This Magic Moment: Top Five Christopher Nolan Scenes
This Magic Moment is Sam Watermeier’s commentary in which he analyzes a signature scene from a film — one of those indelible, awe-inspiring moments that define a movie (e.g. the shower stabbing in “Psycho,” the moon-bound bike ride in “E.T.”) — and writes about why it is so memorable.
This week, in honor of Christopher Nolan's new film, "Interstellar," he is taking a look back at the director's finest moments.
Top Five Christopher Nolan Scenes
5. "Insomnia" — Log Chase
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyTe1v55j_0&w=500&h=315] When looking back on it now, this scene seems to foreshadow Christopher Nolan's venture into action spectacles. It's an invigoratingly original action set piece, exuding the same sort of imaginative, indelible quality of the chase across the faces of Mount Rushmore in Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest." But Nolan never loses sight of the human drama amid this otherworldly spectacle of a chase across river logs. It remains a tense, intimate moment between two dynamic characters.
4. "Inception" — Opening the Safe
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8B370KNp1o&w=500&h=315] Although they can arrest our eyes and envelop us in an illusion, the true magic of movies lies in their ability to touch our hearts, to make us feel a flesh-and-blood closeness to fictional characters — or as beloved film critic, Roger Ebert, said, "to help us identify with people who are sharing this journey with us."
In between the dream-traveling momentum of "Inception," Nolan delivers a devastatingly beautiful moment between a father and son with which we can all identify. This scene captures the universal, love-induced tension and misunderstanding between fathers and sons with a short, simple exchange of dialogue:
"I know you were disappointed I couldn't be you." "No. I was disappointed that you tried."
It is in this moment that the film lives up to Ebert's definition of cinema as "a machine that generates empathy," which is exactly what the characters in the movie aim to generate when they infiltrate others' dreams. Like a dream, the scene is over before you know what hit you. Brief yet haunting.
3. "Memento" — Remember Sammy Jankis
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1K6jpNcYGo&w=500&h=315] Nolan is the kind of director who dazzles us even when he's not trying to. Like Steven Spielberg, he blows us away with quiet moments in between the explosive spectacles of his incendiary stories.
Throughout the structure-twisting of the maze-like mystery "Memento," Nolan grabs us with this flashback set in the calm before the storm of the film's main plot. What follows is an eerie, understated scene that illustrates the illusion of time and mystery of memory even more effectively than the film's acrobatic editing.
2. "The Dark Knight" — Interrogation
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7LsBMA-rKg&w=500&h=315] This scene embodies the overarching accomplishment of the "Dark Knight" trilogy, grounding comic-book icons in gritty reality and exposing their vulnerability without reducing their iconic stature. Through Nolan's lens, Batman and the Joker appear human yet larger than life, and the line between popcorn entertainment and intimate drama blurs away.
1. "The Dark Knight Rises" — "Goodbye, Alfred"
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGusymq7jlY&w=500&h=315] Nolan has never sacrificed substance, even as he's ventured almost exclusively into blockbuster territory. That's powerfully evident in this scene — a piercingly heartfelt exchange that shines through the rubble of chaos in which the characters are enveloped. It's a raw, confessional moment that finds Bruce Wayne's butler Alfred acting as a father — refusing to support Bruce's dangerous goals in favor of protecting his life.
After blowing us back in our seats with spectacular action scenes, Nolan compels us to lean forward and listen closely with this intimate moment, doing what Ben Folds once said the best musicians do — turning a stadium into a living room.