Christopher Nolan has addressed why Oppenheimer doesn't directly depict the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The film focuses on the titular J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb. The combined death toll of the 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are put at between 129,000 and 226,000 people, mostly civilians.
"We know so much more than he did at the time," Nolan said at a New York screening of the movie of why the bombings aren't shown (H/T IndieWire). "He learned about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the radio, the same as the rest of the world."
What is shown in the movie, however, is the Trinity Test – the first time the bomb was tested. Nolan used practical effects to recreate the moment; the film contains no CGI at all.
Nolan also alternates between black and white in the movie, which he told Total Film magazine was a reflection of objective vs. subjective perspectives. "I wrote the script in the first person, which I'd never done before," he revealed. "I don't know if anyone has ever done that, or if that's a thing people do or not… The film is objective and subjective. The colour scenes are subjective; the black-and-white scenes are objective. I wrote the colour scenes from the first person. So for an actor reading that, in some ways, I think it'd be quite daunting."
Oppenheimer is in theaters this July 21. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming major movie release dates for everything else 2023 has in store – and for even more on Oppenheimer, see our interview with Nolan through the link.
