Power To Tell the Whole Story Should Be Used
Spike Lee says fellow director Christopher Nolan needed to communicate more in the movie, "Oppenheimer"
Power unused for good can be judged to be a misuse of it or if not that, then a wasted opportunity and that’s what Spike Lee says about a fellow movie director and producer and a $900 million (and counting) gross sales picture, “Oppenheimer.”
Lee, an accomplished film director, producer, screenwriter and actor bluntly says that Christopher Nolan didn’t take advantage of his name and authority to do what Lee believes should have been done in the telling of the story of Robert Oppenheimer, a theoretical physicist, director of the Manhattan Project’s Los Alamos Laboratory and the so-called “Father of the Atomic Bomb.”
Lee spoke pointedly about a lost opportunity and maybe an artist and director’s responsibility, saying bluntly about the movie, "If it’s three hours, I would like to add some more minutes about what happened to the Japanese people," he told the Washington Post. "People got vaporized. Many years later, people are radioactive. It’s not like he didn’t have power. He tells studios what to do."
Lee’s concern, professional opinion — or complaint — seems to be a reasonable argument, even if the “art” of the moviemaking of this particular story wasn’t his work.
He communicates a historical fact that is paramount to the storytelling of Oppenheimer, the United States government, the atomic bomb and the deadly and health effects on the Japanese people.
As Lee says, “people got vaporized.” It’s a critical part of the story. And for those who survived, what was next and forever in their lives as far as their health and existence?
Nolan, due to his reputation in the entertainment industry, had the power, Lee contends — “he tells studios what to do” — to tell what wasn’t told in the movie and should have been communicated for a more complete, better telling of it.
It’s a strong argument.
For the record, “Lee said he would have preferred the film to end with the dropping of the bombs in Japan. He also clarified that his comments were not criticism. ‘This is all love,’ he said,” reported Alexandra Del Rosario at the Los Angeles Times.
"I bet (Nolan) could tell me some things he would change about 'Do the Right Thing' and 'Malcolm X,’” he humbly admitted.
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