Spike Lee has offered his thoughts on Christopher Nolan‘s atomic bomb blockbuster “Oppenheimer,” calling it a “great film” but adding that he wishes it showed “what happened to the Japanese people.”
“[Nolan] is a massive filmmaker… and this is not a criticism. It’s a comment,” the filmmaker said, speaking with the Washington Post. “If [‘Oppenheimer’] is three hours, I would like to add some more minutes about what happened to the Japanese people. People got vaporized. Many years later, people are radioactive. It’s not like he didn’t have power. He tells studios what to do. I would have loved to have the end of the film maybe show what it did, dropping those two nuclear bombs on Japan.”
Universal Pictures, the studio behind “Oppenheimer,” did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Nolan’s film centers on the life of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who led American efforts to create the atomic bomb. In 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians.
Based on Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s 2005 biography of Oppenheimer, Nolan’s film focuses on the scientist’s tumultuous life and internal struggle following the attack. However, “Oppenheimer” does not portray the bombings or their aftermath in Japan, instead largely staying confined to its protagonist’s perspective. The omission was a major topic of critical discussion around the film, with Los Angeles Times critic Justin Chang defending the decision, saying that Nolan treats the attacks “as a profound absence, an indictment by silence.”
“Understand, this is all love,” Lee added. “And I bet [Nolan] could tell me some things he would change about ‘Do the Right Thing’ and ‘Malcolm X.'”
Despite his comments on “Oppenheimer,” Lee made his praise of Nolan clear, telling the Post that he showed “Dunkirk” to his students in his New York University film class.
“Oppenheimer” became a summer phenomenon, grossing more than $930 million and counting globally. The three-hour drama has become Nolan’s third-highest grossing movie ever, behind 2008’s “The Dark Knight” and 2012’s “The Dark Knight Rises.” The film does not yet have a Japanese release set.
