The acting in Oppenheimer is stellar – especially from Florence Pugh and Cillian Murphy (Picture: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures via AP)
‘Half of the time we saw Florence Pugh, she was naked.’
That was the first thing my husband said to me after we shuffled, quite literally shell-shocked, out of Oppenheimer this week.
There’s no denying that Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is excellent, it’s an absolute must-see with a message that will leave you bereft about the human race for days.
The acting in it is stellar – especially from Florence Pugh and Cillian Murphy.
Except, in Pugh’s albeit minimal role, in many of the shots she’s full-frontal naked while the men around her remain tastefully covered.
I found the obsession with her nudity really disturbing – perhaps, more so than anything else in the film. And this was a film about the creation of the atomic bomb.
I couldn’t help but scoff aloud in the cinema each time at how ridiculous it was
In the film, rising star Pugh is Jean Tatlock – the on-off Communist lover of J. Robert Oppenheimer, stunningly played by Cillian Murphy.
It felt like she was in the film for less than 30 minutes in total, but is such an emotive, complex character – yet her breasts seemed to make it into most shots of her face.
Within minutes of being introduced to Pugh’s character (after a long 20 minutes, and she’s one of the first women who speaks) she’s riding Murphy in bed.
Her naked body is on show, directly central to the shot, while Murphy is still in a shirt and tie. In comparison, we see his face and part of his chest.
We know the characters are shagging, we know there’s tension… but we would have known it if Pugh was fully clothed, too (Picture: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures via AP)
In another scene, the characters are obviously post-coital, and Pugh is sitting naked in a chair. Her legs are crossed, but her boobs still manage to take centre-stage. Don’t worry, though – there’s a fire going in case she gets chilly.
As she delivers powerful, key monologues, her nipples are at eye-level on screen so it fees like her face was just an after-thought. It reduces her, hypersexualising her body – and I just felt like it was so unnecessary.
And Cillian Murphy? He’s tastefully sitting pretty with his legs exaggeratedly crossed. We don’t even see his nipples.
Later, in his jealous wife’s fever dream, Pugh even straddles him naked in a boardroom. Her whole body covers Murphy, while countless men in suits are around them.
I couldn’t help but scoff aloud in the cinema at how ridiculous it was – and how much effort was put into protecting Murphy’s modesty, while Pugh had none at all.
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And never once do we see Cillian Murphy’s bum – or even his whole naked chest – in the show’s three hours and nine seconds.
During the film, it’s clear that Oppenheimer has little respect for women. He forgets his brother’s fiancé’s name, not interested in speaking to her – believing he could do better because she’s working class.
Oppenheimer makes an effort to sleep with married women, too – even cheating on his own wife with Tatlock after she leaves her husband for him. Leaving his wife at home with his two young screaming children to work, with hints that he’s had another affair with a colleague’s wife.
‘When you look at Oppenheimer’s life and you look at his story, that aspect of his life, the aspect of his sexuality, his way with women, the charm that he exuded, it’s an essential part of his story,’ Nolan told Insider, defending the film’s sex scenes.
Several countries have reportedly edited Pugh’s nudity to cover her in a CGI black dress (Picture: Universal Pictures)
But was it really ‘essential’ to see that much tit? To reduce Pugh’s character solely to her breasts for the sake of proving the pair’s intimacy? Give me a break.
While I don’t agree that several countries have reportedly edited Pugh’s nudity to cover her in a CGI black dress – women’s bodies shouldn’t be hidden or made to be covered up for fear of being ‘offensive’ or ‘inappropriate’ – Pugh being topless for a large portion of the time she’s on screen isn’t tasteful or necessary at all. Not even apparently for ‘context’.
We know the characters are shagging, we know there is tension, intimacy, and that their relationship is complicated – but we would have known it if Pugh was fully clothed, too.
It proves that Hollywood, and society, are obsessed with sexualising women and their boobs while men’s modesty permanently remains intact – for the sheer sake of entertainment.
That men’s genitals are out of bounds, but the fleshy pouches on women’s chests are ‘essential’ viewing. That their bodies are game.
It will probably be little surprise to hear that Oppenheimer fails the Bechdel Test, too – a measure of the representation of women and diversity in film. To pass, you merely need to have at least two women talking about something other than a man – except parts of Oppenheimer were clearly filmed for the male gaze firmly in mind.
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Don’t get me wrong, I love Florence Pugh, and I love that she directly calls out vulgar men who critique her on being ‘flat chested’ and her self-admitted ‘tiny tits’.
I love that she seeks to normalise women’s breasts – especially smaller ones – on the catwalk, baring the nipple in beautiful couture. She rejects the stereotype of the big-breasted, augmented, picture-perfect Hollywood woman, and flies the flag for, well, just boobs.
But Florence Pugh’s prolonged nudity in Oppenheimer is uncomfortable, and it’s totally uncalled for.
Nolan’s portrayal of her character has taken women two steps back. Made her breasts the star of the show – rather than her acting.
And do you know what I say to men who are obsessed with boobs? Grow up.
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I couldn’t help but scoff aloud in the cinema each time at how ridiculous it was.
