When Oppenheimer filmmaker Christopher Nolan received the Federation of American Scientists’ Public Service Award earlier this month, in recognition of his cultural contribution by bringing J.
Robert Oppenheimer’s story to broader attention through cinema, he made a “plea” to scientists. At the heart of his speech was a dichotomy between the scientist and the artist, in terms of their relationship to, and dialogue with society at large.
As a filmmaker, he explained, you’re given a certain license to manufacture meaning by making a “dramatic choice.” This happened for him on Oppenheimer when grappling with the ending of his story on the invention of the atomic bomb, which depending on his framing, could lean either toward hope for the future of the world, or toward despair.
Truthfully, Nolan suggested, the full story of nuclear power continues to be written, well beyond the years his film covers, as geopolitical power shifts and technology continues to evolve.
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