 Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is an earth-shattering masterpiece and I'll explain why in this video. I will also explain why some of this movie is shot in black and white. Although this channel mainly focuses on Celtic history, I thought a movie that explores arguably one of the most important inventions in the history of human civilization deserves a video. Killian Murphy is also Irish and we need to celebrate the Irish and his performance is where we'll start. In short, it's outstanding. He of course plays J. Robert Oppenheimer. Theoretical physicist who is the father of the atomic bomb. He is most famous for overseeing the Trinity test, the first detonation of a nuclear weapon in recorded history, on the 16th of July 1945, in his role as the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory, also known as Project Y, a secret laboratory established by the Manhattan Project during World War II. The entire film hinges on Murphy's performance and an average performance would have derailed the entire film. Killian Murphy has been one of the finest actors working in recent years, but this role clearly cements him as one of the finest actors working today. Clearly he'll be nominated for an Oscar, and rightly so, with a film that relies so much on close-ups of Murphy. He manages to convey the wrestling emotions of extreme intellect, world-destroying stakes and consequences, and the deepest of moral questions. As the film plays heavily on, Oppenheimer and the other physicists of the Manhattan Project set off a bomb that they couldn't be mathematically certain wouldn't ignite the atmosphere and destroy the world, and they still pressed the button. And you think you've got dilemmas? The dichotomy between the scientists wanting to unlock the secrets of the universe and the moral and ethical questions of unlocking those secrets is at the heart of the film. And it couldn't be more timely, given the mainstream adoption or popularisation of artificial intelligence AI in recent months through chat GPT. Many would argue that the rise in artificial intelligence is really a fusion of the industrial revolution and the creation of the atomic bomb. And many leaders in the field of artificial intelligence, often referred to this time in history, is their Oppenheimer moments. The film as a whole is a masterpiece, and Murphy is supported by an unbelievable cast. Christopher Nolan is the writer-director, is the ultimate star, however. If you love Nolan films, you'll love this film. It definitely seems with this film that Nolan's initial vision of the movie was fully realised. The film itself relies heavily on the visual effects department in general, which was headed by Andrew Jackson, an award-winning Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor, who was one of Nolan's first phone calls after completing the script. Remarkably, pretty much all the visual effects of the quantum world are shot in camera, their practical effects as Nolan always likes to do, as opposed to using CGI. The visualisations of the quantum world and Oppenheimer's inner thoughts of this world are extremely important in this movie, given the fact that a lot of the movie is essentially people sitting around talking. In fairness, sometimes they are standing as well. That's not a criticism of the film as such, it's just a subject matter. The story had to be told in this way, but the use of visual effects that you can cut to, especially when Oppenheimer is looking at quite undramatic raindrops etc of the real world, but his physicist mind really is brought to life by these visualisations, his view of the quantum world. Oppenheimer is a real return for Christopher Nolan to a real character study. In Nolan's previous two films, Tenet and Dunkirk, he essentially just drops the characters in the audience in the middle of the action, and there's little to no background on the characters themselves. Although these movies have the plus points, it essentially led me at least at certain points to really think, do or really care about what's happening to these characters. I essentially know nothing about them. Oppenheimer is a real character study itself, but the backdrop of his character and the length of time he spent with him and the run-up to the Trinity test and the aftermath and the fact that Kelly and Murphy is a really likeable actor in general, really lends itself for the audience to connect with Oppenheimer. The film is beautifully shot in general, and it's also shot in colour and black and white, in both colour and black and white. The reason for this is really to do with perspectives. The script itself, when Christopher Nolan wrote the script, he actually wrote the script in the first person. So essentially, instead of the script reading that Oppenheimer walks across the room, it would say I walk across the room. It very much is about getting in the head of Oppenheimer to a large degree. So from this perspective, from Oppenheimer's perspective, which is the majority of the movie and it's aptly titled for that reason, Oppenheimer's perspective of the world is shot in colour. The perspective of Lewis Strauss-Hiviver, who in real life served as the chair of the United States Atomic Energy Commission amongst other roles, and also had ambitions in politics, who's brilliantly played by Robert Downey Jr. It is essentially this perspective that's shot in black and white. The script itself is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book called American Prometheus, The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. In Greek mythology, Prometheus is known for defying the Olympian gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology and knowledge. According to one tradition, Prometheus was punished by being bound to a rock, and then an eagle, the emblem of Zeus, was sent to eat his liver. Prometheus features in the opening credits of the film. As far as negatives of Oppenheimer, there are a few but not many. Obviously the runtime is a big one, running at basically three hours long, but given the subject matter to be honest, I'd definitely think this, they've done well to cram this into three hours. It could have been a two-part movie, two and a half hours each, stretching across five hours over two movies, or it could have been a 10-hour TV series or something like that. Obviously they go through Oppenheimer's early life, the Trinity Test Manhattan Project during World War II, and then also the aftermath, basically the trials of Oppenheimer and his loss of security clearance, I guess, queue clearance as part of the third act. So they're very long acts, but it's an incredible overview of his life in general. Given the subject matter, it is three hours long, but for some people, that may be a little bit too long. As with all other Nolan films, it can be quite complicated, and there is lots of cross-cutting between different scenes, particularly in the third act, with all these trials and meetings, there's lots of cross-cutting. You should be able to follow the basic structure, however, and the ending really ties everything together. For a bit, I've got a wee bit, generally, lost in the third act as far as all the trials, but as soon as I was like, what is going on? Essentially, they simplified it and brought it all together. The third act, in general, was very heavy as far as dialogue and exposition, lots of meetings, lots of cross-cutting between trials and meetings, and I think it was a confirmation hearing of Strauss that was part of the process. I don't spoil too much, but yes, there were cross-cutting between that and the indictment or the hearing of Oppenheimer himself. At that point, there's lots of dialogue, and they could have cut, I think, made use of the visual effects that they filmed so beautifully. They could have really cut back to that at points and just inter-spliced a wee bit of that footage to break up and make it a wee bit more palatable. That general third act, certainly a period of it, was very heavy of just cutting from one meeting to the other. They did have a fascinating technique, though, with a lot of the single shots of Kelly and Murphy. Essentially, with him kind of lock, centre and frame. The background, I don't know how they actually done it, but it was vibrated on numerous occasions, so you really got the sense of the pressure within his mind with amazing single shots and amazing acting by Kelly and Murphy. You also got this vibrating background. I'd like to say you really got the sense of the pressure within his mind, the thoughts, the moral and ethical questions that must have been running through his mind and the vibration, the pressure of that intellect that was trying to work out, the pros and cons of the actions he took. I thought that was really cool when you saw it on numerous occasions, and like I say, Kelly and Murphy makes this film. If this performance wasn't as good, the film would have fell apart without this level of performance, but yeah, there were so many cool tricks that really immersed you more in the story and in the mind of the subject. To sum up, Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is a masterpiece and is well worth seeing. It is beautifully shot with stunning performances across the board, has spectacular practical effects, is intelligent yet accessible and deals with such a profound subject matter that you can't help but reflect upon it after you leave the cinema. One of the final lines at the end of the movie is said by Oppenheimer to Albert Einstein, and it not only ties the entire movie together, it's really a very thought-provoking line itself to do with the chain reaction of nuclear weapons and the potential long-term consequences of it, but I don't want to spoil it, so you'll have to see it for yourself. Speaking of great films, what is the hidden Irish folklore and the banshees of In a Sharon? To find out, please click here. Thanks for watching, please subscribe and hit the bell, and tell your friends and family about this channel, please let me know your thoughts below and if you have seen Oppenheimer. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.