James Cameron has hit out at rival director Christopher Nolan’s Oscar-winning film Oppenheimer, calling it a “moral cop-out”.
Released in 2023, the biopic follows Cillian Murphy as “father of the atomic bomb” J Robert Oppenheimer in the build-up to him launching the explosive new technology over the city of Hiroshima in Japan. Over 135,000 people died in the ensuing devastation, 60,000 to 80,000 of whom were killed instantly, with some estimates suggesting the number could be as high as 226,000. Many vanished in the bombing due to the intensity of the heat unleashed.
The film received criticism from many Hiroshima survivors, and other groups including the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, for failing to depict the horrors of the attack. Titanic director Cameron, who is helming Ghosts of Hiroshima – a feature project based on the book by Charles Pellegrino and told through the eyes of those who survived – agreed with the critics.
«It’s interesting what [Nolan] stayed away from [in Oppenheimer],» he told Deadline. «I love the filmmaking, but I did feel that it was a bit of a moral cop-out, because it’s not like Oppenheimer didn’t know the effects.
«I don’t like to criticise another filmmaker’s film, but there’s only one brief moment where [Oppenheimer] sees some charred bodies in the audience and then the film goes on to show how it deeply moved him. I felt that it dodged the subject.»
Nolan has previously addressed the criticism that Oppenheimer’s impact on the victims is not confronted until the movie’s final scene, in which he appears harrowed by what has occurred, saying: “The film presents Oppenheimer’s experience subjectively. It was always my intention to rigidly stick to that. Oppenheimer heard about the bombing at the same time that the rest of the world did.”
He continued: “I wanted to show somebody who is starting to gain a clearer picture of the unintended consequences of his actions. It was as much about what I don’t show as what I show.”
Nolan secured his first Academy Award as Best Director for Oppenheimer at the Oscars last year, triumphing in seven of its 13 nominated categories, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Murphy. The record-breaking film grossed almost $1bn at the box office.
