Christopher Nolan being a boy trying to get into the big leagues is not the description one would generally give to describe the director!
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When you hear the name Christopher Nolan, words like “shallow” and “embarrassing” are probably not what you would relate to. His movies have transcended space and time (pun intended) to give his audiences some brilliant masterpieces.
From Interstellar to Tenet to his latest movie, Oppenheimer, which is being hailed as one of the very best movies ever made, Nolan is praised with many words of appreciation and admiration. But there is hardly someone who would call any of his movies “badly written,” if they had anything to say about them.
Christopher Nolan in an interview | Screengrab from Youtube/BAFTA Guru
But there is one person who did, and it’s none other than Christopher Priest. The name sounds familiar, which is because it is! Christopher Priest is the author of the book behind one of Nolan’s most critically acclaimed movies, The Prestige. The author behind one of Nolan’s biggest cinematic masterpieces does not seem to think too highly of the director.
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One Christopher to Another – The Priest in Not Happy With Nolan
Christopher Priest wrote the science-fiction novel, The Prestige, in 1995. The book became a hit, and soon, there were people clamoring to make a movie adaptation of it. Sam Mendes, at the height of his fame with American Beauty, wanted to adapt The Prestige, and Priest had almost decided to hand him the reigns.
Christopher Priest; Source: Wikimedia Commons
But before that could happen, a VHS of Following reached Priest, and the author decided to take a chance on this new and upcoming director, rather than going with an established one. But still, his thoughts on Nolan were lukewarm at best.
Sitting for an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Christopher Priest said,
“I’ve only ever had one meeting with him, when the film was finished. Because I wasn’t very interested in him. We all have different points of view on the world. To the world he’s this great, innovative filmmaker; to me, he was a kid who wanted to get into Hollywood.”
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According to Priest, Nolan was young and clearly talented and did an amazing job with The Prestige. The Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale starrer-movie, according to the author, along with Memento, are two of the best movies by Nolan. And he is grateful to the director for doing justice to his novel. But well… that’s where the praise ended.
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If 100 people have watched The Dark Knight Trilogy, 90 of them probably absolutely loved it, 5 more thought it was good, 4 thought it was ok, and 1 thought it to be “boring and pretentious”. Now you know who that one person is.
Christopher Nolan, while talking to The Associated Press
According to Priest, most movies by Christopher Nolan outside of Memento and The Prestige are “shallow and badly written” and “embarrassing.” And The Dark Knight Trilogy is nothing more than a momentary distraction at best. In the same THR interview, Priest said,
“It’s a wrong move to take a superhero and give it psychological realism. There is no psychological realism. He’s a bodybuilder who jumps off buildings. I’m sorry I feel really strongly about this.”
The author further added,
“What he’s trying to be is some kind of modern [Stanley] Kubrick. And I think he’d be better off being a modern [Alfred] Hitchcock, basically. A maker of well-made films like Memento and The Prestige. And these blockbusters are just embarrassing, I think.”
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Seems like the author is not really impressed with the director, someone who is being hailed as one of the very best of this generation. But well… everyone has their individual choices, and we can not fault one for it. But for those who do like Christopher Nolan and his movies, they are here to stay (and slay), and the new one might even end up bagging some Oscars this time around.
The Prestige is available for rent on Apple TV, and The Dark Knight Trilogy is available for streaming on Max.
