welcome back to New rockstars I'm Eric Boss and this is a breakdown of Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer one of Nolan's best films following scientist J Robert Oppenheimer Killian Murphy and his work with a Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb as well as his fraught political relationship with Louis straws after World War II in this video I will analyze Nolan's cinematic devices the editing structure color versus black and white the historical timeline and one fascinating detail that Nolan included with regards to Florence Pew's Gene tatlock pointing to some questions around that person's fate and if you like this kind of analysis I did break down Christopher Nolan's Interstellar and Inception on the Deep dive Channel and to celebrate Marvin Heimer weekend I actually reviewed both movies in a separate video and broke down the Easter eggs and Barbie please subscribe to all three channels on the new rockstars Network and please know sagafter has informed us that entertainment journalists like us are allowed to cover movies like this this is not a paid promotion and we support the actors and writers in their strike and we along with Christopher Nolan were so proud to see the cast of Oppenheimer walk out of the movie's premiere alright let's get started with the breakdown the film Oppenheimer begins with a shot of raindrops hitting a puddle forming the Chain Reaction ripple effect as a young Oppenheimer stares at them in a school Courtyard at Cambridge these Ripple effects are a recurring image throughout this film representing oppenheimer's fear of a chain reaction of the release of atomic energy consuming the world in fire then images of fire fill the screen with the text Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to man for this he was chained to a rock and tortured for eternity this is a slight rewarding of a passage about the Greek mythological Titan from The Source material of this film The Pulitzer Prize winning 2005 biography American Prometheus a Triumph and tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer written by KY bird and Martin J Sherwin this Prometheus myth comes up a lot whenever we discuss human technological advancement in the dangers of it but we often forget prometheus's punishment and for J Robert Oppenheimer we see that guilt and psychological torment that he suffered as a result of his actions structurally Oppenheimer resembles the David Fincher film The Social Network a historical process story framed through legal proceedings and flashbacks the first of these in color shows Oppenheimer in 1954 in a closed hearing for the renewal of a security clearance threatened by his past communist leanings during the era of McCarthyism Nolan labels this with on-screen text 1. fission because this mostly flashes back to oppenheimer's time developing nuclear fission the division of an atom with the Manhattan Project in the years before that and symbolically focuses on his vision from his colleagues of the Manhattan Project and the aec and a vision of his romantic relationships Oppenheimer was warned about alienated its colleagues because he might need them someday and this is where those chickens come home to roost now the second of these timelines in Black and White shows Louis Strauss played by Robert Downey Jr at his Senate confirmation Hearing in 1958 when he was trying to be Commerce Secretary Nolan labels this with on-screen text to Fusion referring to the fusion of two Atomic nuclei which releases vastly greater energy and fusion is the source of the hydrogen bombs that were developed after World War II which really was the major source of a contention between Strauss and Oppenheimer during their time at the aec in the late 40s and the 50s these two men men represent dually nuclei being crammed together when they should not be to explosive results and by labeling these fission infusion Nolan signals that despite the explosive fireworks in oppenheimer's life up until World War II's end really the crazier bigger drama the bigger boom booms came in the fusion afterwards so when we see Opie's perspective it's in color when we see strauss's perspective it's in black and white this distinction shows strauss's inability to see the Nuance of these decisions and his view of the world as a black and white binary zero-sum game mutually assured destruction because it's not just monochrome notice how Nolan also shoots these scenes with higher contrast and hotter lighting as if straws is Happy living in a world where a thermonuclear blast could ignite the sky at any moment Nolan hinges both timelines on one moment 1947 which Oppenheimer meets dross at Princeton and Oppenheimer meets with Albert Einstein beside a pond and says something that upsets Einstein and Strauss always assumed that it was an insult about him an insecurity that eventually undo straws it's really his tragic flaw but