Analysis of the Filmmaking Techniques of a Hollywood Icon, Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan is a Hollywood icon for huge blockbuster films, and creative and mind bobbling scripts. Nolan can tell stories when a film ending is the beginning, giant leaps in space and time, or make you question what is real or not. All of these and more are seen in his talented screenwriting capabilities, while overlaying ideologies and philosophies over all his films. Throughout his film making career we can group all his films into three different phases, the self, society, and the universe.

Nolan uses ‘Hermeneutics of Suspicion’ which is a philosophy from Paul Ricoeur, which is a study on how people interpret texts. He uses this Ricoeur questions the “interpretations,” recognizing a group of outside-the-box philosophers, who were dedicated to reveal “less visible and flattering truths”. These people were called “School of Suspicion,” this group consisted of Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. They wanted to uncover the lies and the illusions of consciousness. Christopher Nolan questions the ends that originate from standard interpretations. Christopher Nolan’s films are about the suspicious connection between our abstract reality and the possibility of a target reality objective reality.

Christopher Nolan’s first film Following, the protagonist of the film Billy who is obsessed with stalking people from a distance in order to get motivation for his novels. He then follows a thief named Cobb, Cobb notices Billy watching and invites Billy to join in on his so-called robberies. Cobb doesn’t steal any valuable items form the houses; he just tries to figure out the lives of individuals through their possessions. Christopher Nolan then immediately questions if these ends hold any merit, proposing you can't depend on appearances and assets to characterize an individual. When Cobb breaking into someone’s house, he makes that person re-evaluate themselves. “Although Following is a movie about the creation of a doppelganger, it only hints at the rivalry, envy, and escalating resentment that propel the standard doppelganger tale.” (Jason T. Eberl and George A. Dunn, 2017)

Christopher Nolan’s suspicion towards using possessions and appearance to define other carries over to his next film Memento. “Nolan abolishes conventional narrative principles as he attempts to align the audience with Leonard Shelby, a man with sort-term memory who seeks vengeance for the apparent rape and murder of his wife.” (Jacqueline Furby and Stuart Joy, 2015) The films protagonist suffers from anterograde amnesia and relies on a series of possessions like photographs, notes, and tattoos. Which he uses to help remind himself of who the people around him are and whether they can be trusted. Through out the film he puts all his faith and trust in these possessions to help guide his actions. But the mementos that he uses don’t become as reliable as he believes. Christopher Nolan uses Hermeneutics of Suspicion to create drama by throwing suspicion toward the validity of text. Nolan is constantly drawing a distinction between his subjective reality and the idea of an objective truth. Nolan can extend the Hermeneutics of Suspicion from simple text like the protagonist’s unreliable notes, to himself and his false memories.

These suspicions continue into his third film, Insomnia. The main protagonist Will Dormer is the complete opposite as the protagonist of Memento, he’s reliable, intelligent, and perceptive. Memento is about a broken man attempting to rebuild his sense of self, then Insomnia does the complete opposite by showing even the most reliable and solid man can crumble into self-doubt with a little push. After Will accidently kills his partner in the fog it triggers intense psychological confusion and insomnia. Insomnia provides no clear explanation about what is true, Nolan extends the Hermeneutics of Suspicion by questioning reality itself. Nolan implies it’s much more complicated than just accepting either pure objectivity or subjective idealism. Perhaps we can’t ever sure of the world around us.

