In the world of acting, there’s Tom Cruise who is doing everything in his power to show that A-listers are able to do their own stunts, as he continues to outdo himself with each film, pushing his body to the limits for art. Well, behind the camera, the Tom Cruise equivalent has to be Christopher Nolan, who is willing to raise the stakes with each new film to show that CGI is for cowards and practical effects are the way to go. Even if that means creating a defacto nuclear explosion.
Speaking to TotalFilm, while promoting his upcoming film, “Oppenheimer,” Christopher Nolan explained just how his new period drama is “one of the most challenging” films he’s ever worked on. Now, how do you make the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, a historical epic with “immense scope and scale?” Well, if you’re Nolan, that means you have to recreate a nuclear detonation in real life instead of relying on those gosh-darned, new-fangled computer graphics.
“I think recreating the Trinity test [the first nuclear weapon detonation, in New Mexico] without the use of computer graphics, was a huge challenge to take on,” said Nolan. “Andrew Jackson – my visual effects supervisor, I got him on board early on – was looking at how we could do a lot of the visual elements of the film practically, from representing quantum dynamics and quantum physics to the Trinity test itself, to recreating, with my team, Los Alamos up on a mesa in New Mexico in extraordinary weather, a lot of which was needed for the film, in terms of the very harsh conditions out there – there were huge practical challenges.”
He added, “It’s a story of immense scope and scale. And one of the most challenging projects I’ve ever taken on in terms of the scale of it, and in terms of encountering the breadth of Oppenheimer’s story. There were big, logistical challenges, big practical challenges. But I had an extraordinary crew, and they really stepped up. It will be a while before we’re finished. But certainly, as I watch the results come in, and as I’m putting the film together, I’m thrilled with what my team has been able to achieve.”
As mentioned, Nolan is a filmmaker who enjoys the old-fashioned way of filmmaking. His work is always shot on film and is made specifically for theatrical release. He’s not interested in relying on CGI and digital cameras. He wants to make CINEMA, and in his mind, the way to do that is to rely on the methods that have been utilized for decades, even if it does raise the cost of his films to Marvel-ish heights.
You may remember that in the promotion for “Tenet,” the talk about the huge plane explosion sequence was all the rage, with Nolan hyping up how they really did blow up a plane instead of doing it on computers. Did it make “Tenet” a better film? No. I think it’s safe to say that film is a bit of a mess. But that sequence sure did look cool.
We’ll have to see how “Oppenheimer” looks when it arrives in theaters on July 21, 2023.
