This July, Christopher Nolan's newest sci-fi action film, Tenet, will release to the public following the global shutdown of movie theaters. Many are hoping his upcoming film starring John David Washington and Robert Pattinson will help revive the theater industry.
Until the release of Tenet, audiences are left to debate as to which of Nolan's existing works is his greatest film. Some love Interstellar for its space adventure with an emotional core, some will vouch for Inception for its creative dream-building, and others love Dunkirk for its gritty war story. However, we will be pitting two of his most critically acclaimed works against each other for the title of Nolan's best film: his superhero film, The Dark Knight, and his indie psychological thriller, Memento.
The Dark Knight: The Performances
Nobody can deny the fantastic work that Guy Pearce did with his character in Memento. However, when you think of the greatest performances of all time, Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker is some of the most fantastic work ever put to screen, as he is a fan favorite actor behind this mad man.
Christian Bale is, as usual, on his A-game as Bruce Wayne, and Aaron Eckhart's performance as Two-Face remains one of the more underrated aspects of this film.
Memento: Nonlinear Structure
While the story of The Dark Knight follows a familiar structure that we are familiar with, Memento takes a different route with its structure, giving us a story told out of order. The black and white scenes are in chronological order, but the color scenes are in reverse chronological order.
This allows the audience to share Leonard's sense of confusion, as neither of us knows what is happening at the beginning of each color scene, and this is a film that only manages to be effective in its storytelling when told in this order.
The Dark Knight: Memorable Quotes
Although this is a very serious superhero film, the film's one-liners are effortlessly quotable. With Batman's, "I'm not wearing hockey pads!" to Harvey Dent's, "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain," it's no wonder why this film has stood the test of time.
The Joker has too many memorable quotes to count, such as his monologues about how he got his scars, to his disappearing pencil trick, to a simple but effective line: "if you're good at something, never do it for free."
Memento: The Twist
While M. Night Shyamalan has gained notoriety for his use of plot twists, Nolan has the art of the plot twist mastered to a tee, and, while his other films, such as The Prestige and Interstellar, contain twists, none of them have been as shocking as the twist at the end of Memento.
The way the film is structured makes us believe the twist came at the very beginning of the film, but Nolan surprises his audience by having the end of the film throw in a realization that makes us think differently about all the events we witnessed before, and the result is breathtaking.
The Dark Knight: Exciting Action
This film is famous for its fantastic story and characters, but The Dark Knight does not fall short on one of the key staples of most superhero films: the action.
All of the action setpieces in this film are thrilling; from the chase scene at night with the Batmobile to the building fight near the end of the film where Batman has his final confrontation with the Joker, the action in this movie is brutal and fun. The film's practical effects are a highlight of what makes the action sequences so exciting.
Memento: Emotional Center
Something Nolan excels at is combining unique stories with an emotional center, with Inception and Interstellar being prime examples of these.
Memento is no exception, as Leonard wants to find the man who killed his wife, and there are a lot of emotional scenes where he mourns his wife and a very moving scene where we witness how his condition affects his emotional state, when he asks, "how am I supposed to heal if I can't feel time?"
The Dark Knight: The Characters
While the characters in Memento are all revealed to be manipulative in their own way, The Dark Knight has many characters that we all love. Bruce Wayne refuses to kill anyone, and the Joker is the perfect adversary for him, as he wants Batman to kill him so that he can break that rule.
Rachel, Alfred, and Lucius are all great characters, and it's fascinating to watch Harvey Dent's fall over the course of the film.
Memento: Grounded In Simplicity
Nolan's superhero films always tell very elaborate stories with a lot of character growth and an intricate plot. However, Memento has a more simple premise than his more high-budget films.
This is a revenge story that seems familiar at first, but the execution of the premise makes it a much more unique film than we've grown accustomed to. It's a simplistic story, and Nolan excels in a simple story just as well as his complex ones.
The Dark Knight: Hans Zimmer's Score
One of the shining aspects of The Dark Knight is Hans Zimmer's excellent musical score. The music for the trilogy is exciting, bold, and emotional when it wants to be. While Memento has a great score from David Julyan, Zimmer's score is iconic, especially in the final moments of the film.
Memento: Unreliable Narrator
This film uses the narrative device known as the unreliable narrator. Similar to films such as Fight Club and Shutter Island, the credibility of the narrator is questionable.
We believe everything Leonard tells us; he is our protagonist, and he has information written on polaroid photographs. However, he has short-term memory loss, and, as we realize how he gets the information he writes down, he becomes more and more unreliable, and this makes the story a captivating tale.