what Abby actually said is not revealed into the the final seconds of the film The Final line even a mystery akin to what is rosebud and Citizen Kane we flash back to a real event in which Oppenheimer tried to poison an apple of his tutor Patrick blackett apples being an important symbol to possess as the orb that struck Newton's head here it symbolizes Opie's first instinct to create a weapon of mass destruction followed by his immediate regret and his attempt to dispose it this comes after it's nearly eaten by his admired Idol Nils Bohr played by Kenneth Branagh after Opie gives the excuse of quote Wormhole ah a bit of physicist Wormhole because not only is it a hole formed by a worm in the Apple it's also the term used for theoretical holes in space time four instructs Hoppe to clear his head of his Hidden World instead just hear the music of this world and we follow OPI as he visits an art gallery he sees Pablo Picasso's 1937 woman sitting with arms crossed we see also reads T.S eliot's the Wasteland a poem known for Sanskrit mantras which likely would Inspire oppenheimer's famous quoting of the Sanskrit passage in the bhagavad-gita the Wasteland poem actually begins with spring raindrops as does this film when Oppenheimer meets dross stress corrects Abby that it's pronounced Strasse not Strauss these two Jewish men referring to the subtle ways dross has coded himself to sound less Jewish something Oppenheimer embraced recognizing that the Nazi's greatest weakness in this Atomic race was anti-Semitism as Hitler regarded physics as quote Jewish science and that drove away great thinkers like Albert Einstein Oppenheimer greets Einstein by picking up his hat after the wind blew it off wearing brimmed hats is kind of a key character trait for Opie in this movie it's what makes the scientist a scientist as opposed to a military man a scientist who cares more for the health of the planet than for winning a war as Einstein walks away glumly he refuses to wear his hat because he knows his research has opened the door for the planet's Doom is it orabi great zombie on a train to Zurich as oppy looks out the window the seat cushion vibrates behind him for a moment independent of the Train's normal rattling we see this throughout the film that represents Opie's anxiety that hidden within his world is a world of quantum energy brimming to explode they watched Werner Heisenberg lecture her and he starts in German but as he turns toward Opie and Robbie he switches to English which is Christopher Nolan's way of showing how Abby can understand multiple languages at Berkeley Opie meets Dr Ernest Lawrence Josh Hartnett who tells him Theory can only get you so far an important stated theme of this movie that gets repeated over and over again as the fission half of Opie's career is dominated by Theory and the fusion half is dominated by the application that theory and the impact of it Opie joins his brother Frank at a communist Gathering where he meets heikon Chevalier who will later slightly pressure Oppenheimer to give him top secret information that he can pass along to their Russian allies leading to the Chevalier incident but here ABI tells Chevalier about what happens to stars when they die saying quote the bigger the star the more violent its demise and gravity gets so concentrated that it swallows everything everything even light so obvious foreshadowing what will happen to him he becomes a huge media star and because he becomes so big he has a steeper demise in which the emotional gravity swallows everything even the good things in his life Nolan describes the same astrophysics and black holes that he would use in the movie Stellar both this movie and Interstellar were advised by Kip Thorne and remember back in tenet Nolan mentioned the Oppenheimer story you're familiar with the Manhattan Project as they approach the first atomic test open Hammer became concerned that the detonation might produce a chain reaction so in this weird way Nolan is kind of linking many of his films together and this kind of meta textual context Opie also meets Gene tatlock Florence Pugh and he brags about reading Karl Marx's text in the original German translating it as ownership is theft instead of properties theft which is an interesting distinction because it assigns the blame to the ACT instead of to the object in the concept of it and Gene uses his obsession with textual literalism during sex with Oppenheimer which doesn't go well but she gets him going by having him translate the Sanskrit of the bhagavad-gita the line for now I am become death the destroyer of worlds which Oppenheimer throughout his life would later repeatedly quote to express his guilt over the Manhattan Project and it's pretty telling to think that this could have come from a moment with Gene tatlock this woman being one of the worlds he destroyed this video is sponsored by Helix sleep and yeah