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Barbenheimer part 2: Oppenheimer
This is really two films, one is the story of Oppenheimer's early forays into quantum physics and his time on the Manhattan project.
The other one is about two post-war panels, one deciding whether Oppenheimer should have security clearance or not, the other whether some other guy should have some other kind of cabinet position or not, which involves a lot of people sitting in rooms and talking about each other.
Individually, both of these movies are very well shot and well acted. Put together, it's a lot.
I see some people have complained about historical accuracy - as the only person in this film that I know even a small amount about is Einstein, I can't comment on that.
At times it feels a little bit like a three hour trailer, skipping through the highlights of Oppenheimer's life with constant background music, and I felt like I wanted the scenes to be allowed to breathe a little more. There seemed like so much more that could have been shown about how they made the atomic bomb, the moral questions and yet so much of the time was spent asking about whether he was a communist. But maybe this is Nolan's point, that the authorities of the 1950s spent more time worrying about communists than about the implications of nuclear proliferation.
The acting was generally very good. I've always liked Cillian Murphy and I think he does a fine job here. I was also very impressed with Robert Downey Jr. Kenneth Branagh is there with his accent again but never mind, he's not in it as much as Tenet. Women get short shrift even by Christopher Nolan standards (Florence Pugh deserves better than this).
I thought the black and white sequences looked excellent, maybe Nolan should do a black and white movie next.
Parts of it were very interesting, parts of it I nearly fell asleep. I see a conscious decision was made not to show any of the effects of the atomic bomb and I'm not sure what I think about that. I liked the scene where he gives a speech and everyone is cheering but he is beginning to have doubts about what has been done. I do wonder how much they knew about the effects of radiation and whether the people at the base were affected at all.
Barbie v Oppenheimer
I preferred Oppenheimer, I think, but didn't love either of them.
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at the last six post! It's spooky I tell ya
