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Writer : Surya Turaga
Date : 8th June, 2023
Oppenheimer is an upcoming film by Christopher Nolan, set to release on 21st July 2023. It’s his latest film, and has an all star cast with Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., etc. It is probably the most exciting film to release this year. Oppenheimer is about Robert J. Oppenheimer, the creator of the first atomic bomb. The movie follows the events of this creation in The Manhattan Project.
If you aren’t excited about this film, I have 2 things to say to you. First, shame shame. Second, this article will change your mind. Yes, I know. The Flash is coming. Mission Impossible 7 is coming. Barbie releases on the same day, and that’s all very nice and good. I’m not saying those are bad. Oppenheimer is just better. I may be biased on this one, but that doesn't mean I’m wrong.
- The skeleton of the film
The best part of this film is that Nolan is making it. He truly is pretty much the best modern cinema director. He did amazing with Dunkirk, but not as much with Tenet. If he’s gone back to a historical film, it means this film is going to get Nolan back into his peak. The all star cast he’s using is unconventional and usually a recipe for disaster. Fortunately, this isn’t a cast filled with celebrities. It’s a cast filled with ACTORS. There’s a big difference. People like Cillian Murphy and Emily Blunt aren’t just famous. They’re good. Very good at acting. Emotion would be delivered flawlessly and naturally. These 2 points have created the skeleton for the masterpiece.
The next important part is Nolan’s aim. These days, everyone makes mediocre films with the sole purpose of making money. Christopher Nolan is an artist who makes films to tell stories. He tells them brilliantly. His storytelling immerses viewers into another world altogether. The actors engage the audience. The cinematography is always creative, practical, and well woven together to deliver the film in a visually stunning manner. The music is bold yet subtle, well embedded into every scene of the movies. To top it all off, Nolan’s attention to detail makes his films truly brilliant.
On a side note, it’s interesting to see Nolan gunning for the Academy Awards once again. He got very close with Dunkirk, realizing that The Academy liked his historical film. I’m curious to see what he does this time.
2. The filming
2. The filming
Now, we get to the most exciting part of this film. I’m SO excited talking about this. Nolan is actually bringing back shooting in 70mm IMAX film! I don’t think many realize how significant this truly is. Basically, when shooting a film, you can shoot with a digital camera, or an analog one that uses film. Instead of going for digital 4K IMAX cameras, Nolan always tried to shoot certain fractions of his movie with film. He’s been doing this for the last few movies. Instead of using typical 35mm film, he opted to use 70mm film. This film basically has a width of 7cm. That was expensive to shoot, but allowed very high resolution, comparable to an 18K digital camera, which is basically impossible.
Why is Oppenheimer special, then? Nolan has rotated the 70mm film horizontally, so the area of a single frame is now 3 times larger than it was, and 10 times larger in area than standard film. The level of quality on such film is unimaginably high! It will immerse the viewers like no other film has ever done before. Only some theaters in the US will actually play this film. The rest of us will have to make do with watching the film on IMAX, hoping the projectors are IMAX Laser and not Xenon, so as to preserve the color composition. There was very little film shooting in Tenet, and it’s been 6 years since Dunkirk, so nobody expected film shooting to ever make a comeback. But it has. And that’s amazing.
Nolan has claimed to use high levels of practical effects. That’s very believable, given his expensive rotatable rig that was used for the legendary hallway fight of Inception. I hope he actually dropped some nukes while making this film. His use of practical effects as a contrast to the dogma of CGI today would very well compliment his use of film cameras.
3. Analyzing the trailer
3. Analyzing the trailer
I also want to analyze the trailers, mainly the Final Trailer. I’ve attached a link for your reference. Normally, I don’t focus on trailers much. They’re often too revealing of the plot and not very useful. But the reason I’m doing this is because the Oppenheimer trailer provides a lot of useful insights without giving away the essence of the film.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the trailer is the use of macroscopic imagery for swirling light, atoms interacting, etc. Such imagery has been used before in other films for things like chemical reactions and taking psychedelics. Here, it’s being used to boost the physics in Nolan’s movies. Interstellar and Tenet have made Nolan the master of film physics, to the point where his team predicted the black hole years in advance. I have no doubt that the imagery in this film will be meaningful to the plot and stunning to watch.
Another aspect which I don’t think is discussed a lot is Nolan working on the weaknesses of Tenet. Tenet was good, but it made a crucial mistake. It focused so much on the action that it left out the characters and the setting. This trailer has shown me enough to be sure that he has all bases covered in Oppenheimer. Music picking up as they show Cillian Murphy and Matt Damon go to ‘recruit some scientists’ confirms that the movie will cover a significant amount of the story behind the Manhattan Project, not just Oppenheimer’s story. Cillian Murphy portraying Oppenheimer’s mannerisms, showing his inner conflict, and sharing scenes with Emily Blunt gives enough reassurance that we will see historically accurate character development. Wide angle camera shots, and other classic angles like low levels, close ups, and pans all make it very clear that we’re going to see enough of the setting in this film.
Finally, the music is powerful in the trailers alone. I’m seeing refined forms of classic Nolan soundtracks. The sharp Geiger counter clicks contrast the smooth background music, showing off a tense race to the finish. Periodic clicking increasing in frequency with the countdown to raise tension while creating the effect of time running out feels highly reminiscent of ‘Mountains’ and ‘No Time for Caution’ from Interstellar. Those are 2 of the most brilliant film soundtracks ever, but that’s for another day. And I’m not sure about this one, but I’m pretty sure I caught a Shepard’s Tone towards the end of the trailer, refined from the batmobile effect of The Dark Knight to keep tensions high.
Concluding Thoughts
Concluding Thoughts
Overall, if you’re still not excited about Oppenheimer, you must not have read the article properly. Or you lack taste. This is going to be one amazing film that will definitely change the world of cinema forever. Oppenheimer is going to be a film that will literally have everything. A stellar cast, a solid real plot with character development, beautiful and practical cinematography, and of course, immersive music.
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