Summary
Christopher Nolan has recently given fans a deeper insight into one of the most striking scenes in his latest successful outing,Oppenheimer. His comments come as the film dominates the box office alongside the unlikely companion filmBarbie,based on the Mattel toy of the same name.
Oppenheimeris a biographical drama that was written and directed by Nolan. Based on the life and times of the eponymous physicist, the film tells the story of his education, his involvement with the monumental and (in)famous Manhattan Project, and ends on the tragic note of his downfall in the public eye. Nolan drew primarily from the 2005 biographical workAmerican Prometheusby Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, turning it into a three-hour hit, withOppenheimeraudiences exploding with positive reactionsfrom the pre-release premiere.
RELATED:Oppenheimer: The Manhattan Project, Explained
True to the early reviews,Oppenheimerhas been a triumph, with Nolan’s vision and direction earning as much praise as the stellar performances, from his choice of tone tohis recreation of a nuclear explosion without CGI. One scene that stood out to many was the speech in which the titular character revealed to civilians in Los Alamos that the first bomb had detonated in Hiroshima, where the crowd fanfare seemed to die out for a long moment, only to come back up later. Speaking toVulture, the director explained his intentions with the scene and other subtle manifestations of his vision for the project. “The whole film is about consequences,” Nolan said. “The delayed onset of consequences that people often forget — the film is full of different representations of that. Some visceral, some more narrative.”
The scene was designed to echo the delayed sounds seen in the Trinity test scene, linking the two events as points where Oppenheimer’s guilt manifests. “As I immersed myself in Oppenheimer’s story, what I eventually came to is the realization that even though he never specifically apologized for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, his actions the night after the bombing were the actions of somebody truly possessed by guilt, truly possessed by a desire to undo what he had done,” Nolan said. “So I felt that in the telling, I wanted to be true to my interpretation of the interior turmoil he must have felt, how that would’ve manifested itself.” These parallels, similar toOppenheimer’s unique use of black and white to color shifts, are one of several tools Nolan used to craft what many are already calling a masterpiece.
While the film’s nuance might be lost on some more casual movie viewers, there is no doubt that Nolan has put out another treat for fans of the deep and layered storytelling he has become well known for. Cillian Murphy’s part in creating the spectacle cannot be understated, with his performance inOppenheimerranking as one of his best movie rolesin a stacked career full of excellent performances. The cultural phenomena that led to the film, with its dark and real subject matter, being paired up with theBarbiemovie to birth Barbenheimer has added an unexpected but welcome stream of moviegoers who might have skipped the biopic entirely.
While there have been some hangups with the film, particularly with Warner Bros. Discovery’s Japanese branch and others citing insensitive marketing in light of the film and the need formakingOppenheimerscene alterations with CGI in several countries,Oppenheimerhas still been a success deserving of a place in Nolan’s elite filmography. How much further the release goes and what comes next for the iconic filmmaker are yet to be seen.
