In 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Japan during World War 2, which instantly killed off thousands of civilians and turned the cities inhabitable for years. Decades later in 2023, Christopher Nolan took the initiative to tell the story of the development of that atomic bomb, from J. Robert Oppenheimer’s perspective.
Offering the world with an incredible World War 2 drama Oppenheimer featuring Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, and more, turned into a $900M success. However, critics and filmmakers like Spike Lee claimed that it was unjust on Christopher Nolan’s end to avoid the Japanese side of the story. But finally, American Prometheus’ author came to defend Nolan’s controversial decision with cold facts.
Christopher Nolan Criticized for Avoiding Japanese POV
Following the release of Christopher Nolan‘s summer blockbuster Oppenheimer which was adapted from Kai Bird’s novel American Prometheus, the movie began witnessing major success at the box office. Bagging $900M globally, Nolan’s World War 2 drama featuring Cillian Murphy got hailed for its storytelling, stellar cast, and intense cinematography.
However, one thing that got kint-picked by critics and other acclaimed filmmakers was Christopher Nolan’s controversial decision to avoid the Japanese POV. Choosing to refrain from offering a glimpse of the aftermath of the atomic blast in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Nolan decided to simply show J. Robert Oppenheimer’s perspective.
This decision got called out by renowned film director Spike Lee, during his interview with The Washington Post, where he noted that Oppenheimer is indeed a “great film” but it should have shown “what happened to the Japanese people.”
“If [‘Oppenheimer’] is three hours, I would like to add some more minutes about what happened to the Japanese people. People got vaporized.”
Similarly, a handful of critics agreed with Spike Lee’s discussion and soon Christopher Nolan was criticized for not showing the aftermath in his Oscar-nominated movie.
American Prometheus’ Author Defends Christopher Nolan’s Decision
However, recently, after witnessing major criticisms surrounding Oppenheimer and Christopher Nolan, the American Prometheus author Kai Bird came in support of the filmmaker. Having no complaints about the movie not doing justice to the source material, Bird defended Nolan’s decision during an exclusive interview at Jaipur Literature Festival, via Hindustan Times.
“Let me make it clear that the movie by Nolan is fabulous. It’s a great artistic achievement. And it’s a wonderful adaptation of the book. I can recognise in the dialogues whole sentences and paras taken out of the book. It’s not only an artistically visual experience, but also teaches a lot of history. And it’s accurate. I’m very grateful to Nolan.”
Appreciating Christopher Nolan’s storytelling, Kai Bird proceeded to address the criticisms that were pointed at the filmmaker for avoiding the Japanese perspective. The author of American Prometheus thus defended the filmmaker by sharing some cold hard facts that perfectly explain why the scenes were never in the movie.
“I understand what Nolan was doing there. The movie, in large part, is from Oppenheimer’s point of view. In fact, a large part of the screenplay is in first person. So you’re learning all this history from his perspective. It’s clear in the movie that he’s deeply pained and emotional about the tragedy of the loss of lives in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But he was never there. He never saw it.”
Explaining how he wrote the book from Oppenheimer’s perspective and how the book was adapted into the movie which further showed the scientist’s perspective, Kai Bird claimed that Christopher Nolan beautifully presented the whole thing. He further noted the victory speech scene where Cillian Murphy‘s character is seen hallucinating the aftermath of the blast, which gives a powerful glimpse into his mental state of the character, as he was well aware of the effects.