The Prestige is told through many types of journal entries. Many of the journals are false which draws suspicion on the text, he also uses magic to question reality versus the possibility of truth. As a filmmaker Nolan plays with illusion and confusion to keep audiences speculating, this is what Nolan wants to influence the audience through trickery. For him the truth is that we prefer the imaginary over reality. Christopher Nolan’s idea of suspicion hits its peak in Inception. “The film’s postmodernist self-reflexiveness is, as expected, compounded by a proliferation of intertextual references.” (Bernard Catherine, 2017) The protagonist in Inception Cobb, can barely perceive his reality from a dream. During the film Nolan draw connection with Cobb running away from evil henchman in reality and in his dreams. Nolan attracts this parallel to exhibit how confusing the two are, because even Cobb can’t tell the difference. “Inception's secondary and more radical function is to suggest that the act of self-delusion is potentially heroic. The film's protagonist, for example, succeeds in consistently denying or sublimating the violence he inflicts.” (Drew Winchur, 2012)

Christopher Nolan’s Dark Night Trilogy brings up issues about the idea of a network, how does a general public arrangement with dread and dangers? Or how does the presence of a “Hero” like Batman create or threaten strength, or on the other hand can culture wide conflict ever be settled or it naturally a cyclical procedure? Christopher Nolan uses philosophy from Rene Girard, who claims that the concept of “mimesis” is both establishment of all societies and the foundation of conflict in those societies. Girard claims that the essential parts of our relationships with other individuals is imitation, which can lead to imitation of someone else’s behaviors can and often does. Which can lead to replicating their desires, this is called “mimetic desire,” which can lead to a rivalry to share the same desire of a finite of resources.

In Batman Begins mimesis is relevant because it relates to the individual, especially in the creation of the Batman identity. The original instance of this mimesis is when a man tires to rob the Wayne family, which leads to Bruce’s parents dying. Throughout the film, Christopher Nolan uses fear and vengeance as powerful motivators. This is seen when Bruce Wayne tries to mimic his parent’s killer to gain vengeance. While when Bruce is away from Gotham it him to move far from the cycle of vengeance, he then point utilizes that imitation as a method for stopping violence in Gotham. During the film Nolan presents us with the idea that it is difficult, if not impossible, to breakaway from violence. Bruce spends the majority of Batman Begins attempts to overcome both his fears and his impulse for vengeance.

For Batman to do that he needs to rise above the identity of Bruce Wayne and become something else, an image in the common consciousness that represents justice without personal motivation. He needs to become a symbol to be imitated, and it’s this idea of symbols, Girard proposes that can break society out of violence.

In the second film The Dark Knight, it changes to the social results of the quick spread of rivalries and fear. After Batman Begins the city began to eliminate organized crime, and the faces of the effort are Harvey Dent, who is Gotham’s “White Knight.” And Batman, who is the “Dark Night.” The white knight and the dark knight are symbols, and they both influence imitation. Harvey Dent the city government to aim for a safer Gotham, Batman influences poorly made copycats who only get in his way. Those copycats are a sign that the idea of Batman influences hope among citizens of Gotham, it’s also a sign that those citizens are copying Batman’s tactics by replicating fear. Because of this the mob hires the Joker to kill the Batman, but even the mob is afraid of the Joker.

The strategy that Batman uses for fighting crime created a monster, who feeds on the mimetic reproduction of fear that Batman relies on. Harvey Dent and his campaign for peace in Gotham fits the role of a Christ like figure to bring peace over the who community. Even Batman, who can only fight violence with violence, supports a world where Dent replaces him. But the Joker, who is a representation of true violence of mankind, shifts the course of the mimetic rivalry and corrupt the Christ figure of Harvey Dent. Once Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face, he beings to imitate the Joker and embraces chaos. He becomes subject to the cycles of violence that the white knight was supposed to destroy. In order to restore peace to Gotham, they turn to a scapegoat which is the Batman.

The Dark Knight Rises starts with a time of peace and tranquility from Harvey Dents martyrdom and the scapegoat of Batman. The Dent Act effectively ended organized crime, but there are still other types of violence in Gotham. The social and economic inequalities which define The Dark Knight Rises, as one form of violence ends another begins. The dissolution of the mob means that the divides between the rich and the poor are once again in the spotlight, and violent rivalry is inevitable. Just like the Joker, Bane is focused on revealing the violence that already exists in ordinary people. While the Joker explores the idea of chaos, Bane is interested in the concept of the lie.

