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TagChristopher Nolan

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Nuclear war concept. Explosion of nuclear bomb. Creative artwork decoration in dark.

What Oppenheimer Teaches Us About Today’s Cultural Moment

Let us hope we have the wisdom to take heed of the messages the movie communicates.

Oppenheimer is the best film Hollywood has produced since The Godfather. The movie brilliantly recounts how the theoretical physicist and genius J. Robert Oppenheimer led the urgent U.S. effort to develop the atomic bomb during World War II that culminated in the obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and inducted the world into the Atomic Age. The movie is gripping in the (mostly) true story it tells, with acting tours de force by its stars and supporting players, brilliant writing, and terrific cinematography. But, like all great art, it evokes reactions in the viewer beyond what the filmmaker might have intended. For me, even though the story takes place between the 1920s and 1950s, the film highlights two cautionary lessons acutely relevant to Read More ›

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Atomic weapon. After the US bomber Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. Generative AI

American Prometheus: Destroyer of Worlds

Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" meets the hype and illustrates just how world-changing the atomic bomb was

“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” So goes a line from the Hindu sacred text Bhagavad Gita, quoted by none other than J. Robert Oppenheimer, the quantum physicist who headed up the development of the first atomic bomb during World War II. Christopher Nolan’s new film Oppenheimer hit theaters on July 21 and has given audiences a taste of why the “father of the atomic bomb” entertained that haunting, little phrase. Nolan hit this movie out of the park. With a star-studded cast, a juxtaposed and non-linear storytelling mode, and a beautiful soundtrack to boot, some critics are calling it the most important movie of the century. That might be because the production of the atom bomb Read More ›