Christopher Nolan explains why ‘Oppenheimer’ doesn’t show Hiroshima and Nagasaki

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Director Christopher Nolan explained why “Oppenheimer”, his most recent box office success, did not show the explosion of the atomic bomb and the consequent destruction of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in Japan.

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In an interview with Variety, the filmmaker clarified what their intentions were.

“The film shows Oppenheimer’s subjective experience. It was always my intention to stay true to that. He learned about the bombing along with the rest of the world, and I wanted to show a person who was beginning to better understand the unintended consequences of his actions. It was both about what I show and what I don’t show.”

Previously, acclaimed filmmaker Spike Lee even questioned Nolan’s choice in a report to The Washington Post.

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“[Nolan] is an incredible filmmaker… And that’s not a criticism. It’s a commentary,” the filmmaker said. “If [‘Oppenheimer’] is three hours long, I’d like to add a few minutes about what happened to the Japanese people. People were vaporized. Many years later, people were still radioactive. It’s not like he didn’t have power. He told the studios what he was going to do. I would have loved to see the end of the film showing what happened when he dropped those two nuclear bombs on Japan.”

Recently, Oppenheimer became Nolan’s biggest film (other than Batman) at the American box office.

Starring Cillian Muprhy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon and Florence Pugh, Oppenheimer follows the trajectory of the scientist who led the development of the first atomic bomb, in the USA, during World War II.