Is Chris Nolan On Track To Becoming The Best Director Ever?

[Dutch]

If Nolan wants to prove himself, then he should make the next aliens or Predator movieView attachment 8662, then we shall see what he's capable of.

With the new found clout he has, directing a huge hit, he should be able to name his project

 

[IrishJedi]

Just wait a few years and TDK will be judged in a sober way for the mediocre bore it is.

Okay, well that's crazy the other way.

 

[turtlepower73]

chris nolan won't be the best director because of batman. like one person said your going ot have to learn to make something other than action movies to get that title.
hitchock will never be duplicated. directors have tried.it doesn't work. the new psycho movie was a bomb. no one leaves stuff to the imagination.when someone got murdered you saw it happening to a point. but you didn't need to see everything.imagination....that's the ticket...leave it to your imagination.

 

[Khev]

Actually, my claims of "sanity" are just a nicer way of saying that some people are retarded for this movie. Not saying you specifically, but there is definitely a groupthink among a segment of the geek contingent (particuarly online) that is just going overboard over this flick. Again, the fact that this thread was even started is a good example.

Yeah a lot of people on the internet might be going crazy with the emoticons but that doesn't mean that TDK *isn't* a great movie in its own right. If people can't be giddy about an incredibly well done movie featuring a guy in a superhero costume punching bad guys, what kind of movie should they be giddy about? Some slice-of-life arthouse flick?

And you mean best genre film since the LOTR trilogy, right?

No I do mean film period. I think TDK works as a crime movie, popcorn superhero movie, thriller, and whatever kind of movie Fight Club was. No small feat.

I know it isn't "perfect" on every level like a Raiders or Jaws. But in the cases where TDK isn't (like Gylenhaal's character) I'd still say the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

 

[Sonic The MadHOG]

Yeah a lot of people on the internet might be going crazy with the emoticons but that doesn't mean that TDK *isn't* a great movie in its own right. If people can't be giddy about an incredibly well done movie featuring a guy in a superhero costume punching bad guys, what kind of movie should they be giddy about? Some slice-of-life arthouse flick?



No I do mean film period. I think TDK works as a crime movie, popcorn superhero movie, thriller, and whatever kind of movie Fight Club was. No small feat.

I know it isn't "perfect" on every level like a Raiders or Jaws. But in the cases where TDK isn't (like Gylenhaal's character) I'd still say the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Can Chris build upon the success of TDK though?, I hope he can but I'm worried he might have peaked too early. I can't wait to see what his next project will be.

 

[Blake]

Just wait a few years and TDK will be judged in a sober way for the mediocre bore it is.

This strikes me as a comment simply made to cause people to react. Everyone has their opinions, but to say that the film will be judged (as a whole) as a bore just has no merit. I find that these kind of sweeping comments are made to show how "cool" it is to go so far against public opinion.

 

[Sonic The MadHOG]

This strikes me as a comment simply made to cause people to react. Everyone has their opinions, but to say that the film will be judged (as a whole) as a bore just has no merit. I find that these kind of sweeping comments are made to show how "cool" it is to go so far against public opinion.

You could be right but I know people that hated Jaws & said it was a pile of garbage even though anyone with the slightest clue about film making and how hard it is to make a basic story play with the audiences emotions in such a memorable way should know it's an incredible movie. Opinions fall on each end of the good & bad spectrum.

 

[Blake]

You could be right but I know people that hated Jaws & said it was a pile of garbage even though anyone with the slightest clue about film making and how hard it is to make a basic story play with the audiences emotions in such a memorable way knows it's an incredible movie. Opinions fall on each end of the good & bad spectrum.

I totally respect everyone's opinion. However, his statement was that not just he, but everyone will watch it down the road and say "oh, I was wrong. This is crap."

 

[cerealkeller]

I really don't think there's anything wrong with calling him one of the best directors ever. He has proven himself time and time again that he is a solid filmmaker. Besides, what defines the best director ever? Because you can say a name and instantly you know what kind of film your getting? Whether it be crime, action, fantasy, etc. Who knows if he'll have longevity, but at least if I were to put a label on Nolan it would be smart. Remember, he made the Prestige as a "break" between Batman movies. A sort of "I'll crank this out" before going back to big action.

If that's what we can expect from him taking a break, than imagine what we'll get when he's done with the big summer blockbuster?

One more thing, I'm just glad he proved summer blockbusters work best when they're not dumb, loud and meaningless popcorn affairs. I love the that after TDK you can have conversations about the definition of what the very word "hero" means. Is it public perception or sacrifices made by an person to give hope to the public?

Sorry for the rant but I'm already tired of the Nolan TDK backlash it's getting because it became popular.

 

[Sonic The MadHOG]

I totally respect everyone's opinion. However, his statement was that not just he, but everyone will watch it down the road and say "oh, I was wrong. This is crap."

I take such opinions with a pinch of salt.

 

[Sonic The MadHOG]

I really don't think there's anything wrong with calling him one of the best directors ever. He has proven himself time and time again that he is a solid filmmaker. Besides, what defines the best director ever? Because you can say a name and instantly you know what kind of film your getting? Whether it be crime, action, fantasy, etc. Who knows if he'll have longevity, but at least if I were to put a label on Nolan it would be smart. Remember, he made the Prestige as a "break" between Batman movies. A sort of "I'll crank this out" before going back to big action.

