A driving force of his exceptional filmography, the stories director Christopher Nolan brings to the screen are perfectly balanced even when chaos reigns. Nolan has proven, time and again, the power of his films derive from the way in which he tells his stories – aligning minutia with broader thematic elements. The power of Christopher Nolan’s storytelling capabilities renders complex, reflexive, and meaningful portrayals of circumstances that are otherworldly into something resonantly familiar.
In a video essay by Jack’s Movie Reviews, one of Nolan’s narrative techniques in “Dunkirk” is studied. Unlike the filmmaker’s equally challenging and multi-layered venture, “Inception,” the storylines in WWII are wedded against one another; one leaning on the support of the other. A story by land, sea, and air, the plotlines intersect but never align until the conclusion of the film. As an example of creating tension, Nolan focuses a storyline on the “Shivering Soldier,” played by Cillian Murphy. We first meet him upon his rescue from a sinking ship, but later find him emotionally unstable. Nolan takes us back to this specific plot’s storyline. We know something will occur that will lead the soldier to suffer from immediate emotional distress. It is how the information is revealed that audiences come to understand just how this happens.
The fog of morality that Nolan explores is laid bare through the backdrop of the madness that is war. Between being stable and broken, distressed and safe, Nolan utilizes suspense in his storytelling as a tool to grab audiences attention while inferring the honest terror of historic events. The rise and fall of tension are palpable in Nolan’s war epic. When we have reached an exciting, inciting moment of one storyline, the waves of tension wash over us again to return to the unknowing fixture of uncertainty.
