“Oppenheimer”

Original link: https://fmcf.cc/2023/08/257/

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This article does not discuss any political views, and the content is limited to the “Oppenheimer” movie itself and the historical facts involved. This article contains some spoilers. Friends who have not watched the movie, please read it as appropriate. May the world be peaceful.

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“I am now death, the destroyer of worlds” – Bhagavad Gita

In the 1950s, with the success of the Manhattan Project, mankind officially entered a new era of atomic energy. The first use of atomic energy by mankind was the “atomic bomb” created by the Manhattan Project. The movie “Oppenheimer” is about the atomic bomb The birth of the A-bomb and the story of Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, the whole film “181 minutes” is the longest movie I personally watched (actually “Avengers 4” will be 1 minute longer than it), for me Said to have deep thinking.

It’s not a traditional “America” movie of individual heroism (referring to the Marvel series), it’s a movie that sings about peace and reality, which of course has the “movie based on facts” thing. Including factors, although we all know that Oppenheimer created the “atomic bomb” and is therefore called the father of the atomic bomb, we all know that the “atomic bomb” is not the result of Oppen alone, but the result of all physics in history. The masterpieces of scientists, mathematicians, and chemists led mankind into the age of atomic energy, and Oppenheimer was an interdisciplinary talent. Only such an interdisciplinary talent can connect all the research in history , to complete this task spanning mathematics, physics, chemistry, and military affairs.

I think we should be thankful that the scientists who created the “atom bomb” have enough conscience, just like the Sanskrit passage quoted by Oppenheimer, and just as Oppenheimer said when he met Truman: “Our scientists’ hands are stained.” blood”, the success of the “atom bomb” made the most shining stars in the history of physics begin to doubt their own research. We look at these issues from the perspective of latecomers in history. These scientists, especially those led by Oppenheimer, He tried his best to prevent the development of the hydrogen bomb and prevent the weaponization of atomic energy on a larger scale. Even Einstein, who wrote to Roosevelt to persuade him to launch the Manhattan Project, was more or less preventing horrible things from happening.

Speaking of Einstein, I have to sigh. At that time, as the top physicist in the world, there was no opponent in the world except Bohr. There is a clip in the movie. Oppenheimer may solve the “atom bomb” However, Einstein did not extend his helping hand. As for the reason, there are some interesting stories . Obviously Oppenheimer believed in Copenhagen’s interpretation, otherwise Wouldn’t want to see Bohr too many times, and of course other than that, I think the flip side is that Einstein believed that Oppenheimer could solve this problem. However, I really want to sigh, even Oppenheimer is known as the father of the atomic bomb, and there are so many outstanding physicists in the world, they have to live under his shadow, and they need to seek his academic achievements. Physical help is enough to prove how unshakable Einstein’s strength in physics is.

We do not evaluate the efforts of the group of scientists who created the “atom bomb” to prevent their influence on later generations, because I want to look at them from another angle, especially Oppenheimer.

In the movie, Lewis Strauss played by Robert Downey Jr. can be regarded as a villain in the movie, but his words are also enough to make people think deeply. What we want to discuss is whether Oppenheimer is becoming the hero of the atomic bomb After the father saved the world once, he played a person who opposed the further weaponization of atomic energy, and wanted to become the savior again? To put it bluntly, it has the flavor of being a whore’s archway, but we can’t know whether he thinks so, but we think about it in a scientific spirit, I think Strauss’s The idea is a huge mistake, his understanding of physics is only very superficial, he does not have the spirit of science, what he has is some outrageous spirit, and science should be without borders, and the purpose of our development of science is also In order to survive and live better, rather than destroying life or even the right to survive, maybe this is what Oppenheimer thinks, but this is just my guess.

After the explosion of the “atom bomb”, the movie gave Oppenheimer many very meaningful shots, which showed a complicated heart. He has accepted the title of the father of the atomic bomb, but he seems unable to accept such a huge sacrifice .

