Not a lot of movies can have as huge an impact as Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer had at the box office last year. Other than being a massive critical and commercial success, the movie was a cinematographic and acting masterpiece as well. The movie revolved around the story of the lead physicist on the Manhattan Project, J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man behind the invention of atomic bombs, and how he was humiliated after he helped the USA win World War II.
The author of American Prometheus talks about the movie Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer was mostly based on the book, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer which was a biography of the American scientist written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. Both authors were fairly impressed by the movie when it came out.
Kai Bird recently talked about the movie in an interview with Hindustan Times at the Jaipur Literature Festival and also appreciated the word and dedication of Christopher Nolan in making the same. Kai said,
“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.”
Although Bird was really mesmerized by the movie, he still thinks certain major chunks of Oppenheimer’s story were not covered in it. He said,
“It’s very long, but even three hours of movie can’t do what a book can do in 720 pages. There’s nothing in the movie, for instance, about Oppenheimer’s childhood in New York, growing up very privileged. There’s nothing about what Oppenheimer did after the 1954 trial, when he retreated every year to St John Virgin Islands.”
These parts of the story that were missing in the movie might indicate that a sequel could be necessary to tell the story of Oppenheimer better.
Kai Bird talks about the tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
As it was shown in the movie as well, due to the jealousy of Admiral Lewis Strauss towards J. Robert Oppenheimer, Strauss pulled a lot of strings to jeopardize the reputation of Oppenheimer who was labeled as a hero after the end of the Second World War. Bird talked about how the situation of the scientist deteriorated after the 1954 secret trial and said,
“It’s a sad story. He was really humiliated and destroyed in that secret trial. The transcripts of the entire month-long proceedings was leaked to The New York Times. All the private details of his life, his love affairs, his left-wing politics, were released. Everyone in America was left to believe that he’s an untrustworthy man, maybe disloyal, maybe a spy for the Russians. This pained Oppenheimer deeply.”
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer turned out to be a massive critical and commercial success at the box office as the movie went on to gross almost $958 million against a budget of $100 million.
Oppenheimer has also received 13 nominations for the 96th Academy Awards which is the the most number of nominations any movie has received at this year’s Academy Awards.
