Collective Guilt and Moral Disengagement in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer: A Social, Psychological Interpretation of Cinematic Responsibility

Abstract

The research deals with Christopher Nolan’s film Oppenheimer (2023) as a cultural space where the film has been thought of as a mediator of historical collective guilt and moral disengagement, as a medium to consider the concepts of collective guilt and moral disengagement through the lens of two social psychological models present in the film Oppenheimer.’ The research paper emphasises the film as a means of dramatising the inner struggles of J. Robert Oppenheimer, while also echoing the negotiation with societies that confront trauma and complicity in the era of mass destruction. This study relies on textual analyses of cinematic practices and discourse analyses of critical reviews and audience reception. For example, it demonstrates how Oppenheimer filmmakers highlight the theme of collective guilt, while also presenting the audience with strategies of moral disengagement and revealing the Janus-faced nature of the media's role as both remembrancers and rationalizers. Therefore, by making the film and previous cultural products create a thematic axis around nuclear anxiety and relating the problems of the film and previous cultural products to current global challenges like climate change and artificial intelligence, the paper explores how the film's strength lies in its ability to reactivate social psychological controversies around innovation, authority, and morality in society. As such, the study will contribute to the emerging field of inquiry in the social sciences and the humanities: media memory studies and cultural trauma studies.