Galáxia (Nov 2023)
Paving the road to the apocalypse:
Abstract
Christopher Nolan Oppenheimer theatrical release was 21 July 2023. It has received stellar reviews. As of October 2023 the movie has not yet been released in Japan, but the Japanese critics have been quick to point out that the movie does not deal with the death and destruction in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The over 200,000 dead and the survivors are largely absent from the movie. Finally, while the movie is not a celebration of the man dubbed the “father of the atomic” it nevertheless paints him as sympathetic character. This treatment is objectionable. Nolan’s movie is not about the decision to drop two nuclear weapons on Japan. It is not a documentary. Yet Oppenheimer the scientist can never be separated from atomic weapons and the slaughter of civilians. That he was tortured by the result of his work is true, but he was aware at what he was doing. An underlying theme of this essay is the dangers of hubris. This essay attempts to demonstrate how both the memory of Hiroshima and Oppenheimer are linked as both being contested icons. Nolan made this movie in a hyperpolarized America. The didactic functions would have to resonate with his audience. Oppenheimer, a brilliant erudite leftwing Jewish intellectual from New York, was humiliated and hounded out of public life in an era hysterical anti-communist rightwing politics. The specter of rightwing populism hangs over the movie and is thread throughout this essay.
