Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer was easily one of the most anticipated films in the last couple of years thanks to its intense plot and the star-studded ensemble. The film blew everyone’s mind away when they found out that Christopher Nolan did not use CGI to mimic the nuclear explosion.
While the film gained positive feedback for not completely relying on CGI, it goes without saying that some digital special effects had to be used here and there to reach the final, mesmerizing product. However, despite Oppenheimer killing it with the critics, Christopher Nolan is being accused of not crediting 80% of the visual effects crew for their exceptional work.
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer Faces VFX Controversy
The British visual design team, DNEG, took over the responsibility of bringing Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer to visual perfection with their VFX skills. In the end credits of the film, you can see a total of 27 people in the VFX crew, including VFX Supervisor, Andrew Jackson, receive the well-deserved shout-out. However, the end credits list ten of these names as supervisors and the rest as workers and in support roles, and the ratio just seems off.
Well, if you pay a visit to DNEG’s official website, the company has mentioned a long list of VFX artists who worked on the film. The list includes over 160 people. Check out the entire list here.
This means that over 80% of the VFX crew was left out of the end credits and did not get the recognition they deserve for their work. It’s not the first time the VFX team gets majorly left out from the credits but it is disappointing to see that the people responsible for making a film so believable not get credited for their work. An additional ten, fifteen seconds in the end credits couldn’t have possibly hurt the film, could it?
Christopher Nolan Talks about Not Using CGI in the Film
Since the main explosion in the film was not achieved through CGI, did Nolan actually detonate a bomb for his film? Of course not! Talking to The Hollywood Reporter, Nolan stated that while it was flattering that people think he was capable of pulling this off, it is also a bit scary.
“It’s flattering that people would think I would be capable of something as extreme as that on the one hand, but it’s also a little bit scary.”
On why he refused to use CGI for the explosion, Nolan stated that while CGI is the safe choice, he did not want to take the easy route.
“CG inherently is quite comfortable to look at. It’s safe, anodyne. And what I said to [VFX supervisor Andrew Jackson] on Oppenheimer is, ‘This can’t be safe. It can’t be comfortable to look at it. It has to have bite. It’s got to be beautiful and threatening in equal measure.”
Well, he was certainly able to achieve exactly that, and people who watched the film in theatres can vouch for this. However, it would have been nice to see the end credits recognize the entire team instead of less than 20%.
Oppenheimer is currently playing in theatres.
