GUEST POST | Oppenheimer vs Hollywood: a next-generation perspective
Ellen Thomas
Thanks so much for subscribing to read all my words in your inbox - from my film club picks to my ongoing efforts to document the journey of making my new film. I’m really grateful to have you along for the ride 🙏 GUEST POST | Oppenheimer vs Hollywood: a next-generation perspectiveBig money, big spectacle & invisible truths in Christopher Nolan’s atomic blockbuster
As we mark the anniversary today of the US atomic attack on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, I’m back with the last of three commemorative posts considering cinema’s relationship with mankind’s most destructive weapon. If you missed them, here are the previous two – my unpaywalled deep dive into a visceral animated survivor’s story and a cross-post from historian Alex Wellerstein:10 Things to Know About Barefoot GenThirteen films that are essential to understanding the nuclear ageToday I’m sharing another guest perspective and it’s one I’m very happy to be able to give a platform to. Written by Maryam, the teenage daughter of a friend, this short essay reflects on some of the challenges of portraying atomic history on screen, especially in profit-hungry Hollywood. In particular, her questions about what Nolan obscures by keeping his focus so squarely on Oppenheimer as an individual really resonate with me as I research the overlooked human costs of Britain’s nuclear weapons history in Nevada. It was originally published in her college magazine and when she shared it with me I immediately asked if I could republish it – coming across such clear-sighted engagement with these issues from someone so young makes me feel very encouraged! As always, I welcome your comments on the ideas shared here, whether online or via email. Over to Maryam.
Romanticisation in FilmIn 2024, we all left the cinema after watching the marketing marvel that was ‘Barbenheimer’ in awe. The spectacle of both films is hard to ignore, and it created a brilliantly entertaining cinema experience. However, this phenomenon may be what diminished the execution of both films’ seemingly liberal ideologies. Hollywood, like any other capitalist industry, is a business. Its aim therefore is to make profit through entertainment. Barbie and Oppenheimer both explore serious and challenging themes - patriarchy, harassment, war, corruption. But how did you feel walking out of the cinema? Did you find these films particularly difficult to watch? Probably not. Both films successfully fulfilled the aim of entertaining us, but as a critical audience we must ask if the value that Hollywood filmmakers place on profit weakens their ability to meaningfully explore the liberal values they seem to be interested in. In Oppenheimer, director Christopher Nolan’s signature use of real effects - in this case a real explosion - creates spectacle. His choice to remove sound in the bomb testing scene and place us in a state of tension makes for an incredibly dramatic turning point in the film. However, rather than showcasing the genuine horror of the atomic bomb, the dramatic feel of this scene instead creates a feeling of awe and astonishment - supporting a narrative that praises Oppenheimer more than it criticises his actions. Another case of this is the last scene of the film. Cillian Murphy’s final lines assert the ability of his invention to end humanity. This, paired with a slow moving in of the camera and Ludwig Goransson’s violin piece “Destroyer of Worlds” creates an incredibly dramatic, goosebump-inducing ending. 
Whilst this seems to be an attempt to leave the audience with an impression of Oppenheimer’s actions creating a new and fearful age of nuclear weapons, the scene’s drama also puts Oppenheimer in the light of being a “genius mind”. This idolises him, thereby romanticising the same man the film attempts to criticise and forcing us to question whether both narratives can and should exist at the same time. Oppenheimer centers around the physicist’s alleged heroism for his success in making the nuclear bomb, as well as the guilt he suffers from in the aftermath. Although these are necessary points in understanding his character and his intentions, this directs our attention away from the real victims of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The film largely ignores the suffering of the victims, referencing it in only one scene where Oppenheimer imagines witnessing his audience’s flesh melting, leaving the impact of his guilt as imagined rather than realised.
The devastating impact on the victims is perhaps left to documentary or, in other words, to media that has less profit on the line, as it could be argued that a blockbuster Hollywood film is rarely able to tread the fine line of providing entertainment and also avoiding romanticisation. The bottom line is that Oppenheimer deliberately manipulates the audience to feel sympathy for the man that played a core part in one of the major tragedies of the 20th century. Christopher Nolan uses the trope of the tortured man in many of his films, such as the Dark Knight trilogy and Memento¹. For these films, which explore fictional characters and less sensitive material, this may be an appropriate choice of characterisation, but to use this to describe a controversial figure like Oppenheimer whilst largely disregarding the consequences of his actions on the people it affected most, is insensitive and grossly immature. And so to return to where we started - with the ‘Barbenheimer’ juggernaut - both Oppenheimer and Barbie fall into a common problem: the filmmakers’ and studios’ objectives collide. The desire to communicate something meaningful is diminished by the desire to profit off the film. And it is an irony that is not limited to these two films. It lives within the film industry. Hollywood’s greed for profit is a part of America’s capitalist economy and inevitably impacts the content it shares. I believe is it important as a consumer of film to recognise where this is happening and criticise that which presents itself as well-intentioned but may be obscuring a selfish motive. Maryam Arya is 18 years old and recently finished studying at City of Norwich School 6th form. She’s planning to study a degree in Ecology as she’s always had a passion for science and the environment in particular. Outside of academia, politics, film and music are some of her biggest interests.
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And of course in Nolan’s latest epic The Odyssey, released after Maryam’s essay was originally published. Support this work: My writing and film research is now 100% free for everyone, supported by those who value the time that goes into “making the invisible visible.” If you’d like to support the journey, you can still support me with a regular paid subscription of £4 a month or make a one-off contribution to my coffee kitty. Thanks! 🙏
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