Christopher Nolan’s flair for creating enthralling cinematic experiences is well-documented. His films, which range from The Dark Knight Trilogy to Inception and, most recently, Tenet are always a perfect blend of theatrical flair and engrossing storytelling that has made him a darling of critics and earned him a ton of money at the box office.
With his track record, we do not expect his upcoming biopic Oppenheimer to be anything less than epic and satisfying. Perhaps that is why his decision to use real explosives for the film about the development of the world’s first atomic bomb doesn’t shock us.
Oppenheimer, starring Cillian Murphy, will tell the stories of J. Robert Oppenheimer, who helped develop the atomic bomb. Nolan opened up about his approach to that film in a recent interview with Empire Magazine.
A pivotal part of Oppenheimer’s journey was the Trinity test – an event that changed the course of history forever. The Trinity test was the first demonstration of the might of the atomic bomb.
To fulfill Nolan’s desire to "feel the danger, feel the threat of all this somehow" and ensure that audiences relive Oppenheimer’s experiences, he gave his visual effects supervisor a challenge. He told them, "Let’s do all these things, but without any computer graphics."
Nolan also talked about how it felt to pull that stunt off. He said, "I mean, I’ve done a lot of explosions in a lot of films. But there is something very unique and particular about being out in a desert in the middle of the night with a big cast, and really just doing some enormous explosions and capturing that."
If his words are any indication, we certainly believe his decision to forgo CGI for this film helped with its experience. For one, staging real explosions made the project quite real. He said, "You couldn’t help but come back to this moment when they were doing this on the ultimate scale, that in the back of their minds they knew there was this possibility that they would set fire to the atmosphere. It was pretty amazing to engage in that kind of tension."
Nolan wished to transmit Oppenheimer’s genius to the viewers. He also wanted the story to be as personal as possible. To achieve these goals, he wrote the film’s script in the first person so that everything that happens does so through the protagonist’s eyes.
In his words, "I wanted to really go through this story with Oppenheimer; I didn’t want to sit by him and judge him. That seemed a pointless exercise. That’s more the stuff of documentary, or political theory, or history of science. This is a story that you experience with him — you don’t judge him. You are faced with these irreconcilable ethical dilemmas with him."
By the way, Oppenheimer will be the longest film Nolan has ever made. Last month, the auteur told Total Film that the film is "kissing three hours." If the film is truly as spectacular as we have been told, we are sure cinemagoers will enjoy every minute of it.
Oppenheimer will brighten up theater screens for the first time on July 21.
