Christopher Nolan has created some of the biggest movies in the world as well as a number of critically acclaimed films as well. However, as his most recent movie “Dunkirk” prepares for release, many people have started to criticize Nolan for what is perceived as an “emotionless” film style. Through his biggest movies, which include “Memento,” “The Dark Knight” trilogy, and “Inception,” people have argued that there is very little human heart in his stories.
The Christopher Nolan criticism
There is no arguing that Christopher Nolan makes beautiful and successful movies.
His “Dark Knight” films were a turning point for comic book adaptations and Nolan proved that they could be more than just blockbuster men-in-tights movies and could actually be considered “great” films. However, there are some who claim that those movies, as well as his other films, lack a heart. One example pointed out is the death of Talia al Ghul in “Dark Knight Rises,” which some say was not emotional at all but instead awkward and unintentionally humorous.
Batman was shown to be dark and gloomy in his films, which are still considered masterpieces. In “Inception,” one of the points of the movie was that emotion was hurting the work of Cobb. In “Interstellar,” the search for “God” was shown in an almost mechanical way that looked amazing but lacked heart as well.
Even in “Memento,” the idea that Leonard had short-term memory loss proved that he couldn’t process emotion more than one day at a time.
How Nolan responds to the criticism
With “Dunkirk” about to hit theaters, one wonders if there will be some heart in a movie about war that needs some sort of optimism and hope to remain entertaining.
Christopher Nolan dismisses the idea that his films lack emotion, telling Playboy in an interview that he tries not to be obvious when showing it. Nolan said that he wants fans to interpret the movies how they will, and he hopes the emotion will come through in what they bring into the experience.
Christopher Nolan then humorously said at his movies seem to be a Rorschach test where people see what they see in them but no two people will see the same things.
What one person can claim has no emotion could leave another person in tears after the movie ends. “Inception” is one of those movies that seemed to split audiences over the emotional and thematic meaning behind that final scene and that is something Nolan seems happy with.
