Summary
Christopher Nolan’sOppenheimerreceived an R-rating, making it the director’s third film to do so and the third one since 2002’s Insomnia. ThoughOppenheimerhas been highly praised by the audience, critics, and other filmmakers alike, multiple scenes in the film are receiving backlash. As the movie keeps solidifying itself as one of the biggest movie events of the summer, and the year, actor Cillian Murphy speaks out on the controversial scenes and makes a candid admission.
Oppenheimerfollows the life of American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the Atomic Bomb and one the leaders in The Manhattan Project. Though the story mainly focuses on the nuclear weapon and its repercussions on the war and humanity at large, a more personal and emotional outlook is presentedthrough Florence Pugh’s character. Portrayed by Pugh, Jean Tatlock was an American psychiatrist and physician, and one of Oppenheimer’s students, with whom he would later have an affair. The couple’s sexual relationship is explicitly portrayed in the film through nudity scenes, specifically focusing on Pugh. Such scenes, which are some of the reasons why the film earned an R rating, have been heavily criticized by the public, who question its necessity and artistic significance.
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Oppenheimer actor Murphy commented on the matter as the film becomes increasingly popular with the public and the discourse strengthens. “I think they were vital in this movie,” Murphy said in an interview withGQ UK. The actor explained that the scenes were key to the story and one of the most crucial emotional parts of the entire film. “Listen, no one likes doing them [sex scenes], they’re the most awkward possible part of the job,” Murphy explains, “but sometimes you have to get on with it.”
As for Nolan, he also shared his thoughts on the debate,even beforeOppenheimer’s theatrical opening. Like Murphy, Nolan also believes the explicit scenes were necessary to the narrative. For the award-winning director, it was important that the audience felt they understood the scientist on a personal level, understanding what made him a human outside his career, which subsequently entailed knowing about his charm and relationships with women.
The scenes with Pugh are not the only ones raising eyebrows from audience members. Earlier on, there is a sequence in which Oppenheimer, a student, injects cyanide into his professor’s apple because he caused Oppenheimer to miss one of his hero’s lectures. Although this event is taken from the biographyAmerican Prometheus, whichinspired Nolan to makeOppenheimer, there is no historical evidence that this took place, which is why the physicist’s grandson, Charles Oppenheimer, would’ve preferred the scene be removed from Nolan’s retelling. “I definitely would’ve removed the apple scene,” Oppenheimer said in an interview, “but I can’t imagine myself giving advice about movie stuff to Nolan. He’s an expert, he’s the artist, and he’s a genius in this area.”