If that's what we can expect from him taking a break, than imagine what we'll get when he's done with the big summer blockbuster?

One more thing, I'm just glad he proved summer blockbusters work best when they're not dumb, loud and meaningless popcorn affairs. I love the that after TDK you can have conversations about the definition of what the very word "hero" means. Is it public perception or sacrifices made by an person to give hope to the public?

Sorry for the rant but I'm already tired of the Nolan TDK backlash it's getting because it became popular.

Nicely put, I agree.

 

[Blake]

I take such opinions with a pinch of salt.

Good call!

 

[Sonic The MadHOG]

Good call!

I do believe opinions can be broad within reason because I have had bad experiences with movies that have been talked up in the press and I've watched them and had that feeling of 'who could think this is an incredible movie?' The Coen brothers have done that to me, Fargo was talked up in the press and it bored me to tears, I tried to forget that experience when No Country For Old Men came out cause the trailer made it look great & it was until the last quarter and again I was disappointed. So although I loved all of Nolan's movies I can't criticise anyone that didn't.

 

[barbelith]

I really don't think there's anything wrong with calling him one of the best directors ever.

I have to admit I like it when people call Nolan one of the best directors ever, because it tells me right away the person I'm talking is probably clueless about cinematic history and thus probably not worth taking too seriously in a discussion about the best directors ever.

The really telling part in my opinion is that his most vocal supporters appear incapable of explaining why. What has he added to the language of cinema? How has he used the language of cinema? Hands up everyone who's even seen Doodlebug or Following or the original version of Insomnia, which most critics said was far better than his remake?

I think really we're looking at three properties here:

• Memento, which was solid but remarkable more for its narrative gimmick than anything else, and certainly not remarkable from a directing standpoint.

• The Prestige, which is more or less a repeat of the strengths and flaws of Memento and which usually gets acclaim for its titular revelation than direction.

• Batman, which again is more noted for its approach to the story (the mooted "realistic" take) than its actual direction, which unfortunately contains significant editing errors and - egregiously for an action movie - some dreadful fight direction.

I remember when The Matrix was considered the second coming of cinema among geeks who weren't actually familiar with cinematic history. Now it's just collecting dust on the DVD shelf. The Dark Knight is a good movie but it's nothing without Heath Ledger, and in five years it'll be sitting next to The Matrix collecting dust. Nolan's biggest skill is tricking his audience into thinking the movie they're watching is a film.

 

[bumblebee]

Best ever???.........NO.

 

[customizerwannabe]

His name shouldn't be utterd in the same breath as Spielberg and at least a dozen others. Best? Puhlease!!

 

[RoboDad]

Yeah a lot of people on the internet might be going crazy with the emoticons but that doesn't mean that TDK *isn't* a great movie in its own right. If people can't be giddy about an incredibly well done movie featuring a guy in a superhero costume punching bad guys, what kind of movie should they be giddy about? Some slice-of-life arthouse flick?

Of course people can be giddy, but is it too much to ask that they temper their giddiness with at least a modicum of reason?

I know it isn't "perfect" on every level like a Raiders or Jaws. But in the cases where TDK isn't (like Gylenhaal's character) I'd still say the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

See, that's where we disagree. I think that, in the case of TDK, the parts that make the movie worthwhile to me far exceed the whole. The reasons I like the movie are very specific elements (most notably Ledger's and Oldman's performances), not the whole package. As a whole, the movie was actually kind of disappointing, and very depressing. Not at all what I look for in movies in general, let alone a superhero movie. And, FWIW, almost everyone I know who has seen the movie has echoed the same sentiment.

 

[Sonic The MadHOG]

His name shouldn't be utterd in the same breath as Spielberg and at least a dozen others. Best? Puhlease!!

He's just started though, who even knows or talks about Spielberg's first six projects but as a rookie Nolan's first six movies are all award winning. He ain't near Spielberg yet & he might never be but he's off to a good start.

 

[RoboDad]

He's just started though, who even knows or talks about Spielberg's first six projects but as a rookie Nolan's first six movies are all award winning. He ain't near Spielberg yet & he might never be but he's off to a good start.

Not counting his amateur and short film work (mostly stuff he did as a child, and student films), Spielberg's first six feature-length directorial efforts were:

The Sugarland Express (1974)
Jaws (1975)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
1941 (1979)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Not a bad résumé, if you ask me.

 

[Sonic The MadHOG]

Not counting his amateur and short film work (mostly stuff he did as a child, and student films), Spielberg's first six feature-length directorial efforts were:

The Sugarland Express (1974)
Jaws (1975)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
1941 (1979)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Not a bad résumé, if you ask me.

Yeah but if he hadn't done all those projects you say were amateur and student projects then he would not have learned from his experiences and might not be the legend that he is today, Nolan's student projects are award winning or Oscar nominees. I do feel uncomfortable comparing them at this point cause there is no comparison especially when I think of those movies you've mentioned, but Nolan is still a student that is blossoming very well.