As “Oppenheimer” exceeds expectations at the box office, the grandson of J. Robert Oppenheimer revealed which scene in the movie he would have cut.
Christopher Nolan’s historical drama has gotten mostly rave reviews for its commitment to accurate storytelling. The film, starring Cillian Murphy, is based on the 2006 biography “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.” It details the life of Oppenheimer, also known as “father of the atomic bomb.”
Charles Oppenheimer told Time Magazine the one thing he would have changed about the movie in an interview published Tuesday. While he understood “you have to dramatize a bit and parts that are changed” for film, Charles believes one scene featuring a poisoned apple shouldn’t have made the cut.
“The part I like the least is this poison apple reference,” he said, noting that it is a historically inaccurate depiction of Oppenheimer trying to murder his teacher.
“If you read ‘American Prometheus’ carefully enough, the authors say, ‘We don’t really know if it happened,’” he said. “There’s no record of him trying to kill somebody. That’s a really serious accusation and it’s historical revision. There’s not a single enemy or friend of Robert Oppenheimer who heard that during his life and considered it to be true.”
Charles said the biography implies the poisoning attempt may have happened, but the film is more assertive with this claim.
“Sometimes facts get dragged through a game of telephone,” he told the outlet. “In the movie, it’s treated vaguely and you don’t really know what’s going on unless you know this incredibly deep backstory. So it honestly didn’t bother me. It bothers me that it was in the biography with that emphasis, not a disclaimer of, this is an unsubstantiated rumor that we want to put in our book to make it interesting.”
Despite the caveat, Charles said he liked the film and thought it did a good job of telling his grandfather’s story.
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“As a dramatized representation of the history, it was really largely accurate,” he said. “There are parts that I disagree with, but not really because of Nolan.”
He recalled visiting the set twice during filming and that while he “definitely would have removed the apple thing,” he couldn’t imagine “giving advice about movie stuff to Nolan. He’s an expert, he’s the artist, and he’s a genius in this area.”