Spike Lee has some thoughts on Oppenheimer

Spike Lee is a lifelong scholar of film, both in the formal context of the classroom (where he’s been both teacher and student) and as a prolific creator and consumer of movies. So it’s not wholly surprising that Lee—who’s in the midst of opening a new exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum right now, featuring 450 pieces of film and cultural memoribilia from his massive personal collection—has some thoughts on the biggest films of the day.

Specifically, Lee has now weighed in on Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, addressing the film during a recent (and extremely wide-ranging and entertaining) conversation with The Washington Post. And, let’s be clear: Lee is a fan of the movie, calling it a “great film,” and praising Nolan as a “massive filmmaker.” That being said, he did have some thoughts on what a different version of the movie might have looked like—one that put at least a bit more focus on the people directly affected by Robert Oppenheimer’s work as on the man himself:

This is not a criticism. It’s a comment. How long was that film? If it’s three hours, I would like to add some more minutes about what happened to the Japanese people. People got vaporized. Many years later, people are radioactive. It’s not like he didn’t have power. He tells studios what to do. I would have loved to have the end of the film maybe show what it did, dropping those two nuclear bombs on Japan. Understand, this is all love. And I bet he could tell me some things he would change about Do The Right Thing and Malcolm X.

Lee also touched on Killers Of The Flower Moon, the latest movie from his friend Martin Scorsese. Lee put especial focus on star Lily Gladstone: “She’s winning an Oscar,” he asserted. “And I don’t think that’s a supporting role. I think that’s a leading role. She’s got my vote.” (Then, when told Gladstone has submitted herself for lead actress at the Oscars: “Good! She should not go for the okey-doke.”)