What is Nolan's deepest film? (themes & characters)

**Samsara17** June 29, 2011, 6:07 pm

When I refer to depth, I mean it in the sense as, which film portrays the greatest amount of themes, as well as the most complex characters who contain a great deal of characterization. Also something that is thought provoking, and allows the viewer to have a wide range of substance to which they can analyze.

I'm going to go with The Dark Knight. There's just so much going on in that film from a thematic perspective.

**theweatherman** June 29, 2011, 6:25 pm

Agreed on the Dark Knight thing. That's what I think is so awesome about it, you can view it as an action movie and love or you could study its thematic elements and be enthralled by its depth.

Website · **Z. Cobb** June 29, 2011, 6:26 pm

I'm going to go with the Prestige... it has everything... that can consume a person to do such terrible things.

**RIFA** June 29, 2011, 6:36 pm

The Dark Knight.

**Cilogy** June 29, 2011, 8:18 pm

Samsara17 wrote:When I refer to depth, I mean it in the sense as, which film portrays the greatest amount of themes, as well as the most complex characters who contain a great deal of characterization. Also something that is thought provoking, and allows the viewer to have a wide range of substance to which they can analyze.

I'm going to go with The Dark Knight. There's just so much going on in that film from a thematic perspective.

Lecture time:

What's great about Nolan is that every one of his films can be analyzed to death.

That being said, I feel like The Dark Knight has a lot of "width" more than "depth." What I mean by this is that even though there is a lot going on in TDK, it doesn't seem to go as deep as Inception or The Prestige. TDK is definitely deep though, it is the deepest superhero film out there. It's more "on the surface," and this is mostly because Nolan's main point in this film was to show how "big" he could make it (with all the IMAX, stunts, characters, and storylines). This makes it a very "wide" film, and the way that it was executed and the way everything was tied together stood out more.

The Prestige has more depth than width, considering the fact that the depth of the handful of characters and the story is the most thrilling thing about it, rather than the visuals and the tie-ins.

Inception is, in my opinion, more well rounded. It has a lot of depth as well as width. Nolan's point in making this film was to show that you could make a big epic movie and still make it reach down really deep on an intellectual level. It is essentially the culmination of everything Nolan has learned about filmmaking and putting into one movie, and it worked really well. Personally Inception has made me think more about it and about my own life, so I would choose it.

Website · **Z. Cobb** June 29, 2011, 8:21 pm

Shitt.... i should have made the joke... Nolan's deepest film is Inception... 3 layers deep.

**Samsara17** June 29, 2011, 8:47 pm

Z. Cobb wrote:Shitt.... i should have made the joke... Nolan's deepest film is Inception... 3 layers deep.

I knew it was only a matter of time before that comment would be made :lol:

**theweatherman** June 29, 2011, 10:22 pm

Cilogy, while I'd agree that the Dark Knight does not have the deepest characters, but it is filled with so many rich themes and thought-provoking scenarios that to me beats out others like The Prestige and Inception. In fact you could almost say that the characters of the Dark Knight weren't really characters at all, but are instead representations of the themes. That can at least be said of Dent and the Joker. It isn't about depth with their characters, its about what they represent.

**Cilogy** June 29, 2011, 10:31 pm

theweatherman wrote:Cilogy, while I'd agree that the Dark Knight does not have the deepest characters, but it is filled with so many rich themes and thought-provoking scenarios that to me beats out others like The Prestige and Inception.

I'm not saying that TDK doesn't have rich themes and scenarios, it definitely does. Maybe it's because I tend to like films that I connect with emotionally more than films I don't connect with as much.

In fact you could almost say that the characters of the Dark Knight weren't really characters at all, but are instead representations of the themes. That can at least be said of Dent and the Joker. It isn't about depth with their characters, its about what they represent.

I 150% agree with that. In the same way I feel Inception's characters each represent a set of skills.

**theweatherman** June 29, 2011, 10:34 pm

Cilogy wrote:I'm not saying that TDK doesn't have rich themes and scenarios, it definitely does. Maybe it's because I tend to like films that I connect with emotionally more than films I don't connect with as much.

That's fair you connect emotionally, whereas I connect intellectually. I am just always amazed by how well Nolan told such a thematic story as a superhero film.