OPPENHEIMER REVIEW: CHAIN REACTION

A military and diplomatic success for some, great darkness for others, the trauma of hundreds of thousands of lives, and much more... The father of the atomic bomb, a passionate but egotistical physicist, a supreme genius... Introducing Robert J. Oppenheimer!

Outstanding director Christopher Nolan's new film, which has been awaited for months and has been widely advertised, tells the life of American physicist Robert Oppenheimer. For Nolan, this biographical work has its challenges and advantages. Oppenheimer's story is imbued with not just science, but politics, military issues, women, and more. First of all, I would like to draw attention to some points of the film with an objective review, and then I will talk about some of my completely personal views. Because while the odds of Oppenheimer being "Nolan's best movie" for you are pretty low, it's quite possible that it's " your favorite Nolan movie".

CAST

First of all, I want to talk a little technically. With a solid budget and staff, Nolan seems to have used them well. With its outstanding cast, it is almost impossible to find Oppenheimer's acting and transfer of emotions insipid.

Especially our lead Cillian Murphy does a tremendous job; He conveys the character's inner dilemmas, existential crises, questions about what he has done, and his greed and narcissism that he can't overcome despite all this.

Emily Blunt, who plays the character of “Kitty” in the movie, impressed me a lot, especially towards the end of the movie. Kitty, who seems like a superficial character at first, turned into a character that can't be underestimated.

I don't remember watching Robert Downey Jr outside of Marvel for a long time, and it was very good. For me, Robert has never been an unpleasant actor. In this project, on the other hand, was given a character with a deep acting opportunity on top of his talent. Rami Malek also especially towards the end of the movie moved Mr. Robot fans.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

With both the cinematography and the acting, you feel the effects of the war, the psychological effect of the evil results of his science on Oppenheimer, and the blurriness and makeshift in those who produce science at the moments when science interferes with politics. The color palette used in the film greatly enhanced the quality of Oppenheimer's cinematography. Not that we didn't expect from Nolan. I think there is no need to talk about the atomic bomb scene that everyone is talking about. We didn't watch, we LIVED. Of course, the fact that Nolan didn't want to use CGI and actually detonated a real bomb by working with physicists had a big impact on this.

While the black and white scenes in the movie present historical reality objectively, the fact that the colored scenes are Robert's subjective perception is a complete Nolan work.

I found the sound direction to be just as successful. The music of the film is entrusted to Ludwig Göransson, as in Tenet, and he has done a great job. There are no words to say about the costumes and the dialogue. It seems to me that the only competitor against Oppenheimer in the Oscar lists, for now, might be "Dune Part 2". For now.

SUBTITLES

I would like to touch on the subject of subtitles in a very small title for a foreign audience. If you can understand and listen to English, I definitely believe that the movie will be much more enjoyable because in a discussion series that lasts more than 3 hours, it can be a bit difficult for the audience who does not speak the language to follow the subtitles and you may miss some nuances. It would be sad if the acting fell victim to the subtitles.

DON'T GO TO BARBIE AFTER

Oppenheimer is a pretty dark movie. According to some, it tells about one of the disgraceful inventions of humanity. You can't watch Barbie or anything after this movie! Forget them. If you are going to go, I recommend you to go to Barbie first because you will not get over Oppenheimer as you should.

SEX SCENES AND WOMEN IN THE MOVIE

“Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.” It is known that Oppenheimer said this after the atomic bomb test, after he first saw the power of destruction of the bomb with his own eyes, and we see this in the movie. But not during the tests of the atomic bomb. In the scene where they are with Jean Tatlock, Jean takes the “Bhagavad Gita” from the library and tells him to read a part of the book, and Oppenheimer reads these famous words from the book.

Frankly, I do not agree with the criticism, as the sexual scenes in the movie are unnecessary. The movie is a biography. It is necessary to go with a little knowledge and research, dude! Robert Oppenheimer is a womanizer, so to speak, that is, a rather flirtatious man. We can't say that women occupy a very insignificant place in his life story. Also, these scenes allow us to perceive some emotional contexts and a bit of Robert's personality. They take up very little space in the movie anyway. At the same time, showing his relationship with women makes us understand that Robert had a devastating effect on his personal life, not only with the bomb he invented but also with his character. We can also think that there is "foreshadowing" for Jean Tatlock's death which is left in suspense in the movie.

SCIENTIST OR POLITICIAN?

Although the main element of the movie is to kill hundreds of thousands with an atomic bomb, politics also shows itself quite a lot. Robert's interest in communism actually affects his own life as much as the movie. The scene where Isaac Rabi reproaches Robert with "Take off that uniform, you're not a soldier, you're a scientist" impressed me a lot. As a young person who dreams of doing science, even today, this intertwining of science and politics, the difficulty of a scientist to remain "just a scientist" scares me.

