Christopher NolansOppenheimerplays out across the landscapes of Los Alamos and Cillian Murphys face.
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This article was originally published on July 17, 2023.
At the 96th Academy Awards,Oppenheimerwon seven Oscarsincluding Best Picture.
Christopher Nolanremembers when he first heard the nameOppenheimer.
I think very much the way kids these days feel about climate change.
Weve managed to meet on a day that itself feels cataclysmic.
Were here to talk about Nolans new film, a biopic aboutJ.
Robert Oppenheimer, the so-called father of the atomic bomb.
To which my response was, Well, maybe they should.
When our kids were little,Inceptionreflected his preoccupation with the importance of family.
Oppenheimermight have seemed like an odd story to tackle in 2021, when Nolan started the film.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine thawed the ghosts of the Cold War, it has felt blisteringly relevant.
And making it took Nolan beyond his comfort zones.
Oppenheimers story and Oppenheimers spirit have hung over a lot of my work, Nolan says.
To finally address it head-on, its just something that I felt ready to do now.
1.Oppenheimer Finds His Foil
1.
Instead of Oppenheimer walks across the room, its I walk across the room.
Its going to feel immediate.
Nolan passed this footage on to composer Ludwig Goransson.
I saw how they did that splitting of the atoms, with this ultraviolet light, recalls Goransson.
These inserts, which eventually become more and more ominous, are a key visual motif in the film.
I challenged a little the Mozart-Salieri of it all, Downey recalls.
I half-jokingly challenged him on whether Admiral Strauss hadnt done everything that any patriotic American wouldve done.
And he said, Well, this will be a wonderful ongoing dialogue.
So, will you do the film?
2.A Huge Cast of Familiar Faces
2.
That was the Oppenheimer silhouette.
Of course, screen time wasnt an issue for him; his character dominates the film.
What became clear to me really quickly was that theres no point in me trying to understand quantum mechanics.
I dont have the intellectual capability.
My job is to go after the humanity.
Others arrived armed with a surprising amount of knowledge.
I was working with a physicist at Columbia University, Safdie says.
I was doing cosmic rays.
It is a deep passion of mine.
But we moved to a new location before lunch!
I said, I have no idea how you did that.
You look down, theres no marks on the floor, Downey says.
You wonder if you shouldnt pace it up.
And Chris says, Dont worry about that.
You have to tighten the corners opposite so that everything stays in balance.
I always like to empower the actors to try things if they have an idea, Nolan says.
In the script, the scenes are very, very stripped down.
And youre suddenly seeing a human face to these negotiations, Nolan says.
There are some nice awkward silences in the movie, and thats one of my favorite.
3.Rebuilding Los Alamos
3.
Its got Starbucks, and its all modernized, De Jong says.
Chris said, Ive scouted it.
Im not going there.
Instead, they effectively built their own town near Ghost Ranch.
But the research was the research.
When it came time to building the actual town, Nolan wasnt a stickler for authenticity.
He kept saying, This is my western, De Jong says.
He really wanted a very natural world, a very honest world.
Look, Ruth, we designed this, De Jong recalls Nolan saying to her.
You should just get a bunch of Home Depot sheds.
No one will know.
And lets get a bunch of prefab trailers and clad those.
Among the non-Western titles Nolan shared with De Jong as inspiration: Andrei Tarkovskys 1975 classicMirror.
Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema had introduced me toMirrorprior to makingInterstellar, recalls Nolan.
4.Large Format, Small Scenes
4.
So we started to build lenses that gave us that technical possibility to get much closer.
Kodak also created a black-and-white Imax film for the production.
Much of the cast was unprepared for how loud the cameras would be during intimate and dialogue-heavy scenes.
When you do the scene, hes standing by the camera and hes watching you.
So you really feel youre in it with him.
5.The Bomb and Beyond
5.
Often, of course, these machines are used, and the consequences are soul-destroying for the characters.
In real life, there is no more vivid example of this than the atomic bomb.
This thing theyre all trying so hard to achieve is horrific, Jackson says.
Theyre all striving for something that no one would want.
6.Prometheus Bound
6.
He was, it seems, partly in denial about the role he had played.
The whole film is about consequences the delayed onset of consequences that people often forget, Nolan says.
Its another idea that has run through his work.
You are not necessarily confronted with the strongest or worst elements of your action in the moment.
This idea is built into the style of the film.
For Oppenheimers central theme, Nolan had suggested to Goransson using the violin to capture the physicists anxiety.
That stuff, almost inexpressible, kind of beyond language.
Much of Oppenheimers moral quandary unfolds silently, as subtle changes on the actors face.
Hes got such an enigmatic quality to what he does, Blunt says of Murphys performance.
Theres the whole shadow of his life playing across those rather extraordinary eyes in every scene.
Chris took me aside and said, Hes not a boxer; hes a chess player.
He would use his intellect rather than his physical presence, always, in these situations.
you could be as little as it’s crucial that you, and its going to work.
Its the very opposite of a Great Man biopic.
The film itself is terrified by Oppenheimers accomplishment, reflecting its creators own fears for our future.
I dont want to make a didactic film ever, Nolan says.
I dont want to tell people what to think or send a specific message.
Theres no real catharsis there.
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