Featured Image Credit: Universal Pictures
Topics: Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan
Anish Vij
Novelist and Professor Aaron Gwyn has pointed out another American flag moment in Oppenheimer, proving that Christopher Nolan is a genius, which is something we kind of already know.
After the film made its debut earlier this week, cinemagoers were finally able to see Peaky Blinders' Cillian Murphy take centre stage as he plays the role of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who helped to create the world's first atomic bomb during WWII.
The three-hour film, which is the director's first ever biographical drama, also features the likes of Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon and Emily Blunt.
And the film has certainly won over critics and audiences alike.
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Oppenheimer made an impressive debut on Rotten Tomatoes with a whopping score of 96 percent, with the film now standing at 94 percent, at the time of writing.
Critics have been raving about the movie, writing comments such as: “The acting is uniformly brilliant.”
While others have said it’s 'visually stunning’, ‘gorgeously photographed’ and ‘masterfully edited’.
However, it seems that the American flag has been a big talking point in this film.
Eagle-eyed viewers somehow spotted a minute flag-related-error in one scene.
Taking to Twitter, fan Andy Craig, took a screenshot of the scene showing Murphy's character surrounded by an applauding audience as they wave the American flag high and proud.
As pointed out by Andy, if you take a close look at the US flag, it has 50 stars.
Since the film was set in 1945, there should have actually been less stars on the flag. During the Truman Administration (1945-1953), the flag that flew over the US had 48 stars.
And now Professor Gwyn has made another American flag-related observation.
Writing on Twitter, he pointed out how Nolan intentionally captures the US flag 'backwards' in every scene where there is a 'triumph'.
"Melville said that a great poem 'spins against the way it drives'," writes Gwyn.
"Nolan creates this subtle--and not so subtle--cinematic fission in every scene of Oppenheimer: at the moment of ultimate triumph for the protagonist, the flag is flying backwards."
Genius.
Despite Gwyn's theory sounding pretty spot on, not everyone agreed, however.
"Not a bad theory but I think it’s more to communicate the story/protagonist moving forward, which is usually moving to the right. Moving with such force that flag is blowing stiffly backwards," one person replied.
Another added: "I haven't seen it, so don't hate me for this, but in the military, all our flags are 'backward' (on unis for example) because we are headed forward -- headlong into the wind."
I guess that's the great thing about art, it's always subjective.
Oppenheimer is in cinemas now.