So Christopher Nolan's TENET has garnered many mixed reactions amongst audiences and
critics who have seen the film. As you know I personally really enjoyed his
latest project and over 4 rewatches of it, the film has only got better and better. In
this video, I'm going to be discussing the reasons why I think Christopher
Nolan's TENET is a film that will last and grow over the next few years. This video will
contain brief spoilers, so if you do happen to be someone who hasn't seen
TENET, then I would recommend watching this video afterwards. If you want to see more
on the film including a new explained video coming soon, then don't forget to subscribe
to the channel and turn on your notifications. Also, if you enjoy this upload remember to
give it a like rating. Without further ado, let's dive into why I
believe Christopher Nolan's Tenet is ahead of its time.
So if you've seen my review and video essays on Christopher Nolan's latest film, you'll
know that I really enjoyed watching it, but I also had issues the first time
around. These were smaller problems that many viewers also picked up on like the emotional
connection to the protagonist, the sound mixing in the film and how the
ideas presented could have been represented in a way which made them slightly more accessible
for audiences across the board. For me, on rewatch many of these issues
have dissapeared or become less of a problem as now I understand the film to a greater
degree and also gather that the intention and reason being these filmmaking
choices were in fact on purpose. Now although I currently rank TENET at number 7 on my Nolan
ranked list, as I said in that video and other videos that I have done on
the film, TENET is made to be rewatched and appreciated over time and isn't neccasirily
a piece of art which should be devoured so quickly and never watched again due
to the nature of it's concepts and the meanings behind the characters through the way Nolan
represents them. Tenet has extreme rewatchability because of the depth
explored through detail and the overall motivation of the story. Don't get me wrong, TENET is
a complicated film and one that has recieved a high amount of mixed
ratings and loads of pressure placed on it due to everything currently going on in the
world. Nolan's at the point in his career now where he's gone from hit films to
incredibly thoughful and nuanced approaches on cinema, that whatever route he goes in,
there will be criticism. He's developed a fan base that all expect different
things from him as a filmmaker and he can't please everyone. But with TENET, I believe
we got a Nolan film which the world wasn't ready for, one which pushed the
experience of watching a film, one which pushed action cinema in a completely new direction
and one which the audience and other filmmakers can take some influence
from even if that particular person didn't necessarily love the film. Tenet is nolan
at his most stripped back as a filmmaker and it tackles ideas which get to the
heart of the movie-going experience and how time is used within a film to manipulate the
way an audience watches a narrative unfold.
But starting with the story. In TENET, we get a film which on first watch, many of us
may have been perplexed over surrounding the point of the plot and it's
importance. Well to begin with, we are looking at a story which involves every human being
on the planet, and not just through the threat to the entire world, but the
simple fact that the film is dealing with the idea of being programed to look at the
world through a very small hole, which within this, involves how time controls us
all. The Protagonist is thrusted into a world which he doesnt fully understand, one which
at first, tests whether he would sacrifice his own friends and people around
him to simply save himself. He doesn't do this of course and is eventually inducted
into Tenet to face a threat and a war on time using what we know as inversion or
the entropy of people and objects. The character is like the audience, not prepared nor not
knowing of what is neccasarily happening to begin with and has to quickly
adapt to the situation and the events to stop this threat from effecting everyone on the
planet. Like the opening 30 minutes of the film, we gather that the
protagonist cares about saving people he barely knows and would sacrifice himself for their
survival. There's this argument that Nolan writes his characters as cold
emotionless ones which lack any depth or substance, but through this opening example with the
protagonist, we see quite the opposite. The protagonist is a character
which in the eyes of his country and the goverment has died. While the world struggles and is
deeply divided through it's militaristic situation, the protagonist is
someone who is alligned with this persona to come at the problem not just through his
own inner emotional desire but also a desire to share himself in this deeply
damaged world. To offer yourself up to solve something which you don't fully understand
yet while also being thrown out by your own military shows the strength that
John David Washington's character has. It's only Neil who connects himself to The Protagonist
and by the end of the film we know why he did that. This comes down to
the idea of seperating yourself from a particular humanistic identity because of the situation
at play. If Nolan was to interweve an entire emotional backstory into
this concept it would only destroy the point of his character. But because he's such a
strong filmmaker, he was able to preserve the emotional resonance discussed
earlier, and carry that essense through The Protagonist's willingness to solve this particular
problem and also his growing connection and sympathy to people he
doesnt quite understand yet. It all boils down to sacrificing yourself and your identity
to stop an issue which on the surface seems beyond your control as a human
being. Time controls all of us as human beings and even when Sator thretens to invert the
entropy of the world and kill everyone and everything on the planet, The
protagonist is willing to save it all. Nolan has been fascinated with time throughout his
life and filmmaking career, and approaching it head on with TENET through
the entire point of the narrative, should be enough for the audience to relate on a
simple basis because of the focus on the situation at play.
