Don't Expect To Find Deleted Oppenheimer Scenes Anywhere – Here's Why
After witnessing the propulsive pace and devastating awe contained in the WWII epic "Oppenheimer," it's pretty clear that its writer and director has been thinking about this story for a long time. It may even be the most Christopher Nolan film that Christopher Nolan has ever made. At over three hours, the sprawling film spans the crucial years of Oppenheimer's life in great detail. Everything Nolan wanted to say with this film was said, which means there won't be any kind of director's cut on the horizon that delves any deeper into one of the most significant time periods of the 20th century.
Star Cillian Murphy, who has worked closely with Nolan on more than one occasion, confirmed to Collider that every scene they shot during production appears in the finished film:
"There's no deleted scenes in Chris Nolan movies. That's why there are no DVD extras on his movies because the script is the movie. He knows exactly what's going to end up [...] he's not fiddling around with it trying to change the story. That is the movie."
The majority of Nolan's vision is dedicated to the formulation and construction of the atomic bomb, with the last act focusing more on the consequences of that creation and how it contributed to Oppenheimer's eventual downfall. Some critiques thrown at the film point to a significant downshift that occurs after the detonation of the bomb that veers into more of a procedural courtroom drama. If there was ever any intention to take out certain sequences in "Oppenheimer," the back half of the film would offer the most options. Obviously, that wasn't the case and Nolan made the film he wanted to make, one that feels like a big summer blockbuster with a conscience.
Do film fans still care about deleted scenes?
Maybe the definitive way that Nolan crafts his films marks a significant change in the way we think about movies and what kind of questions critics and interviewers ask directors about their projects. I will always love physical media, but the peak era of DVDs and special features was left in the rearview years ago. The idea of deleted scenes always sounds exciting and it can help reveal how certain filmmakers think about how they put their films together, which in turn acts as a kind of film school for cinephiles willing to sift through all the added extras.
The problem is, those extras don't really exist anymore for most new releases. When "Oppenheimer" hits shelves and the Blu-ray ships out to millions of homes, there will absolutely be a bevy of features about the making of Nolan's epic. But there won't be any additional footage that could have ended up in the finished film. It's all up there on the screen. Knowing this makes "Oppenheimer" even more of a cinematic triumph that was just as carefully put together as the A-bomb itself.
Nolan also continues to shoot on film and in IMAX, which is incredibly cost prohibitive. That means every shot-making decision comes with an even greater price tag. Nolan spoke to this point back in 2012 on the heels of "The Dark Knight Rises," telling MTV:
"I tend to try and weed things out on paper because it's crazy expensive to shoot things that aren't going to be in the film. It also takes up a lot of time and energy. Pretty much with all my films, there are very few deleted scenes, which always disappoints the DVD crowd."
For the sake of art, maybe a little disappointment isn't such a bad thing.