I know it seems like nobody here at new Rockstar sleeps much but I promise you we do and thanks to my Helix mattress I've been getting the best sleep of my life for years now Helix 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below or go to helixsleep.com new rockstars to get 20 off your Helix mattress plus two free pillows Abby meets Colonel Leslie Groves Matt Damon who appoints Oppenheimer the director of the Manhattan Project despite his communist leanings because he's finally let go of the FAE CT they pick New Mexico because Oppenheimer says it's centrally located between Berkeley Chicago Oak Ridge Tennessee and Hanford Washington and because he's ranched in the area he knows it pretty well and mostly it's just remote helping with testing and Groves desires for secrecy income compartmentalization so they recruit their dream team of scientists from around the country Opie leads the research and Edward Teller Benny safety shares math suggesting the possibility of a chain reaction that could lead to atmospheric ignition this freaks him all the hell out so Oppenheimer takes this to Albert Einstein and they visualize the atmosphere Lighting on fire and notice during the scene and really any time in this movie that Opie feels this kind of dread we hear stomping which we later learn are the Stomps on the wooden bleachers in the Los Alamos gymnasium during the Hiroshima Victory party so as they set up the Los Alamos site they fill jars with marbles to show the rate of the enriching uranium and plutonium to build the bomb device but instead of bomb Oppenheimer corrects in this scene quietly Gadget because he wants to avoid these scientists thinking about how they're actually building a weapon and that is how we got the test device's name the gadget it turns out it's Groves that brings in Klaus Fuchs to Los Alamos whom we later learn is the spy who leaked the bomb info to the Soviets and during all this Nolan intercuts to 1949 a black and white meeting with the aec with Strauss angry that the Russians tested an atomic bomb years before they were expected to and he pressures Oppenheimer to brief the president on teller's research of the hydrogen bomb and Robert Downey Jr does a great take on this line saying because if it could put us ahead again the president of the United States needs to know about it and Robert Downey Jr does the slightest smirk for just a second it's just a subtle sign of his incredulity that Oppenheimer would consider himself above the president it's this smile I think when Strauss realizes he needs to take Opie down back in 1943 Opie meets with Gene tatlock for various intramarital Affairs despite his new marriage and family with Kitty and as Oppenheimer admits his affair in the hearing in 1954 Nolan includes this insane shot where the camera dollies right past the back of Robert Rob's head as kitty's eyes suddenly look up she's been looking down the entire time throughout this movie but she looks up right as we pass Rob's head staring daggers at her husband and then when we cut back to this moment we clear Rob's head and now Oppenheimer is fully nude in this hearing room as Kitty is visualizing him and Jean having sex right there in the room establishing Kitty as an equal point of view character in this movie Opie learns that Gene tatlock was found dead and here comes what I think is the most intriguing moment of the film because Nolan includes close-up of a water-filled tub Gene kneeling on pillows holding her own head down under the water taking some pills and leaving an unsigned note but historically Gene tatlog's suicide was questioned by some including by your brother Hugh believing that American intelligence agencies might have murdered her to keep Oppenheimer focused and to clip off a possible communist influence and Nolan references that Conspiracy Theory with this brief shot just a second or too long of a gloved hand holding Gene down underwater drowning her though due to this movie's subjective qualities and editing style it could be hinted to just be a fantasy in oppenheimer's mind either way I love that Nolan tipped his hat to this in 1945 Oppenheimer and Groves pick a site that Abby calls Trinity saying batter my heart three-person God a reference to the poem by John Dunn poetry that was reportedly introduced to Oppenheimer by Gene tatlock Groves and Oppenheimer meet secretary War Henry Stinson who crosses Kyoto off the list of targets because he had his wife honeymoon there which is apparently true he gives them to the Potsdam Conference in July to have a successful test and despite the rain they successfully detonate the gadget and Nolan shot a practical explosion he says this is a real boom boom that they detonated with very very little VFX now initially we see it completely without sound just so we can take in the visuals of it you'll notice among this Pillar of Fire you can see little Sparks multiple