Synopsis:

The Passion of J. Robert Oppenheimer focuses on the atomic bomb development and Oppenheimer’s security clearance. Lewis Strauss senate hearing scenes removed completely while introducing his character in the context of conspiratorial intervention. Narrative follows Oppenheimer’s perspective almost exclusively.

Intentions:

I’d like to commend the filmmakers and Universal on an incredible 4K physical home release. It is such a good-looking movie. As we know it, Nolan loves to intercut- he does them with tensing up action scenes, he did it as a whole movie in Dunkirk with the 3 time dilations, and in this one he manages to intercut between two court room dramas (between Oppie’s hearing and Strauss’s hearing) while showing the assembly of the atomic bomb in Los Alamos. The ambition was often thrilling, yet occasionally erratic. After seeing it a few times, I decided to streamline the story while maintaining the expressionist form of editing. I wanted to remove the Strauss POV scenes (Fusion) while maintaining the Oppenheimer scenes as best as possible.

Change List:

1. All 2.20:1 footage upscaled to 4K UHD 1.78:1 for uniform aspect ratio throughout the edit. All scenes that were previously 2.20:1 had to be reframed to maintain intention. 2. Added names as certain characters show up. This was just for me because I’m stupid. There were so many characters here and having name cards may not be much effect to the audience. But I don’t think it hurts to add. I thought it might help just having text somewhere on screen as a mental note when characters are brought up later. This was just a “me” problem lol. 3. Originally, the story had two narratives running in parallel: 1. Fission (Color: Oppie’s POV) and 2. Fusion (B/W: Strauss’s POV). After removing Strauss’s POV, I took Oppie’s security trial as flashforwards and made those B/W while the rest are in color. The two narratives running in this edit are 1. Pre-trial (Color) and 2. Trial (B/W). I felt that it was easier to immerse in using color as “chronologic and psychological markers” instead of “perspectives”. I struggled whether to make the Trial scenes in color instead, while all of Los Alamos are in black and white (because those were flashbacks after all). But I think aesthetically it felt better the other way around. The color scheme purposely switches at some point later for dramatic effect, but hopefully it’s unnoticeable and works at a subconscious level. 4. Removed the Lewis Strauss senate hearing, but I didn’t cut the character out completely. The movie gave him essentially 3 causes for his vindictiveness: 1. Oppie conspiring scientists against him 2. Oppie embarrassed him during the Norway isotope export hearing 3. Their disagreements on the viability and use of the hydrogen bomb regarding Russia. Although true and well documented, the first two felt laughably weak sauce compared to the third. In this edit, I hammered down the third conflict by introducing Strauss much later into the story in the context of political orchestrations than portray him with this misguided ambivalence. In this edit, RDJ now shows up like a wrecking ball- just an absolute force of nature showing you the real machinations as opposed to having Mr. Robot explain the whole thing to you at the end all over again. Ehrenreich’s character was removed completely (he felt so similar to Joseph Gordon Levitt in TDK Rises. Like, we don’t care if it was JFK, and I don’t care if your real name was Robin). All those scenes were removed. To all Rami Malek and Alden Ehrenreich fans, I’m so sorry. 5. End credits song replaced with Mie Yanashita’s 2005 piano score for “The Passion of Joan of Arc” silent film. It’s a more somber piece, and I think fits this story.

Additional Notes:

Title and Poster: Obviously, the title evokes The Passion of the Christ and The Passion of Joan of Arc films. I made the poster by stealing the concept from the Joan of Arc criterion cover. Just shameless. Absolutely shamelessness. Final thoughts: This was intimidating to take on, particularly since the original edit has this distinct, almost-a-parody-of-Nolan signature flow to it. But it was great. Kudos to Jennifer Lame, Nolan, and the filmmakers. Hopefully I put together something that holds together well as a companion piece to the original. I can’t wait to share it with you. Maybe, the best way I can explain it is that this fanedit plays less like “Memento” and leans towards “The Social Network”. Please let me know if you’re interested!

Other Sources:

Mie Yanashita - La Passion De Jeanne D'Arc