Christopher Nolan is one of my all time favourite directors. I love his films very much and he is probably the most talented film maker of his generation. I have watched each of his films many times. And at some point during the re-watching of his films, I noticed that most of his films have a recurring theme - guilt.
The lead character in general can be seen to have a heavy feeling of guilt for something that he (I'm no sexist, all of Nolan's leads are males, so you can see why I did not type he/she) had done. Human emotions are rather compelling and they seem to intrigue Mr Nolan.
This theme can be observed in his films "Insomnia" (2002), "Batman Begins" (2005) and it's two sequels, "The Dark Knight" (2008) and "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012) and also in the film "Inception" (2010).
"Insomnia" deals with the guilt of the character of Al Pacino, Will Dormer - a cop, for mistakenly killing his partner. The movie then depicts with how the character deals with the guilt of his act and also to find whether he killed the partner knowingly, on some level.
In "Batman Begins", Christian Bale's character, Bruce Wayne/ Batman feels that he is responsible for the killing of his parents by a mugger. He is so heavily burdened by this feeling of guilt that he takes on the role of a masked vigilante superhero to clean up the streets of Gotham. The same theme can be seen in the two sequels that followed this film.
And the one other Nolan film in which the role of guilt can be seen is "Inception". Cobb - played by Leonardo DiCaprio - is overcome by a guilt for planting an idea in his wife's head that eventually leads to the wife killing herself. This guilt the character feels provides a strong undercurrent of emotion and twist for the plot of the film.
What can we conclude from this? Does Nolan feel guilty about something he has done? Or is he telling someone specific to be guilty of something they had done? Maybe he feels, like I do, that guilt is one of the more intriguing emotions.
In his two other films "Memento" (2000) and "The Prestige" (2006), the underlying human emotion is revenge.
Leonard Shelby, the lead in "Memento" is out for revenge against his wife's killer.
"The Prestige" is the story of two magicians- Borden and Angier - two great rivals, who had initially worked together as assistants for another magician. In what is considered a routine trick, Borden (Bale) ends up killing Angier's wife. Angier (Hugh Jackman) craves for revenge on Borden, feeling he had intentionally killed his wife.
One must keep in mind though, that these human emotions play a role in the plot, but are not the plot itself. One might think from my description of the films that they are all simple plots. The truth, in fact, is that they are quite complex and compelling in nature. Each one will blow you away.
Edit 1 (June, 2015): Nolan's last two films (Rises and Interstellar) have been largely disappointing and my liking for and rating of Nolan has slipped considerably. Other filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson have surged ahead.
Edit 2 (June 2015): Even in Memento, there is a feeling of guilt.
The lead character in general can be seen to have a heavy feeling of guilt for something that he (I'm no sexist, all of Nolan's leads are males, so you can see why I did not type he/she) had done. Human emotions are rather compelling and they seem to intrigue Mr Nolan.
This theme can be observed in his films "Insomnia" (2002), "Batman Begins" (2005) and it's two sequels, "The Dark Knight" (2008) and "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012) and also in the film "Inception" (2010).
"Insomnia" deals with the guilt of the character of Al Pacino, Will Dormer - a cop, for mistakenly killing his partner. The movie then depicts with how the character deals with the guilt of his act and also to find whether he killed the partner knowingly, on some level.
In "Batman Begins", Christian Bale's character, Bruce Wayne/ Batman feels that he is responsible for the killing of his parents by a mugger. He is so heavily burdened by this feeling of guilt that he takes on the role of a masked vigilante superhero to clean up the streets of Gotham. The same theme can be seen in the two sequels that followed this film.
And the one other Nolan film in which the role of guilt can be seen is "Inception". Cobb - played by Leonardo DiCaprio - is overcome by a guilt for planting an idea in his wife's head that eventually leads to the wife killing herself. This guilt the character feels provides a strong undercurrent of emotion and twist for the plot of the film.
What can we conclude from this? Does Nolan feel guilty about something he has done? Or is he telling someone specific to be guilty of something they had done? Maybe he feels, like I do, that guilt is one of the more intriguing emotions.
In his two other films "Memento" (2000) and "The Prestige" (2006), the underlying human emotion is revenge.
Leonard Shelby, the lead in "Memento" is out for revenge against his wife's killer.
"The Prestige" is the story of two magicians- Borden and Angier - two great rivals, who had initially worked together as assistants for another magician. In what is considered a routine trick, Borden (Bale) ends up killing Angier's wife. Angier (Hugh Jackman) craves for revenge on Borden, feeling he had intentionally killed his wife.
One must keep in mind though, that these human emotions play a role in the plot, but are not the plot itself. One might think from my description of the films that they are all simple plots. The truth, in fact, is that they are quite complex and compelling in nature. Each one will blow you away.
Edit 1 (June, 2015): Nolan's last two films (Rises and Interstellar) have been largely disappointing and my liking for and rating of Nolan has slipped considerably. Other filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson have surged ahead.
Edit 2 (June 2015): Even in Memento, there is a feeling of guilt.
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