techniques were experimented with by Nolan's special effects team led by Scott Fisher and Andrew Jackson ping pong balls are smashed together paint was hurled across walls luminous magnesium Solutions were developed for this the only sound we hear other than oppenheimer's breath is the sound of him and Jean having sex earlier in the movie and him reading the Sanskrit and now I am become death the destroyer of worlds and then Nolan hits us with the boom because the sound wave would be delayed first it's extremely loud at opi's observation camp and then it's still pretty loud but just not as loud it gross there area and then a softer Rumble from where teller and fame men are watching from so weeks after this on August 8th Harry S Truman goes on the radio to announce that the bombs are dropped over Hiroshima Nagasaki and the movie has been getting some criticism for not showing these but this is a point of view fixed movie it would be horrible if this movie cut to the Carnage I know Hiroshima Nagasaki it would just be a complete artistic betrayal to the story that this movie's trying to tell and really would just come up as so excessive now during oppenheimer's victory speech The Stomping on the bleachers triggers him the walls behind him quake and he becomes unable to hear any of the cheering just like he was at first unable to hear the bomb just really a single blood curdling scream and then a flash of light an Oppenheimer sees a woman as her skin burns off her face this is actually a cameo by Nolan's daughter Flora Nolan he also included Florida shot in interstellar as one of the kids in the back of the truck during the dust storm Nolan apparently loves putting his kids in apocalyptic scenarios to make these threats as horrifying as possible to him Oppenheimer still in a day's steps and what he thinks is a burnt Corp and he just seems haunted by the tearful Elation of everyone in the room he sees a couple hooking up under the bleachers which we know will lead to a baby boom which means even more victims of possible nuclear war but also we see Lily and Donald hornig the people who are protesting the use of the bomb towards the end of World War II after Hitler shot himself they are now sobbing at the use of a bomb then outside Oppenheimer sees the guy puking his guts out what kind of world has he brought so Oppenheimer tells President Harry Truman played by Gary Oldman that he feels he has blood on his hands and Truman says as he walks out don't let that cry baby back in here reportedly Harry trubin did call J Robert Oppenheimer a crybaby scientist now in the Final Act of the movie It's revealed that straws orchestrated oppenheimer's security clearance hearing as a denial to shut him up really though just to suffer his own Denial in his confirmation hearing after David L Hill played by Rami Malek a scientist Strauss chose to speak on his behalf because he was part of the Chicago group and not part of oppenheimer's Los Alamos cult Hill turns on Strauss instead so both Rivals are rejected and the film ends back with a fateful 1947 conversation between J Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein by the pond at Princeton where Einstein warns that just like him ABI will be given awards that are not for him but for the award givers and we see that future sure in which president Lyndon Johnson will present the Fermi award to Opie in 1963 right after he takes office teller returns to Sheikh Abby's hand but Kitty refuses to shake his hand which was based on a true story and something that teller reportedly later cried over in the final exchange of the movie we learned that Albert and Opie's exchange had nothing to do with straws but was really simply these two scientists circling back on their worries about teller's math back in the early 40s Oppenheimer says Albert when I came to you with those calculations we thought we might start a chain reaction that might destroy the entire world and Albert says I remember it well what of it hanapi says I believe we did Ludwig yornsson's Amazing Music storms in Einstein frowns now filled with the same existential dread and guilt that Abby suffers from that every decision he made as a scientist only brought the world closer to Doom we hear the returning bleachers stomping we see ICBM Rockets exhaust Trails through the clouds Opie's sitting back in Borden's B2 cockpit watching nuclear war go down around him nukes of rap doing on the surface of the planet a wall of fire engulfing the globe and then Opie shuts his eyes closed just as he did his nightmares at the beginning of the film and we cut to Black on a discordant violin note as Prometheus is chained to a rock and tortured for eternity thank you so much for watching this and let me know your favorite part of this film subscribe to all three of new Rockstar's channels follow me on all social platforms at eavos thanks for watching bye foreign [Music]