likely seen in years, I'm not talking about my "favorite" movie as in entertainment value. This movie was entertaining, but it's not the same kind of entertainment you'd get from an amazing space opera, comedy, horror or superhero film. Just a great piece of cinema, as the smug
auteurs would say.
The best part of these biopics is that it brings historical characters to life and one of my worries going into this film is that while I like history, I'm not terribly interested in the personalities or scientists involved in the Manhattan Project. But this film... it made me very interested in all of these characters. The movie might've been titled Oppenheimer but there's twenty or so scientists, plus Congressmen, military leaders, lawyers, academics etc, that are portrayed by amazing and recognizable actors in beautifully directed scenes. And I was fortunate enough to watch this film with an engineer who knew waaaaaay more about the characters onscreen then I did.
I've heard of Teller and Enrico Fermi, and General Groves and Neils Bohr, Heisenberg etc but I could barely tell you what anyone of them are known for. When Enrico Fermi came up, I legit said... "Oh he helped invent the television right?"
Anyways she survived that comment and not only were those known names in there, but other scientists too played by super recognizable actors. Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, Josh Harnett as Lawrence, Olivia Thirlby as Hornig, Rami Malek as David Hill, Josh Peck as Kenneth Bainbridge, David Krumholtz as Isaac Rabi, Matthew Modine as Vannevar Bush. I was so happy I was sitting with an Engineer that these peoples identities could settle in my mind. And there were historical characters played by actors who you recognize and didn't know the name of. Serber, Klaus Fuchs, Hans Bethe, Neddermeyer, Condon etc and folks like Boris Pash, Lloyd Garrison, Roger Robb etc.
Also seeing Secretery of State Stimson, President Truman, even fucking Albert Einstein in scenes. Whoa. I recognized the lines Truman used in regards to meeting Oppenheimer from reading books on the Cold War. What a treat seeing it on film.
Overall, highly recommend. I went into the movie thinking it might be kinda boring and talky... but I loved watching it from beginning to end, all three hours. The first twenty minutes in fact I thought was great film based storytelling. It was a very original way to passage the time and introduce Oppenheimer and the context of everything that was happening.