“They need us.”

"Until they don't."

WAR

The effects of war are never shown over-dramatized or emotionally exploited in the movie. As someone who doesn't enjoy watching drama, this is a good choice for me. However, the movie still manages to take you into the tension of the war. The scene in which Robert is thrown in front of the American people who won the war is a good example of this. The character, who is fighting a war of conscience among the shouts of the people, manages to say things that will excite the people even more, and we, the audience, are crushed under the weight of his conscience. As Oppenheimer descends from the stage, he sees ashes walking through burned human bodies, weeping lovers. Thus, we understand the inner world of the creator of the explosion.

Nolan actually wants us to separate a man who does physics and other men who turn what he's made into a nuclear weapon. Because the scientist's job is to do science, not to think about its consequences.

“Hiroshima is not about you. People will be concerned not with who made the atomic bomb, but with who put it there. I threw it.”

NEGATIVE CRITICS

Regardless, I know the movie didn't impress the majority of the audience as much as it did me, and it left some disappointments. The growth of the hype with the promo that has been made for a long time, the urge to go to the movie just because it was advertised so much, and the fact that it is not a movie that will appeal to everyone has a great effect on this. At this point, the movie differs from other Nolan movies for me. I think Inception, Memento, and even his last movie Tenet can capture the general audience more skillfully than Oppenheimer. Yes, there is a lot of scientific fiction, difficult to understand, and the possibility of a loss of interest/focus in the films I mentioned. But Oppenheimer is a scientist's biography, not science fiction. I emphasize it from the beginning of the article because this is a detail that should not be overlooked. It's hard work to get an incredibly creative point of view when recounting historical accuracy. When we say biography, expectations from the movie should be regulated. If drowning in a sea of dialogue for 3 hours is not going to be enjoyable for you, again Oppenheimer is not for you.

If you have watched and liked productions such as “The Theory of Everything”, “Dune” and especially “Chernobyl”, which I can relate to a lot, then Oppenheimer is for you. With Nolan being the producer, I understand the expectation that everyone will love this movie. However, it was not difficult for me to predict the spirit of the film. I entered the movie theater not knowing what would happen in the movie I was going to watch, but guessing its spirit, and therefore I was satisfied. Still, I agree with the criticism that the movie has gotten to the point of being tiring and boring for some viewers. Oppenheimer is definitely a top-of-the-line film, but it still can't be called a "masterpiece".

WHY IT AFFECTED ME MORE

Finally, I would like to talk about why the movie had such an impact on “me”. By the way, I would like to state that I did not go to the movie with great expectations. Maybe I was even more satisfied because I went with natural expectations without being deceived by the hype. Because I thought that this movie would be a good movie in general, but it wouldn't be very high among Nolan movies for me. Well, it did.

As a young person who is very interested in positive sciences, who wants to do science, who wants to talk physics the most, and who is inflamed with the idea that "I wish I could live with all those famous physicists in the movie", the movie has a special place for me. I bet I'm one of the rare people who cried at Oppenheimer. Yes, I cried! It's not because the movie made me sad, because there was an emotional scene, or because I was nervous. I saw all those magical geniuses together and it was enough for me to cry. Those who turned the movie into an emotional adventure for me; Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Kurt Gödel, Lewis Strauss, Ernest Lawrence, Robert Oppenheimer, and many more...

With a mountain of references to quantum, physics, and famous scientists, I call Oppenheimer a "nerd" movie! But I know most of you won't agree. Because many of you went to the movie as a “spectator”. Some of us went as "dreamers". Some of us aren't strange by those images that Robert imagined when he could not sleep at night or live during the day. I was stunned when images such as atomic collisions, and space-time warping came in because someone was making me watch the inside of my brain. If you are interested in sciences and especially physics, the movie will have this effect on you too.

Albert Einstein has an important place in the movie as the idol of many scientists we see in the movie. Especially in the final scene, you feel the fear flowing from his eyes from the other side of the camera as he learns that the new children of new theoretical physics he created, are moving the world. Einstein's quantum in these scenes reminded me of Nietzsche's nihilism. A threshold to be reached but only to be crossed... A power that can't be surrendered to any will or even to themselves. Dark, disastrous, creepy and so real! Very discoverable.

CONCLUSION

To sum it up, I liked Oppenheimer more than most, but I can't help but agree with some of the criticisms. As a conscious spectator, I think it will be an enjoyable 3 hours for you as long as you go to Oppenheimer by reconsidering your expectations. If you are more relevant to the plot and the characters and maybe if you're a "nerd" WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR THEN!

They also know the terrifying magnitude of "near zero". Didn't they suffer from the will of being a hero...