Christopher Nolan has revealed that early screenings of Oppenheimer have left audiences “devastated”, with some even describing it as a horror film.
The biographical drama stars Cillian Murphy as the titular J. Robert Oppenheimer, who is known as “the father of the atomic bomb”, and will be released in cinemas on July 21.
“Some people leave the movie absolutely devastated,” Nolan said of early screenings in a new interview with Wired magazine.
“They can’t speak. I mean, there’s an element of fear that’s there in the history and there in the underpinnings. But the love of the characters, the love of the relationships, is as strong as I’ve ever done.”
The director added: “It is an intense experience because it’s an intense story. I showed it to a filmmaker recently who said it’s kind of a horror movie. I don’t disagree.”
Nolan admitted that he was “relieved to be finished” with the project due to the heavy emotional impact it had on him.
“As I started to finish the film, I started to feel this colour that’s not in my other films, just darkness. It’s there. The film fights against that,” he said.
Earlier this week, the historian who wrote the 2005 biography in which Oppenheimer is based said he was “still emotionally recovering” from watching the film.
Kai Bird, who co-wrote American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, said (via The Independent): “I think it is going to be a stunning artistic achievement, and I have hopes it will actually stimulate a national, even global conversation about the issues that Oppenheimer was desperate to speak out about — about how to live in the atomic age, how to live with the bomb and about McCarthyism — what it means to be a patriot, and what is the role for a scientist in a society drenched with technology and science, to speak out about public issues.”
Oppenheimer will be Nolan’s longest-ever film, with a runtime just short of three hours. It will also be the director’s first R-rated film since 2002’s Insomnia.