In terms of the narrative technique of the movie, it uses a cross-narration method. Such a narrative method will make the historical story, which is very simple in itself, a bit “brain-burning”, but it also makes the movie that would have been dull and dull. I think this is also a good literary narrative method, but the literature above may need to be diluted a little, otherwise it will cause a sense of fragmentation to the entire work.

In terms of narrative, the whole film uses black and white shots in the shots of Lewis Strauss or when narrating the content that is unfavorable to Oppenheimer, while most of the other shots are in color, which also makes the film more vivid. It’s very interesting. In most of today’s works, the use of black and white lenses is used to tell the story of the past, or to deliberately create landscapes to highlight certain characteristic elements and make the work more impactful. Of course , if the latter is intended, then it is usually in some small micro-films, which do not or rarely appear in such commercial films, and such a design directed by Nolan really makes people feel What is the purpose of using black and white lens? This is a good question. Some people think that the black and white lens represents an objective, other person’s point of view of the story, while the color lens tells the legendary story of Oppenheimer. Such a statement is indeed very convincing, and what my friend in the Department of Writing and Directing of Beijing Film Academy said is very similar to this view, that is, to view Oppenheimer’s actions from a second perspective.

In terms of technology, we all know that this movie was shot with an IMAX film camera, which makes the presentation of this movie in the IMAX theater far superior to most so-called IMAX movies. Part of the reason is that these movies were not shot with IMAX cameras. For example, the well-known “Wandering Earth 2” and “Fengshen” were both released in IMAX theaters, but the pictures have certain cuts. However, the presentation effect of IMAX is not as good as expected. Of course, although the picture is not as good as “Oppenheimer”, its sound effect is very good in the IMAX theater. This is of course because of its It is not difficult to realize, and the difficulty of controlling an ordinary movie machine will be far lower than that of an IMAX machine.

We all know that if the full-frame is used as the standard, in general, the “residual frame” we use is converted into the equivalent focal length of the full-frame, and the focal length needs to be multiplied by a number greater than 1 to convert, such as Sony’s The APS-C format is converted to the equivalent focal length of the full-frame, and the number to be multiplied is about 1.5. For example, the actual performance of a 50mm lens in APS-C is a focal length of about 75mm, which will result in a large-scale cropping of the picture. , this is a bad thing for novices, because it is more convenient for composition, but many people choose full-frame in order to get a wider picture at the same focal length, (different focal lengths are responsible for different tasks, not here Let me tell you more) But for the film and television industry, a smaller frame can better compose the picture and save more setting funds, but the presentation in the theater will be a mess, and the presentation performance in some scenes will also be poor. Very bad, so film and television people choose to use full-frame cameras to shoot, and IMAX cameras do the opposite. It is converted to a full-frame equivalent focal length, which needs to be multiplied by a number less than 1, which makes us also use 50mm The number of content obtained is IMAX>full frame>remnant frame, which is why IMAX movies can have better picture presentation effects, of course, this is only in IMAX theaters, and the screen uses IMAX-specific screen ratios. For some effects, it is difficult or almost impossible to produce the same effect as the IMAX camera in the post-production of a movie that is not shot with an IMAX camera.

This movie is top-notch both in terms of content and technology, and it also scored 8.6 points on Douban, which is a bit lower than Nolan’s own “Interstellar” and “Inception”. Because the story told by the movie itself is just a legendary story of the father of the atomic bomb, nothing more, it does not have the shock that the above two movies brought to the audience, and the way of cross-narration will be brain-intensive, confusing some audiences. Some people don’t like its length, after all, the story of “181 minutes” will make the whole film a bit lengthy, and of course some people don’t like Oppenheimer’s own story.

Generally speaking, this movie is excellent, enough to be thought-provoking, visually shocking enough, and even sings the main theme of the times. It is really commendable for a movie from the other side of the ocean to have such a high awareness.

Excessive power can be used to protect or destroy.

Special thanks

ZZT —— Studying in the Radio and Television Directing Department of Beijing Film Academy

QQ Laobing——Photographer, audio lover, my lover

References

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