Which undoes the peace that depended on the lie of Harvey Dent and Batman. The disruption of the myth of the scapegoat mean that the sacrifice of Batman no longer serves its purpose, and his disappearance no longer helps the city. Because Batman sacrificed himself in order to save the city from itself, his return isn’t a simple task. He needs to influence the city, he needs to metaphorically come back from the dead, which is shown in his climb out of the pit. Which shows a lot a birth symbolism happening when Bruce Wayne climbs out of the pit into the sun light. Girard’s use of a Christ figure claims that in order to have real lasting peace, we need to remove our society and our selves from the cycle of violence.

We need to set aside the myth of the scapegoat and embrace a figure who sets an example of selflessness that forms a new mimetic desire to be copied. Nolan asks this question throughout the trilogy, if peace is possible. People battle their inner monsters at the same time they’re battling the monsters of Gotham. It may appear that Dent was a fake Christ figure at the end of The Dark Knight, while Batman becomes a true Christ figure at the end of The Dark Knight Rises. The peace that follows is bases on the lie that Batman sacrificed his life to save the city. The lies of Batman’s death is outweighed by another truth that, unlike Dent, he really did fight violence with self-sacrifice, creating the potential for a new kind of mimetic desire. In the ending of the film mimesis comes full circle when Joseph Gordon Levitt’s character, when its revealed that he is Robin.

In Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar protagonist Cooper is firmly dedicated to his very own feeling of common sense, he is in the long run compelled to explore the limits between the “real” and the “irreal.” This concept is from Nelson Goodman allows everything from art to math to be seen and comprehended in an assortment of ways. There are many different ways to look at the world, and no single method is better in every instance. In space, Cooper is confronted with the irreal, nothing complies with his ordinary thoughts of time or even circumstances and logical results. And through that difficult adjustment, Nolan is openly able to question the physical, spatial, and chronological laws that Cooper has always believed. During the film Nolan asks many different questions about technology and humanity. But the answer is human emotion, and how technology will sometimes hinder us in many fields.

Like in the beginning of the film when Cooper loses his aviation career when technology caused him to crash. But it’s human connection and emotion that enveloped in Dr. Brands love for Dr. Edmund. Which lead the crew to find habitable planet in order to save humanity. Science alone can’t solve our problems of constrained assets, personality, or societal violence. In the film, science needs something more, it needs emotion and love to fuel and guide it. It requires human subjectivity that launches us past facts and figures. In the face of the questions of identity that emerge from oneself and from society, Interstellar demonstrates how logical progressions, converged with the intangibles of the human experience, gives us the essential push towards new frontiers and individual freedom. With Interstellar, Christopher Nolan confronts us with the intensity of picture driven narrating of an envisioned future that can impact, and genuinely fuel us in the present.

In Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan uses the “Dunkirk Spirit” is a clear case of passionate strength, the unflappable will to drive forward. The “Dunkirk Spirit” is defined by a feeling of community, a willingness by a group of people who are in a terrible situation to all help one another. One of the protagonists, Mr. Dawson embodies this idea by piloting an unarmed small boat into a violent conflict. Commits himself to saving the lives of strangers and emerges victorious thanks to sheer power of will. Dunkirk is organized in such an approach to reveal the purest distillation of the communal concept. Nolan also creates a sense of solidarity between the viewers and soldiers without relying on the tools often used to draw in audiences. Dunkirk aims to access the psychological concept of “affective empathy,” the ability not just to know or understand what someone is feeling, but to feel that feeling before it occurs.

Christopher Nolan is one of the more interesting filmmakers and screenwriters working today. His movies aren’t only visceral and exciting, but also extremely thoughtful. Which is a rare blend in todays Hollywood. He can convey a thoughtful idea or philosophy in an action packet, super-hero, mind bending, special and practical effects movie. With my many viewings of his films I never noticed or even thought about the ideas and philosophies behind his films. Christopher Nolan will remain as one of the few “pure” filmmakers.