The Barbenheimer cultural phenomenon came to a head on the night of the 96th Academy Awards.Barbiemay have overtakenOppenheimerat the box office, raking ina staggering $1.4 billioncompared to the historical drama’ssimilarly impressive $960 million, butChristopher Nolan’s film emerged victorious over its friendly rival on Hollywood’s biggest night. Taking home 7 awards, including Best Director andBest Picture,Oppenheimer’s recognition by the Academy marked the acclaimed filmmaker’s first-ever wins after numerous past nominations.
Presenting the award for Best Director was none other thanSteven Spielberg. WhileNolan winning his first Oscarmust’ve been a thrill, taking the statuette from the hands of one of history’s most celebrated filmmakers was likely the cherry on top, especially when consideringSpielberg’s influence on Nolan’s work. But aside from the two cinematic titans sharing a moment on one of the world’s most-viewed stages,their shared trajectories to Oscar glory with respective masterpieces defied expectationsand reaffirmed audiences' respect for challenging, seemingly non-commercial material.
Oppenheimer
The story of American scientist, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and his role in the development of the atomic bomb.
Steven Spielberg Didn’t Think Audiences Would Respond to ‘Schindler’s List’
After first readingThomas Keneally’sSchindler’s Arkin 1982, Steven Spielberg had personal reservations about adapting it for the big screen. Primarily associated with escapist blockbuster fare,Spielberg was frequently tagged by detractors as lacking the depth and gritof some of his fellow directors in the 1970s and ’80s, and it wasn’t lost on the filmmaker that making a film about a subject as bleak as the Holocaust would require him to mature and evolve as an artist. “He didn’t think he was ready,“remembersSchindler’s ListscreenwriterSteven Zailian. But after offering the project to other filmmakers throughout the years, among themSydney PollakandMartin Scorsese, Spielberg finally set his sights on directing the film after trying his hand at uncharacteristically historical and dramatic material withThe Color PurpleandEmpire of the Sun.
Gearing up to make his most personal and challenging film to date, Spielberg encountered numerous obstacles over the project’s perceived lack of commercial potential. Having secured a relatively modest $23 million budget,he insisted on shootingSchindler’s Listin black and white, a creative decision that was initially balked at by Universal Pictures. Though he’d ultimately win that battle, Spielberg had other fish to fry regarding certain narrative elements, shooting in Poland during an unforgiving winter, andworking through the personal woesinherent to bringing sucha harrowing true storyto the screen.
Though Spielberg would make it through the grueling shoot in one piece, and deliver the film on budget and on time,his doubts overSchindler’s List’s prospects of success with audiences remained intact. “No one thought the film was going to make any money,“he told NBC News in 2018. “I couldn’t imagine based on the story that we told that an audience would tolerate just the amount of violence, human against human.” ButSpielberg would be handsomely rewarded-and awarded-whenSchindler’s Listdebutedto a rave reception from critics and viewers alike, grossing $320 million worldwide and receiving7 Oscars at the 66th Academy Awards, including the filmmaker’s first wins for Best Director and Best Picture.
Making ‘Oppenheimer’ Was a Gamble for Christopher Nolan and Universal Pictures
Having worked alongside Warner Bros. on nine films, beginning with 2002’sInsomnia, Christopher Nolan’s long-term professional partnership hit a snag when the studio pivoted on its release strategy during the pandemic, leading the filmmaker to seek a new partner in Universal Pictures for his next effort. Bouncing back from the lukewarm reception to his time-warped spy thriller,Tenet, Nolan undertook a risky gamble in adapting the 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography aboutJ. Robert Oppenheimerinto a heady drama. While the film ultimately racked uphuge numbers at the box office and was honored with numerous accolades,Oppenheimer’s massive success, even when considering Nolan’s well-established and highly regarded reputation,was never a foregone conclusion.
To be fair, a $100 million drama revolving around physics, governmental hearings, and the development of nuclear weapons isn’t the usual suspect when considering what might qualify as a worldwide crowd-pleaser and award contender. This wasn’t all too evident to producerEmma Thomas,who said of Universal ChairpersonDonna Langley’s gamble, “I don’t think it was a no-brainer by any stretch of the imagination to makea three-hour movie…sort of R-rated, by the way, about one of the darkest developments in history.”
Echoing the pessimistic sentiment,Langley admitted, “A biopic at this length about this subject matter should not do well.” Despite the odds seemingly stacked against them, however, Nolan and his creative partners defied expectations by delivering a compelling film that struck a nerve with audiences around the globe, reaffirming the director’s critical andbox office drawwhile also proving there’s an appetite for material threading the needle between entertainment and intellectual stimulation.
The 10 Highest-Grossing Biopics of All Time
“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Spielberg and Nolan Matured as Filmmakers With ‘Schindler’s List’ and ‘Oppenheimer’
Long before taking home overdue golden statuettes, Steven Spielberg and Christopher Nolan had firmly established reputations as filmmakers witha knack for entertaining the masses, butthe masterpieces for which they won their first Oscars propelled them to new heights of creative ambition, craftsmanship, and maturity as storytellers. Pivoting from the likes of comics-inspired fare, adventure thrillers, and science fiction, they fearlessly waded into a realm of uncompromising realism at the expense of potentially alienating audiences presumed to favor escapism.
WithSchindler’s Listserving as Spielberg’s first R-rated film, andOppenheimermarking Nolan’s first R-rated film in more than two decades, the Oscar-winning dramas not only display some of the filmmakers' most harrowing and bleak content but also serve as pop-cultural foundations for generating discussion over pressing current events through a historical context.
SinceSchindler’s ListandOppenheimerhit theaters,Spielberg and Nolan have each expressed a combined sense of conviction coupled with humilityregarding the global response to their films. “Starting with the release of the film in July, the response from people around the world far exceeded anything that I had imagined possible and, you know, winning this recognition from my peers is just, I mean, the icing on the cake,“Nolan said after receiving two Academy Awards.
Speaking about his film in similar terms for its 25th anniversary,Spielberg admitted, “I just couldn’t imagine audiences would allow themselves to go through a motion picture recreation of theOskar Schindlerstory. I was very surprised.” Modesty aside, however, the two powerhouse filmmakers followed their creative instincts, uncertain as they may have been, to a whirlwind of acceptance and celebration on a grand scale. Given the striking comparisons between their respective journeys to the world’s stage on Hollywood’s biggest night, via artistic evolution and a willingness to take risks,it’s only fitting that Spielberg ultimately handed Nolan his first-ever Oscarat the 96th Academy Awards.
