Personal impression of me, one Japanese twenties, of watching "Oppenheimer" in IMAX

I am Japanese. I write this blog not only in Japanese but also in English. But I'm not good at English very much, so I think that there are many mistakes in my English. I appropriate your understanding.

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All content in this article is my own impression. One person's subjective impression.

And I don't intend to give out too many spoilers, but there are parts of this article refer to the content of the movie and topics that appeared in the movie.

Please understand them before you read this article.

Recently, I watched the movie, "Oppenheimer" directed by Christopher Nolan in IMAX.

First, I'll show you my impression about IMAX of this movie.

・About picture

The pictures were projected all over the large IMAX screen. It was impressive. In the scene of Trinity test, the red flame was seen clearly. I was scared.

・About sound

Although I can't compare because I haven't watched this movie in the theater which doesn't have IMAX, I felt the sound was very great than another movie I have ever watched.

Because I could hear great sound, I thought that it was good choice for me to watch in IMAX even if I paid a little more money.

 

When I heard roar in the movie scene of blast, I thought as if our seats were vibrating.

When I watched the scene of Trinity test, I think that I frowned. Because clear picture and roar of blast scared me, and I was disgusted by the fact "this terrifying event was actually happened".

Also, "footsteps" is one important element of this film, and the feeling of approaching footsteps sound was also frightening.

・Others

The IMAX screen has a lot of seats. I felt it was great to be able to watch this movie with many people. Even though I went to the movie on a weekday, I think the seats were about 80% full. I think that there were a lot of young people. Probably, many people went there during their school's spring vacation like me.

Even if there are many audiences, I didn't talk with them, and nobody chatted during the movie. But when the head of people who sat in front of me was moving, I thought that "Something moved his heart". And I felt atmosphere of theater vaguely. I couldn't feel such when I watch movies in my hometown's theater with little people. I could feel good point of to watch movie in movie theater not at home.

About understanding the content

I saw the opinion "You should remember faces of characters before you watch the movie" and "You should do preparation" on the Internet. 

So, I went to the movie after taking look the introduction of the characters on the movie's website.

I didn't do other preparation just before I went to movie.

But in February, I watched NHK's TV documentary program about Oppenheimer. (The TV program's title is "映像の世紀バタフライエフェクト", subtitle is "マンハッタン計画 オッペンハイマーの栄光と罪".)  

映像の世紀バタフライエフェクト - NHK

マンハッタン計画 オッペンハイマーの栄光と罪 - 映像の世紀バタフライエフェクト - NHK

And my alma mater elementary school in Osaka put effort into peace education.

During summer vacation, I have one or two school days. One of the school day's dates was 6th Augst. Our teachers taught us that "About 70 years ago today, in Hiroshima, such things happened and about 70 years ag 9th, in Nagasaki, such things happened". I learned about war with picture book and video, sometimes, actual photos. I had such chance to learn war and think peace many times.

And, while I was in elementary school, the place visit on 6th grader's school trip every year is Hiroshima.

In addition, I chose "Japanese history" as elective subjects of social study when I was high school student. 

I went to movie in such condition. 

There were as many characters as rumored, I thought "Who?" to a few person in the latter half of the movie. But it was not so much that I couldn't follow story.

I also think I understood most of the overall storyline. I didn't feel that I couldn't follow story.

However, my knowledge of world history is poor. I knew about Red Scare a little because I searched about it when I watched "Roman Holidays". But I had no knowledge about Spanish Civil War. So, I thought that "Why topics of Spain appear many times in this movie?"

Last year, I watched "Napoleon" directed by Ridley Scott. I couldn't understand story of "Napoleon" because I have no knowledge about world history.

Knowledge is not indispensable, but it is beneficial in many ways.

A little part is difficult to understand for me, but I could understand almost part because my knowledge which I got from Japanese history education and peace education which I have learned supported to understand story.   

In addition, I felt fear about progressing the date in the movie, and I could imagine about slide from which Oppenheimer looked away in the movie. There were such things I could feel and think because of having some knowledge.

There were many parts unpleasant for me. But it doesn't mean that "This movie is bad". I was disgusted by those parts because I imagined cruelty and misery about things happen next in the movie or I was very sad about the fact that so many people, and my own country people, had died or been hurt. I was uncomfortable because of such reason but I don't think this movie is bad. I thought that "I'm glad that I watched this movie. This movie is masterpiece."

 Additionally, my impression, "This movie is good", of this movie which has one of the themes of the development of the atomic bomb doesn't mean I approve of nuclear weapons at all. (Personally, I strongly thought that this movie has message of antinuclear.)

That's all of my impression. As I said before, this is just my subjective personal impression.

See you again!