Quality time with Mr. Nolan

I have long been a fan of the films of Christopher Nolan, everything from Memento onwards. Not only does he make interesting, intelligent movies; but the level of craftsmanship that goes into their making has always intrigued me. In particular, Nolan’shis insistence in minimising computer generated special effects in favour of real action.

A good example was a scene from The Dark Knight. The requirement was to drive an eighteen wheel truck down a narrow street in the banking district in Chicago, a location full of extremely expensive real estate which could not be damaged; and then flip it. Not too hard using CGI, but Nolan wanted it done for real. Here’s brief extract from what was many months of preparation:

I love this sort of stuff; almost as enjoyable as the movies itself. So I couldn’t resist this:

All three of the films on Blu-Ray, plus hours and hours of extras detailing how the movies were made, capped off with a little book of photos and artwork. Five disks full of joy.

Consumed Batman Begins last night, plus some of the extras. Best experienced in a theatre with an IMAX screen, it’s still pretty good on Blu-Ray on a 55" screen whilst eating a bag of Twiglets (thank you genuinej).

Comments 🔗

2012-12-11 | Grant says

Cool! A most impressive piece of work although they have glossed over the fact that in order to make it happen reliably the truck and trailer are no longer articulated as usual but have been bolted together to form a single rigid unit. Allowing the rig to articulate at the fifth wheel would have taken out half a city block. Great to see good old-fashioned real action and less computer generation!

2012-12-11 | Guildford says

Have you seen ‘The Usual Suspects’? I watched it a week ago and it reminded me of Inception in the way it leaves you thinking about the film plot. I am going to have to watch it again. In fact I will watch both again.

2012-12-11 | Spike says

Watched it again for the Nth time only last month. Classic film, which gets even better after the first time because you know what is coming and you can watch all the signs. And watching that made me watch American Beauty again (Kevin Spacey), totally different movie but so perfect.