One good thing to come out of his fever dreams was the institution of Environmental Impact Statements prior to commencing large projects of the sort he envisioned. It was shown conclusively that setting off those weapons in Alaska (where it was proposed) would devastate the local habitats, from the tundra and algae to the caribou that eat it to the Native people who consume the meat. A fascinating story, for sure.
I just started the book American Prometheus, from which the movie “Oppenheimer” was taken. Even his childhood was astonishing.
On a related, but very silly tangent, we are on holiday somewhere where english language showings are not available.
No matter, my kids (in their infinitely twisted imagination) have taken to mocking-up an “Oppenheimer” juke-box musical in conjunction with their friend’s group on Whatsapp.
(Working title “Bomb!”, tag-line “ Boppenheimer to the Poppeheimer”)
They currently have created such memorable scenes as….
opening - “radioactivity” by Kraftwerk (a bit obvious but whatever)
Background of WW2 - “Two Tribes” FGTH
Hirihito’s reign - “Big in Japan” Alphaville, (played by Olivia Coleman in full yellow-face)
The hatching of the Manhattan Project “Let’s all make a bomb” by Heaven 17
Construction montage, “one vision” Queen (sung as “one fission”)
breakthrough scene, Oppenheimer can’t make it work but Einstein comes to the rescue as “Einstein a go-go” plays and he breakdances. (to be played by Idris Elba)
“Enola Gay” to be used on the final approach (obviously) Pilot to be a female bisexual who has struggled against patriarchy and steps in at the last moment when a man can’t handle it. I suggested Meryl Streep, they want it to be Adele (no, I don’t know either)
“don’t stop me now” to be sung by the bomb as it drops (with anthropomorphic device to be voiced by Stephen Fry, tie-in with Nintendo if they can get permission to style it as bullet-Bill)
Other songs TBD and will be shoehorned in.
They reckon all roles need to be race, sexuality and gender swapped and specific errors and offensive stereotypes to be introduced i.e. the Trinity test to be shown as visible from London and the Taj Mahal, Jet-engine noises for the B29 etc. (in a nod to “Airplane”) All Japanese citizens to be shown in Chinese rural costume and and all maps used to purposefully confuse far-eastern countries and people in an ad-hoc manner.
two things occur to me,
Firstly, It doesn’t sound any more mental that most juke-box musicals.
Second, I may have raised two seriously disturbed children and I have huge doubts about their friends.
It is on the list for shoehorning! As is “turning Japanese”.
My son is desperate to get all of “a quick one while he’s away” in there as well but all his friends think he’s overreaching himself. His musical heart is ruling his pragmatic artistic head.
And yes, I do now realise that I’m talking about it almost as if it were a serious endeavour. I may be getting cabin fever.
Pretty much my reaction. The hearing regarding Oppenheimer’s security clearance was all the framing device I needed; so building a frame around that frame with Strauss’s cabinet confirmation hearings seemed pretty pointless. I just didn’t care about Strauss, although I did like Downey’s portrayal.
I also thought some of Oppenheimer’s visions (stepping on the charred body, the nuke holocaust at the end) were unnecessary and way too on-the-nose.
But overall it’s a pretty great movie. Well-written, well-acted, and a treat to watch, hear and feel.
An article from 2006 that I’ve cited a few times occurs to me now. The gist of it is that Oppenheimer could have been thrown out of Cambridge over the apple-poisoning incident and ended up a nobody if university officials had not recognized his talent and shown compassion. I don’t know if the moralizing in the article is entirely accurate as it’s also been alleged that Oppenheimer’s influential parents intervened on his behalf.
The Theater I saw this in was a chain theater and they had the dialog (a Lot of it is whispering btw) coming through from behind the screen, sadly the CONTINUOUS MUSIC being played under the dialog was blared at us from 6 speakers along the side of the theater which totally drowned out said dialog. Why do moviemakers insist upon playing music under dialog that is important to the scene especially when a film like this is MOSTLY DIALOG? hock.
Six years ago I created a topic in CS where I lamented on how the audio tracks in movies have gotten way too loud, mainly due to the full-blast background music. This is the URL for the page, but it says it doesn’t exist anymore. Here is a link to the web archive for it, and here is the OP:
I don’t like watching new movies.
I’ve been watching a lot of movies made in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s over the past year. Mainly westerns, but also quite a few thrillers and a comedy here and there.
I now find modern flicks are almost unbearable to watch:
The jerky camera movement annoys the hell out of me. In a given scene the camera view will change at least once a second.
Loud and very compressed music blaring in my ears the entire time. There’s no such thing as just two people talking; even during simple dialog scenes there’s synthesized music and occasionally some background noise. Why??
CGI, even when it’s not needed. And most CGI looks so fake that it takes me away from the movie.
That sounds frustrating. I wonder if it varies by cinema. (and they adjust the settings?) I have low tolerance for such things, yet I had no problem with the dialog when we saw this film last week.
To make sure you don’t fall asleep
So I saw Oppie over the weekend. 3 hours of gorgeous 70mm film of a bunch of guys in suits standing around (or sitting) and talking. They looked great in those suits though. But I kept thinking "man, I wish the basis for this movie was Rhodes “The Making of the Atomic Bomb”. That’s an epic story with an immense scope that deserved the effort and visuals put into this movie. It would have been amazing. This movie? Eh, it was OK. I honestly could have watched it on Netflix. It would have been much easier to follow the dialogue and only maybe 5% of the film made me go “wow, I’m glad I’m seeing this in the theater!”.
First hour: Fun. I enjoyed the historical stuff, especially seeing the “who’s who” of 20th century physicists. The kind of people who rarely show up in movies, and practically ALL of them showed up.
Second hour: Exciting. The plot moved swiftly, going from Oppie being put in charge of the scientists at Los Alamos (even selecting the site based on his preference), to the Trinity test itself.
Third hour: Overly long. Focus on a stuffy room drama with accusations and shouting. I wish this part had been trimmed by 20 minutes.
Apparently I am lucky to live near Lafayette, Indiana, and one of the few IMAX theaters in the USA that is (still) showing this movie. However, a “normal” movie theater is about 15 minutes closer, and I saw it there because I’m lazy. It was a fine viewing experience. Here, only the trailers are turned up to ear-bleeding levels.
Technical question for astute viewers: I saw some weirdness during the Trinity test / fireball explosion sequence, some “sparkiness” on the periphery of the fireball. I suspect it might not have been there in a real plutonium fission explosion, possibly an artifact of the non-nuclear explosive material they set off? For instance, stuff that detonated a bit later, after the bulk of the material went off, pushed away from the center where it exploded a little later. Anyone else notice this? I’ve seen the real Trinity test footage so many times this artifact stood out.
I can spot spelling errors a mile off, hear trumpet fracks and clarinet squeaks in professional recordings, and I saw something that didn’t seem to belong. But probably most people did not notice it.
The only 70mm IMAX in Indiana is the State Museum in downtown Indy. You drove all the way to Indy from Lafayette to see it and didn’t go the extra couple miles to downtown?!
I don’t think you missed too much. That’s where I saw it, and the seating is REALLY uncomfortable there, especially for a 3 hour movie. I’ll opt for a digital IMAX next time.
