Is Christopher Nolan among the alltime greats?

[The Futurist]

No shit, Sherlock !

[Letsuseournoggin]

Getting there. Pretty much a yes, though.

[pinocchio]

Uh, no.

[keysersoze123]

I think he will get there for sure. Its not even debatable. He has proven over a decade now and he is still very young. I am sure with another 2-3 movies he will be rated among all time greats.Does that mean he will convince everyone. Probably not. But general perception among critics and audience will be there for sure.

[pinocchio]

I think he will get there for sure. Its not even debatable. He has proven over a decade now and he is still very young. I am sure with another 2-3 movies he will be rated among all time greats.Does that mean he will convince everyone. Probably not. But general perception among critics and audience will be there for sure.

Wow, he is here for a decade. For all time greats its's three or four decades, you know.

[keysersoze123]

time period is definitely a factor. But 15 years is not short. Especially with 10 releases. You dont need to be there for 40 years to be among all time greats.

[mattmav45]

At this point, hell no.He has yet to show any kind of knack for portraying any kind of real human emotion, and that is a huge deal, IMO. His films thus far are too formulaic in that they all look the same, the characters don't really show much depth, and there's a very "mechanical" feel while watching a Nolan movie.I'm not saying he won't get there eventually, but he needs to show that he can actually portray relatable characters with real emotion.

[redfirebird2008]

At this point, hell no.He has yet to show any kind of knack for portraying any kind of real human emotion, and that is a huge deal, IMO. His films thus far are too formulaic in that they all look the same, the characters don't really show much depth, and there's a very "mechanical" feel while watching a Nolan movie.I'm not saying he won't get there eventually, but he needs to show that he can actually portray relatable characters with real emotion.

Yeah, graveyard scene in TDKR is so mechanical.

[AppMini]

He needs to step out of his clinical box to become an all-timer. Inception is identical to The Dark Knight Trilogy in tone, structure and pacing. Make something with more warmth and humor.To his credit, he's in a much better position than Peter Jackson, who failed completely to capitalize on his post-LOTR hype.

Edited August 4, 2012 by Raddish

[pinocchio]

He needs to step out of his clinical box to become an all-timer. Inception is identical to The Dark Knight Trilogy in tone, structure and pacing. Make something with more warmth and humor.To his credit, he's in a much better position than Peter Jackson, who failed completely to capitalize on his post-LOTR hype.

QFT.

[redfirebird2008]

He needs to step out of his clinical box to become an all-timer. Inception is identical to The Dark Knight Trilogy in tone, structure and pacing. Make something with more warmth and humor.To his credit, he's in a much better position than Peter Jackson, who failed completely to capitalize on his post-LOTR hype.

Agreed. I would like to see Nolan do a comedy.

[GamingFreak]

I'd like to see him to do a western.

[Darth Homer]

At this point, hell no.He has yet to show any kind of knack for portraying any kind of real human emotion, and that is a huge deal, IMO. His films thus far are too formulaic in that they all look the same, the characters don't really show much depth, and there's a very "mechanical" feel while watching a Nolan movie.I'm not saying he won't get there eventually, but he needs to show that he can actually portray relatable characters with real emotion.

Very true. The non-impact of Rachel Dawes' death in TDK is a great example of Nolan's failure with more emotional scenes. Sure, most of Kubrick's movies were pretty unemotional too, but he was able to work very successfully in a variety of genres, from sci-fi to horror to satire to war movies. Nolan hasn't shown that range yet. It will be interesting to see if he is able to return to smaller filmmaking after delivering three mammoth action blockbusters in a row.

[Ozymandias]

I feel like I must reiterate my position here.Short answer: No.Long answer: Noooooooo.

[vc2002]

I feel like I must reiterate my position here.Short answer: No.Long answer: Noooooooo.

[Ozymandias]

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s

Lol. He doesn't even have craft IMO. All his films look and feel exactly the same along with his trademark cold characters. I've said over and over again that I think TDK is a masterpiece, but thats it. He is a 1 trick pony IMHO.

[Kvikk Lunsj]

I feel like most directors today are nothing like the great all pretty much overrated. Nolan, Cameron, Fincher,and Aronofsky. I love all these directors but there movies are like their past films they never try to make something different.

[Webslinger]

No.1.) He's still too early into his career. His big break, Memento, was released eleven years ago, and even though he may never again make something on the scale of The Dark Knight Rises, I sincerely doubt he's going to be done making movies altogether.2.) As much as I have loved his movies thus far, I think he needs to show more range. Since Memento, The Prestige is the only one of his films that hasn't dealt with crime or the police in some way. Sure, other very talented directors have worked largely in the same area; David Fincher and Martin Scorsese, who are two of my favorite working directors, are among them. But Fincher branched out to fantasy and romance with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and college-age twentysomethings in The Social Network, while Scorsese put the gangsters on hold for long enough to do several period pieces without a wiseguy in sight - two of which were rated PG. Or then we have the Coen Brothers, who just within the last five years have bounced from a serious nihilist thriller to a violent dark comedy to a symbolism-heavy '60s-set comedy with a plethora of Jewish in-jokes (per one of my college roommates, who is Jewish) to a remake of a John Wayne western. Nolan doesn't have the same kind of diversity in his filmography at this point. (For the record, Scorsese is the only one of the three examples I gave who I would consider to be an all-time great, but Fincher and the Coens are also on the way.)3.) Although I find his fascination with psychology to be, well, fascinating, I think it would be interesting to see him craft characters who work more as human beings and less as representations of psychological concepts. It's not that the characters don't have humanity; rather, it's that their status as symbols threatens to overwhelm those traces of humanity. Bruce Wayne in Dark Knight Rises is a great example: he's a figure made larger than life by the fact that he's a hero who must make himself become driven solely by the desire to be heroic. The conflict is psychological, not emotional. While this isn't a bad thing (I think it worked very well in the movie, actually), it does convince me that Nolan still has some work to do in focusing on character rather than ideas.4.) Female characters. They're never leads in his films, and they're also usually underwritten compared to their male counterparts. If Nolan can rectify this point in future movies, he'll be one step closer to being in the conversation for all-time great directors.Don't get me wrong; I love his movies. But if he's going to be among the greats, he has some areas of improvement to work on.

[Jessie]

Surely people are only all time greats depending on who's opinion we view it from, so basically, there will never be a 'yes' or 'no' answer to this thread.

[GamingFreak]

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/sightsound/christopher-nolan-escape-artistA nice analysis of Nolan's work so far.