My review
Finally was able to go and see this masterpiece yesterday. It's no secret that I'm a huge Nolan fan, and oh boy did this movie not let down. It's one of the best movies he's ever made.
The Story
I went into the movie not knowing shit about Oppenheimer, only that he created the atomic bomb. I had no clue about connections with Einstein, the secret camp, the "trial" which wasn't a trial,..
This movie did NOT feel like three hours at all. It flew by, can't wait to see it again in a few months. Not gonna go in too much details but I did like the separate timelines and colours vs black and white scenes (black and white was Strauss' perspective).
That last scene between Einstein and Oppenheimer.. 10/10 Nolan.
The Cast
Of course I knew about Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon, and Emily Blunt. What amazed me -and this is what I love about respected directors getting a massive budget- was seeing Rami Malek, Casey Affleck, and Gary Oldman all in this movie! And their runtime added up must have been less than 5 minutes. Affleck especially was amazing.
Cillian killed it -obviously. Damn was great, but he'll also be Jason Bourne to me, the perfect character to bring a sprinkle of humour into this movie (and necessary at times to lighten the mood). Emily Blunt was phenomenal. She killed it during the interrogation.
How well cast was Einstein?? Dude was spot-on.
Scenes
My favourite scenes were:
- The Trinity Test
When the test bomb exploded and the sound was still on its way.. The first time since.. ever(?) that I experienced everyone in the movie theatre being as quiet as a mouse for minutes on end.
- The gym speech scene
Absolutely haunting. They way the background was shaking, the random scream, the hallucination of the bomb going off in the room,.. I got anxiety from that scene.
Quotes
Maybe they were talking about something more… important.
Absolute savage, the perfect way to hit Strauss right in the stomach.
I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.
During a sex scene, genius.
"You don't get to commit the sin and then make us feel bad for you that it had consequences."
Fantastic quote by Emily Blunt.
"I’m not in charge of contraceptives.”
"I can see that.”
By Matt Damon. Made me crack up.
Then we'll have him killed.
By Matt Damon.
Einstein and Oppenheimer in the final scene. Brilliant.
Extra
Some other things I noticed:
- Love how Nolan represented nuclear bombs' blast radiuses as droplets falling in water.
-> In the beginning of the movie, Einstein is throwing rocks into the water one by one
-> At the end of the movie it's raining and you see tens, if not hundreds of "explosions" in the water.
-> The ripples also represented the bombings on the map when they were deciding on the location
- In the beginning of the movie we're greeted with 1. Fission and 2. Fusion. In the H-bomb, a fission reaction sets of the fusion reaction.
- The analogy between the two scorpions in the bottle, and Oppenheimer vs Strauss at the end of the movie: both their careers literally imploding at the same time.
- Props to the score, Ludgwig Göransson equals Zimmer's level of perfection.
- Jean's death was ambiguous. In one shot we see a gloved hand on her back, in another shot she's actually committing suicide.
- The JFK "tease" at the end felt like he was teasing another movie based on Kennedy or something.
Conclusion
Been a long time since I saw an entire movie theatre + every person I talk about this movie + every review I read online +... ALL are so positive about a 3 HOUR length movie. The acting, the dialogues, the black and white,... THIS IS CINEMA.
My rating
10/10
