One particularly striking shot in "Oppenheimer," that of the scientist appearing naked and in flagrante delicto with mistress Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh) before the security council, is of course a visual device to show their lives being bared over the course of the proceedings and did not literally happen. But the actual, real-life security clearance hearings were set up pretty much as you see in the film, according to director Christopher Nolan.
And if you feel a sense of discomfort at the way the scenes are constructed, that's on purpose, too. "I really wanted to push hard in the direction of showing how uncomfortable that must have been and how strange that must have been for everyone involved," Nolan said. "The dialogue in that moment is from the transcripts. I didn't write it. It really is what was said there. It's a really shocking piece of history and I wanted to really bring that to life for people."
"Oppenheimer" utilizes many cinematic devices to put audiences inside the subjective perception of its protagonist, but some of those devices didn't need to be invented by the filmmakers, coming instead directly from the historical record.
