Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy has had a telling impact. The Inception director’s gritty world and novel story-telling revolutionized not only the Caped Crusader as the fans knew him, but the genre itself. Superhero movies would never be the same. It would be a shame to restrict it to the genre. Filmmakers around the world would hail Nolan’s magnum opus as their compass, including Skyfall director Sam Mendes.
How Christopher Nolan took The Dark Knight trilogy in the right direction
When Christopher Nolan set about the task of bringing to life Batman, he knew he would have to go a step further than anyone ever had with the character. In Christian Bale, he had the perfect man for the job.
What ensured that his Batman would turn out different was how it had an impact beyond Gotham. Bale’s Bruce Wayne can be seen scourging around the world to find a way of life that suited him. And this globe-trotting would not have been if it had not been for the early Bond films.
How the early James Bond movies had a huge impact on Christopher Nolan
In 2012, the Dunkirk director told Indiewire,
“The globe-trotting elements of ‘Batman Begins’ mostly came from the Bond films.”
He had always been one to vouch for the “idea of getting you to other places, of getting you along for a ride if you can believe in it.” For the 53-year-old, the early Bond films were a huge impact. But this influence, as he would later find out, was mutual. The steps he had taken would embolden a host of directors to walk the same path, marking a transition from the action sequences of yore to a darker post-9/11 landscape. Sam Mendes was one such director.
Sam Mendes hails Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight
Skyfall has been lauded by fans around the globe for its style. A box office collection of $1.1 billion is a testament to this fact. Speaking to Indiewire, director Sam Mendes revealed how The Dark Knight was a catalyst in his making the film. He said,
“[Nolan proved that] you can make a huge movie that is thrilling and entertaining and has a lot to say about the world we live in, even if, in the case with ‘The Dark Knight,’ it’s not even set in our world… That did help give me the confidence to take [Skyfall] in directions that, without ‘The Dark Knight,’ might not have been possible.”
The 58-year-old hailed the Heath Ledger starrer as a game-changer for everybody. And no one would disagree with this claim.
Source: Slash Film
