Before Christopher Nolan, Oliver Stone Could've Made Oppenheimer
Director Oliver Stone, speaking from his Twitter account on August 1, 2023, mentioned that he finally managed to see Christopher Nolan's new hit biopic "Oppenheimer," and that he was incredibly impressed with the result. This is no small praise, as "Oppenheimer" might be compared to Stone's own work. Stone has made several stylized, big-budget biographies in his career as well, often peppering them, just like "Oppenheimer," with fistfuls of notable stars. He also likes to use multiple film formats, often flipping from color to black-and-white in the middle of a scene, a technique that Nolan also employed (the "present-day" segments in "Oppenheimer" were in black-and-white). Stone's biographies also tended to look at the wounded aspects of intense men, revealing how those in positions of power aren't always there because of resolute intelligence. Sometimes, ego is all that matters. "Oppenheimer" might be seen as a spiritual Hollywood successor to "JFK," "The Doors," "Nixon," and "W."
Stone loved Nolan's direction, and had several glowing things to say about lead actor Cillian Murphy's performance. He also noted that he had an opportunity to make a biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer himself once. Nolan's film is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer," by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. This was a book that Stone knew and even attempted a pass at turning it into a movie. He eventually moved on. Stone tweeted: "Familiar with the book by Kai Bird & Martin J. Sherwin, I once turned the project down because I couldn't find my way to its essence. Nolan has found it."
High praise indeed.
A few corrections
Stone continued his praise, tweeting:
"[Nolan's] direction is mind-boggling and eye-popping as he takes reams of incident and cycles it into an exciting torrent of action inside all the talk. Each actor is a surprise to me, especially Cillian Murphy, whose exaggerated eyes here feel normal playing a genius like Oppenheimer."
Stone, however, being familiar with the history of J. Robert Oppenheimer, wanted to point out that Nolan did fudge history a little bit (as all biopics do anyway). Stone created and directed a documentary TV series in 2012 called "The Untold History of the United States," which sought to expose the more sinister machinations of American history and the deceit regularly committed by those in power. The series was accompanied by the publication of a book authored by Stone and historian Peter Kuznick. Stone pointed out that some of the American propaganda about the atomic bomb was subtly reinforced by subplots in "Oppenheimer" and he wanted to set the record straight.
For one, "Oppenheimer" stated that the American military justified their dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as a show of strength; the Generals wanted to prove that America could indeed wipe out entire cities. As Stone corrects, America had been already fire-bombing Japanese cities for months and had already killed 800,000 people in the Tokyo fire-bombing alone. The Japanese government, Stone points out, already knew that America had the ability to wipe out cities and that they were merely calculating acceptable losses prior to the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombings.
A few more corrections
"Oppenheimer" also reinforced an old assumption about the atomic bomb that Stone felt required more explanation. As with all things, history is more nuanced than the simple narratives might have one believe.
In particular, Stone wanted to address the idea that the Japanese immediately surrendered after the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombings, their surrender being a direct result of the attack. Stone pointed out that Japan was already weakened by an August 9 attack on Manchuria by Russian forces, an attack that involved 1.5 million Russian troops and that wiped out the region's Imperial Army. The Japanese government feared the Russians, as they knew their Russian history, and how the nation unseated its own Czar in 1917. The Japanese emperor could very well be next. Notably, this attack took place only three days after the Hiroshima bombing. It was a pointed, multi-front attack that lead to the Japanese surrender. It wasn't just the atomic bomb as American narratives might have one believe.
Overall, though, Stone was positive about "Oppenheimer," and how the man was partly responsible for one of the most immoral acts in history. Nolan wisely presented the film as an epic tragedy and not an exhilarating tale of a Great Man Doing Great Things. He tweeted:
"The movie packs in the essence of the tragedy of Oppenheimer, a man historically in the middle of an impossible situation, though one, as Nolan shows, partly of his own making."
At last count, "Oppenheimer" has made over $405 million worldwide. Just like back in the 1990s, the world is refreshingly preoccupied with a dark, three-hour Hollywood biopic, and not just puffball post-9/11 revenge fantasies like "The Avengers."