Christopher Nolan is one of the most daring, as well as one of the overall best filmmakers working today, with an eleven feature filmography with absolutely no terrible films. He has taken colossal budgets and made arthouse flicks, he has provoked debates and thoughts, and has crafted some of the greatest movies ever made, one of which is The Dark Knight.
The movie's excellence gets discussed so often, as it truly is a masterpiece. But, with such a differing set of movies, and so many concepts and ideas to explore, as well as different central plots, there are certainly films of his that compete with The Dark Knight qualitatively.
The Dark Knight - The Continuing Reinvention Of Comic Book Films
The influence Nolan and this trilogy had on the future of comic book and superhero movies cannot get overstated, with the Batman IP on-screen left as a bit of a laughing stock from the Joel Schumacher outings.
This movie truly opened people's eyes to the potential of comic book movies as a form of art, as a real piece of cinematic brilliance, rather than just a whacky popcorn muncher of a film. It redefined the word blockbuster, inspiring many an awful copycat attempts, but still showcasing the incredible potential.
Contender - Batman Begins (2005)
However, what many people around the world fail to appreciate is how that movie's predecessor, Batman Begins, manages to show this just the same.
Nolan's first outing with the Caped Crusader introduced a whole new type of superhero movie and grounded the previously outlandish Batman in a dark, gritty, realistic world. It may be the most incredible superhero origin story ever told on screen, and does not get the appreciation it deserves.
The Dark Knight - Rewatchability
Nolan has a fair few movies, such as Inception, Tenet, Memento, and The Prestige, that beg to get watched more than once. However, the necessity of rewatching is different from a sheer rewatchability for entertainment and enjoyment purposes, which The Dark Knight has.
The movie has so much to love and is so excellently crafted that no moment ever gets stale, nothing ever feels overdone. It is easy to stick on and watch while also remaining real art, with thought provocation and themes to go alongside the comic book brilliance of it all.
Contender - Dunkirk (2017)
Most Nolan movies have characters that present an emotional core to the film, someone offering something to make the audience care. Dunkirk is a movie that does not necessarily have that; it does not care for it, nor is it needed.
Dunkirk is an experience; it is a film based solely on the event, on the plot, and is a masterfully done war film. The atmosphere and tension surrounding the events across all three points of view have you on the edge of your seat, and if there is no requirement for character development, but rather a pulsating event-based movie, Dunkirk is the perfect choice as an outstanding piece of cinema.
The Dark Knight - Heath Ledger's Joker
There is nothing newer that can be said about Heath Ledger's unbelievable performance as Joker; it is quite simply the most outstanding performance in any comic book, superhero, or geekdom based movie in history.
Ledger's Joker has risen the ranks of cinematic icons to go alongside villains like Darth Vader, and this movie, while excellent in a variety of other ways, including performances from Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Aaron Eckhart, will forever be ed for what Ledger achieves.
Contender - Memento (2000)
Christopher Nolan has a fascination, née, obsession with the time that has just recently culminated in his overwhelming, wildly original sci-fi epic Tenet. Twenty years before Tenet, though came the film that highlights the soon to come obsession, Memento.
It is another insanely original movie, and rather than manipulate time as a part of the plot like the idea of dream time or inversion, time gets used to manipulate the structure. It is a nonlinear story told backward, with two different timelines, and many consider it to this day still Nolan's masterpiece.
The Dark Knight - The Societal Reflection
The Dark Knight trilogy as a whole does an excellent job at crafting a world that is both firmly fictional with comic book characters retaining their personality with a bit more of an edge, but that is also grounded in realism, and that falls into The Dark Knight's favor.
The Dark Knight confronts the issues of the time better than any other Nolan movie, with Batman's interrogation tactics and surveillance system explicitly acting as a commentary on the real world with stuff like the Patriot's act and the War in Iraq. On top of that, the city of Gotham very much mirrors that of western society, with Joker's goal of disrupting the system with a little chaos being a haunting reflection. Gotham itself highlights the corruption, failure of police, and the threat of terror, all acting as a study of America and American cities.
Contender - The Prestige (2006)
With such a consistently great filmography, there are bound to be one or two films that do not get the appreciation they deserve, and for Nolan, that movie may well be The Prestige, a movie acclaimed by those who have seen it, but which does not get talked about enough.
The movie brilliantly examines the sacrifice of an artist for their craft, as well as the price of obsession. On top of that, it is crafted just like a magic trick, with great twists and turns, an incredible script, and some top tier performances from the cast. It is Nolan's underrated masterpiece.
The Dark Knight - The Iconography
Regardless of the qualitative debate of which is the best Christopher Nolan movie, there is simply no denying The Dark Knight as the most iconic Nolan movie. It is full of iconography that is tightly sewn into the pop culture zeitgeist. While that is not necessarily indicative of quality, it has become iconic in this film for a reason.
Brilliant lines like "Why so serious?" Thrilling scenes like the interrogation and jail cell scene. Characters like the Joker, and the performances to match. These are a minuscule number of examples of the slew of iconic images, moments, and things from the movie, and they all serve to either thrill, chill, or take the breath away from the audience.
Contender - Inception (2010)
Some will always mention Memento; some are so utterly mesmerized by Dunkirk; some are even willing to die on the hill that Batman Begins is the superior film. However, more often than not, the debate comes down to The Dark Knight vs. Tenet.
Inception is one of the most innovative and incredible movies ever made; it is a sci-fi masterpiece and will likely be looked at in generations to come alongside the likes of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Metropolis as one of the greatest movies of the genre. They are both masterpieces, and the debate will likely rage on for a long while over which is the pinnacle of Nolan.
