Despite all of that, Nolan's second film Memento also ends with the audience questioning the morality of its central character. With Leonard free of his puppet master, but where does a man constantly seeking revenge with an anterograde memory disorder go? If he can convince himself of Teddy's guilt, what other hellish scenarios see themselves played out by the man with no memory? Cross him the wrong way and Leonard Shelby's name becomes synonymous with more frightening characters like Anthony Hopkin's Hannibal Lecter or Heath Ledger's Joker.
The Dark Knight is Nolan’s most mainstream film, though the murky tendencies expressed in films like Following and Memento are still displayed. Take whichever of the three horrific backgrounds that the depraved madman dispenses during the film: his wife being mutilated and leaving him, his father being an abusive drunk and murdering his mother, and whatever he was compelled to tell Batman before his capture. This is a man with a life that was harvested for nightmares. And as he leaves us with his final lines “you see, madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little push!” we are all reminded that Gotham’s predominant psychopath was created by a nudge toward insanity. Given what Gotham endured during The Dark Knight, hundreds of madmen may be making their way toward the light of day.
Heroes and villains are not as cleanly defined in Christopher Nolan’s universe. Insomnia took on the physical toll that a morally ambiguous cop faces when his past catches up with him. When Detective Dormer (Al Pacino) kills his partner in a haze-fueled accident, the pain eats at him constantly, but Walter Finch considers the event in a different light: murder is nothing more than a slight in judgement. These men are protagonist and antagonist, respectively, yet the line is drawn thinly between them. Let us not forget that Nolan’s most popular films rely on a man split between his sense of obligation to a city that took his parents, and an urge to simply let it die. Bruce Wayne is known by all and no one.The Dark Knight is Nolan’s most mainstream film, though the murky tendencies expressed in films like Following and Memento are still displayed. Take whichever of the three horrific backgrounds that the depraved madman dispenses during the film: his wife being mutilated and leaving him, his father being an abusive drunk and murdering his mother, and whatever he was compelled to tell Batman before his capture. This is a man with a life that was harvested for nightmares. And as he leaves us with his final lines “you see, madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little push!” we are all reminded that Gotham’s predominant psychopath was created by a nudge toward insanity. Given what Gotham endured during The Dark Knight, hundreds of madmen may be making their way toward the light of day.
Bruce Wayne is Batman, the actions he takes as a masked avenger are not separate of the man, rather an extension of him. He is a mask himself. Which is fitting given that as much as Bruce thinks he knows Gotham, the city pulls away from him time after time. Bruce believes his alter ego to be the savior to a city that is actively killing him. Batman is drawn a hero and villain in the eyes of Gotham, but he never takes a defined stance. Utilizing tactics like tapping all of the cities’ phones to stop a terrorist is not that far from becoming a criminal.
As anguished a character as Batman is, the darkest entry into Nolan’s filmography must be The Prestige. The Prestige introduces a conflict of morality to its audience following the reveal of The Great Danton’s last magic act. A man that could brutally murder himself time and time again possesses either one of the world’s most firm grasps on an afterlife, or a devilish malice that cannot bare comprehension. With Angier’s belief in God crystallized by this quote: “the audience knows the truth, that the world is simple. Miserable. Solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, you could make them wonder. Then you got to see something very special.” The Great Danton seems to have no apparent belief in a world beyond this one and that piece of knowledge makes it clear: Angier is just a monster.
However, Nolan does not just introduce ambivalent themes into his films, but ambiguity as well. Ambiguity is a commodity that is no longer pedaled in today’s movie market. Despite that fact, Inception still figured into the top five highest-grossing films in 2010. Many viewers argue whether or not Cobb made it out of limbo, but depending on your view, the film has its own meaning. A man trapped inside of his own self-conscious, destined to live the same events over and over again, or a man freed from his burdens. Take your choice. What Christopher Nolan seems to say with each dissection of a genre is that these conventions do not have to doom a film to contrived shoot-outs and dramatic monologues. Not all questions have to be answered and not every story has a happy ending.
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