Oppenheimer: Spike Lee questions Nolan’s film: ‘What happened to the Japanese?’

Responsible for several successful films, such as Infiltrated in the Klan (2018) and Do the right thing (1989), and one of the great directors of recent years, Spike Lee watched Oppenheimerfilm directed by Christopher Nolan released on July 20, 2023 in Brazilian cinemas, and questioned the production, especially from the point of view of the Japanese.

Starring Cillian Murphythe film takes place during the Second World War and accompanies the theoretical physicist Julius Robert Oppenheimer as commander of the atomic bomb program, called Manhattan Project and funded by the United States government. Because of this, two bombs were dropped in Japan, in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

However, the plot of Oppenheimer its sole focus is the involvement of the American side, and does not show the historical context of other countries that participated in the conflict. During an interview with The Washington Post, Lee took the opportunity to talk about the production.

“Chris Nolan with Oppenheimer, you know, he’s a great filmmaker. Great movie. I showed [Dunkirk, filme de 2017] in my class. And that’s not a criticism. It’s a commentary,” he said. “If it’s three hours, I’d like to add a few minutes about what happened to the Japanese people.”

People were vaporized. Many years later, people are radioactive. It’s not like he doesn’t have power. He tells the studios what to do.

“I would love for the end of the film to show what he did, dropping those two nuclear bombs on Japan,” continued the director, who explained how “it’s all love” for Christopher Nolan. “And I bet he could tell me some things that he would change in Do the right thing It is Malcolm X (1992).”