Oppenheimer [4K Ultra HD] [2023] [Region Free]

Don't expect an epic action film, with IMAX shots of nuclear bombs blowing up everywhere... the bomb really has very little airtime in this 3 hour film, and it doesn't linger on the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Of course you are made aware of it all but that isn't what this film concentrates on...At it's heart, is a character study of a troubled genius, set against the backdrop of WWII and some of the most defining science in the history of mankind and how the man was treat by the USA after those monumental events when there was no more need (or at least that's what they thought) of him.A heavyweight ensemble cast that is as star studded as they get... Cillian Murphy plays the role of the great titular scientist and does a remarkable job of portraying the many facets of this no doubt complex and somewhat flawed genius. While Robert Downey Junior excels in what I think is probably one of his best ever roles as the antagonistic Lewis Strauss.While I feel it's a great film, I recognise it certainly won't suit everybody's taste. It is very long, does jump back and forth in the timeline a fair bit requiring a decent amount of concentration to keep track. It's certainly not for the easily bored or those with a short attention span.

Brilliant film enjoy it immensely

This film is a bit unusual.It is very long. It is very dialogue intense delivered at the pace of a machine gun zipping about between flashbacks and different events. It demands great focus. In fact this film probably has more dialogue in it than the next five big films released this year put together. It’s is delivered fast with few pauses.The tempo rarely lets up. The audience has to be zoned in all the time to make sure a vital comment or moment is not missed. It is often disorientating with so much pace and so much jumping about in time frame settings.The time frame of scenes is a little tricky to identify at times. Sometimes Oppenheimers’ hair colouring and styles is the biggest clue to which time frame a scene is in. Full, brown and wild – 1930s, a bit grey and short 1940’s very grey 1950’s. The style is probably designed to achieve pace but this adds to the need for total audience attention all the time.The arc of the story is therefore harder to follow but follows the path of Oppeinheimer earnestly doing a job and trying to do it while separating political and moral concerns in parallel streams of thought. Something a Mcarthy era America or a military mind cannot accept and therefore Oppeinheimer falls from favour in a world of polarised black and white views.Cillian Murphy really transforms himself into Oppeinheimer completely. He seems to have studied the public footage of Oppeinheimer to perfection mimicking his voice, enigmatic eyes, gentle delivery and even his appearance . Rarely has a historic character been so convincingly been reproduced on film. Robert Downey Junior also really transforms himself into a very different role that could well be his career defining best.Among the scientific dialogue is key dialogue on a number of subjects running side by side.The clash between military minds and scientific minds and the doctrine that works best for their respective objectives. The clash between different scientists with different theories on how to solve a problem. The clash in politics. The clash of sharing information with wartime allies. The clash in making the world safe once weapons of mass destruction have been created. Personal ambition, personal vengeance and ego.One of my favourite moments was a meeting covering the clash of how to use the atom bomb to get the Japanese to surrender. Options are considered outside of just using them. This to me is a pivotal scene rich with thought provoking arguments. It is however delivered at lightning speed and could go unnoticed in the blizzard of rapidly delivered dialogue.And along with all of this brain fodder we have an examination of Oppeinheimer himself. A very logical person often with surprisingly emotional and passionate forces in his life.I think the length of the film and the dialogue intensity will be too much for many people.It is delivered in not quite an abstract way but a different way to the traditional historic drama.It is almost all people talking in rooms with little going on outside and apart from characters wearing uniforms and dialogue there is no direct visual representation of war.I think it is one of those films that over the years I will like going back to watch again and each time I will pick up on some new element, interpretation or moment I did not spot on previous viewings. Lawrence Of Arabia also does that for me and that is widely considered one of the all time greats.So I think this is a good film but it’s lengthy and intensity will turn some audiences away.If your idea of a great movie is Fast And Furious, The Bourne identity or Spiderman you probably are not in the target audience for this one. If you like movies like Contact, Oliver Stone’s JFK, maybe the Blade Runner films or Lawrence Of Arabia you are more likely to get something out of this.

epic film loved it watched it at the cinema and watched it again on tv

The dialogue was drowned out by the constant, and unnecessary 'background' music. It was so bad that had I not turned on the subtitles I would have missed 80% of the spoken words...The film itself was quite good but not, I think, worth the rave reviews given more widely. To tell this important story from the point of view of later, 1950's, political events somewhat confused me when trying to understand the chronology. Hopping to and fro between past and future events as it did. The actors performances were completely convincing, and very easy to believe. I just wonder how they would feel if they knew much of their spoken words where drowned out by the awful muzak.This is actually the first Amazon 'rental' I have tried. I must say how very impressed I was at the ability to marry up actor and character, and the commensurate links to IMDb. I was, however, a little disappointed when an Ad interrupted the end-titles. Fortunately, I was able to rewind and see the information I was interested in. Nevertheless, very bad form when watching something which should be completely ad free.Well done Amazon. I'll be back for more.