How Christopher Nolan Elevates the Movie Montage

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Chapters
00:00 - What is a Montage?
00:53 - The Training Montage
01:57 - Character Montage — Batman Begin
03:14 - Epilogue Montage
04:16 - Thematic Montage — Dunkirk
05:29 - Emotional Montage — Interstellar
07:51 - Final Takeaways

From the very beginning, Christopher Nolan has changed the way we watch movies. From his experiments with non-linear timelines to his high-concept plots, Nolan brings something new to the table every time out. The same can be said for how he uses a rather tired cinematic trope: the movie montage. In this video essay, we’ll explore the inspired and creative ways Christopher Nolan takes the film language of a movie montage and elevates it beyond cliche.

When we think of a movie montage, what comes to mind? The typical training montage perhaps best associated with Rocky has been parroted and parodied endlessly (e.g., Team America: World Police). And, yet, somehow Christopher Nolan was able to bring legitimacy back to the movie montage — look no further than the Batman training montage in Batman Begins. The first way Christopher Nolan subverts the typical training montage is to place it in the middle of Act One. In this case, Bruce Wayne isn’t just training to fight the big, bad villain, we are given exposition, backstory, and the beginnings of his entire character arc.

Beyond elevating the training montage, Christopher Nolan also uses the movie montage to end his movies. In movies like Dunkirk, Interstellar, The Dark Knight Rises and The Prestige, Nolan gives us something like a “movie montage epilogue.” More than simply tying up loose ends, Nolan gives us a glimpse of the past, present and future. In the case of Dunkirk, he is able to use voice over to create a “thematic montage,” where the virtues and bravery of that particularly harrowing situation are honored and cherished in montage.

The final way Christopher Nolan reinvents the movie montage is to concentrate emotional catharsis. The best example of this comes from Interstellar as we watch Cooper watch a series of video messages sent from his children during the decades he’s been gone. The movie montage is often used to accelerate time but, in this case, he’s accelerating emotion.

In short, Christopher Nolan shows us that the movie montage is more than just a laughable trope — it can be wielded in fresh and exciting ways. Whether you take a training montage and use it to establish character, construct thematic and resonant endings, or amplify the emotions of your characters, a movie montage just might be the best way to do it.

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