It can be noted that Christopher Nolan further preserved the emotional resonance of the film
through the other characters that The Protagonist becomes involved with.
After meeting with Victor and being told that the reason he passed the initial test was
because of his humanity to put his life in front of his team, The Protagonist
encounters neil for a meaningful exchange and then on to Priya and eventually Kat, the
estranged wife of Sator. Kat knows that The Protagonist isn't a billionaire
like his disguise suggests and emotionally connects with him because like her, he is
placed into a situation which he cannot remove himself from. They are both
linked to a life they didn't mean to chose. When looking at Kat, she deeply cares about
her son and to her it's the only thing that matters while Sator expresses his
complete control over her through him. When she meets The Protagonist, she doesn't want
him getting involved with the pain she has been through and believes Sator
will kill him before any opportunity arises. Nolan creates this empathy through the need
of no backstory and rather through the performances and action of the
characters in this on-going situation. Sator is the manifestation of a loveless monster
and someone who on the surface would crush anyone below him. It's not until
The Protagonist defies this statement that his and Kat's connection expand throughout
the rest of the film. It's the stripped back approach to creating conflict and
emotional reaction which Nolan goes for and it's a method you don't see explored in many
action thrillers on the scale that Tenet was made with. The Protagonist's
effort to fight for something beyond himself is a reason that I personally didnt focus
on as much the first time around. But when you see this depth of complexity it
makes the whole story that much more important to watch and delivers on the spine that Nolan
put in place. It's about posterity and being a guardian for your future
self even if it means doing it from the complete opposite direction. As the film ends in a
point in time which is around where it begins, The Protagonist has closed
the loop of the narrative and attempted to solve the situation from that past time. Neil
echoes this point of being a protector for your future self through his line,
"what happened, happened and by having faith the mechanics of the world". It's a message
that sums up The Protagonist's journey as someone who will put himself on the
line physically and emotionally to save future generations, even if his connection with some
of these people is just beginning.
A lot of the negative reasons outlined by audiences and critics were ones that flooded
my mind after watching the film once. On first experience so much is thrown at
you that it becomes difficult to really engage with some of the characters and things that
happen in the film. But on second watch and my screenings that followed,
you start to see these moments through a different lens. The film appears slower and more deconstructable
as you know as an audience member what you are getting
yourself into. You can see more clearly the moments of emotion through The Protagonist's
motives and the action is only heightened through that. Nolan has approached
head on with a particular story, how cinema can manipulate time and the audience through
editing. Time already manipulates us and thanks to the mammoth task left on
his new editor Jennifer Lame, we see this idea play out in TENET. As nolan referenced
in the secrets of TENET book that released a few weeks ago, "the camera
literally sees time". "Before the camera, before cinema, there was no way for human
beings to visualize either a still frame or reverse chronology by visually seeing
things backward. It's purely the product of the mechanism of the camera that allows us
a great insight into reality or another way of looking into it". Cinema
manipulates time, it gives us a story that takes place over different variations of time
and presents itself to us resulting in reaction and interaction. Tenet
is self aware in that it tackles the concept of time which is within the foundation of
cinema and related to every single audience member themselves. Nolan
has essentially made the audience feel time and the sitations and concept of the film
is already enough for us to follow the protagonist. But on rewatch when we see
the added emotional nuance it makes the whole experience of TENET even better.
Another point to make, which I was quickly transitioning into, is that the filmmaking
in Tenet is something that already elevates the film as one that has to be seen
more then once. The new approaches introduced in the film to manipulate the action through
time, such as filming entire scenes in reverse and having the actors
actually perform in reverse is another layer of depth that makes the magic of the film
shine through as an even greater experience. Many modern filmmakers would
most likely opt to shoot some of the scenes using cgi or just reverse the footage and
face difficulties with the consistency in realism. Nolan has consistency
portrayed the effort he would go to when capturing something as difficult as inversion in tenet.
There are scenes like the red and blue room sequence which capture
actors in forward and backward motion from numerous camera angles which if stopped and
played, you see that it was almost impossible to capture using cinematography
the angles that he did. I think as a filmmaker, Nolan is ahead of many working today. He has
developed so many scenic instances using camera trickery, just like the
zero gravity and practical hallway sequence from inception, which work to suspend the
viewer increasingly into disbelief. This plays into what I was suggesting, which
involves Tenet being a film that is beyond what many could capture in today's landscape.
Cinema was founded on creativity and opening up a new portal into the way a
story could be told and filmed through time. Tenet as experiential cinema gets to the heart
of this idea. It breaks the traditional and offers a new way of watching a
character try and solve a high stakes problem that he and the audience aren't ready for.
It's an audio-visual experience which through complexity in it's soundtrack,
it's metaphoric costume design, it's unique story and mindblowing concepts, poses the
question of how a film viewer watches a film. The landscape has become so
concerned with the single-viewing experience and at times can decide on whether a film
is good or bad after one watch. But why a film like Tenet is so deep concerns
it being a project that can only be fully unpacked and even critiqued as a storyline
after multiple viewings. This is what made films of the past similar to 2001: a
space odyssey so long lasting over the history of cinema. Rewatchable cinema which commands
your attention and forces you into a situation which you are simply not
ready for. I appreciate this kind of filmmaking as it takes it's time to fully manifest on
the mind of viewers and at the same time offers a new perspective on the
genres it tackles.
For me, Christopher Nolan is exactly the kind of director we should be supporting when it
comes to industry progression. Don't get me wrong, It can be easy to get
lost in what Tenet is trying to say because of the spectacle and practical elevation that
Nolan delivered with his latest film. But lying under the surface of what
is meant to be an experience watched multiple times is the emotion. We can't see the full
picture until we fully gather what the artist is trying to say with their
work and through filmmaking, story and characters, once we see these details, the whole project
is lifted based on this knowledge. I would rather watch a film like
Tenet which gives you many different concepts and ideas to think about then one which quite
frankly is something we as audience are used to seeing on quite a
consistent basis. One which you already know the ending to and a film that takes quite
an un-realistic and un-believable approach to filming an already bare-basic
plotline. Tenet goes beyond to mix up the order of how to make and experience filmmaking.
This is at the heart of cinema's roots and I think Tenet will be
appreciated much more as the film is re-visited, just like I had the experience of seeing unfold
over many watches. But that was my video exploring why I personally
believe that Christopher Nolan's Tenet is ahead of it's time. I do think that more people
will watch the movie over the years and see things in the film on rewatch
that make the experience a whole lot better. It's a movie going experience that I think
a lot of audiences weren't ready for and overall, I believe Tenet is a film
that was built to last. But let me know down below what you thoughts were towards Tenet
and whether you think the film will last as we move through time into the
future.
For more videos on TENET and other upcoming films and tv shows, then don't forget to subscribe
to the channel and turn on your notifications. Also if you enjoyed this
video remember to leave a like rating. I will be doing a final video on TENET before taking
a break from the film in the next week, so make sure to keep a look out for
whenever I post this video. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed it, I've been Cortex and
as always make some noise.