It may be too early to judge whether Dunkirk, the war drama and the latest passion project from writer-director Christopher Nolan, is his best movie so far, but its near universal acclaim suggests it could be one of the cinematic highlights of 2017. Already, reviews are incredibly positive (currently sitting at 94 on Metacritic) and box office projections show the film on course to dominate the competition this weekend, with $5.5m on Thursday night screenings alone. This is par for the course for Nolan, who, over the course of ten feature films, has grossed over $1.8bn worldwide (making him the sixth highest grossing director in history) and helped to define the modern blockbuster. For many, he is the filmmaker of his generation, not just in technical style and storytelling but in his ability to attract a passionate fan base few contemporary directors could imagine having.
Nolan is one of a very select few directors working today who can command the attention of mainstream audiences by his name alone - more so now in the expanded universe franchise age, where the importance of directors has become somewhat diminished in comparison to the intellectual property. This rare status has also allowed Nolan to become one of the wealthiest directors around, as he negotiated a record breaking $20m pay-cheque - plus 20% of the gross - for working on Dunkirk. Having helped to break the mould of the 21st century superhero film with his Dark Knight trilogy, Nolan helped to legitimize an entire genre after decades of commercial and industry dismissals. Without Nolan, we probably wouldn’t have the model of blockbuster film-making we have now.
That staggering success only serves to drive home how surprising it is that Nolan has never been awarded an Oscar. His films have certainly raked in the nominations, with 26 of them over the years and 7 wins (mostly in technical categories), but Nolan himself has always gone home empty-handed - though he does have nominations to his name: two for Original Screenplay (Memento and Inception) and one for Best Picture (Inception).
Nolan’s Oscar history is more heavily defined by the snubs than the wins, with the absence of a Best Picture nomination for The Dark Knight sparking controversy amongst fans and critics alike. The Guardian called its omission a “disgrace”, and it is often cited as one of the catalysts for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences changing the Best Picture category to include up to ten nominees, thus ensuring that more genre and blockbuster fare be included among the best films of the year. That helped his next film, Inception, get onto that slate, but despite being one of the most exciting and technically proficient film-makers of this decade, the Best Director nomination has remained out of reach.
Nolan remains defined by and large as a blockbuster film-maker, even though he has his beginnings in low-budget drama and made his acclaimed Victorian mystery The Prestige right after Batman Begins. That’s made it difficult for the staid sensibilities of the Oscar voters to view his work on the level of more conventional awards fare, although that wasn’t always the case. Once upon a time, Star Wars, the highest grossing film of 1977, was a Best Picture nominee, as were Jaws and Raiders of the Lost Ark. It wasn’t unusual to see the mainstream audience favourites receive recognition in this category alongside those dramas everyone expected to see.
That started to change in the late 1980s, as studios focused more on the Summer season and international grosses, which relied less on the kind of promotion an Oscar could bring them. Instead, smaller budget dramas used the Oscars as a marketing tool, releasing the film on a limited scale in the now expected end of the year slot and using the following months’ award nominations to sell the film to wider audiences. There were exceptions across the years, from Titanic to Gladiator to The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but the divide between “blockbuster” and “Oscar bait” became ever wider. Many films suffered as a result, but Christopher Nolan has become almost the symbol for this divide - overlooked for his talent and influence because a Batman story just won’t be seen as the platform to demonstrate them.
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Dunkirk, by contrast, seems like much safer territory for traditional Oscar voters: A large-scale war movie populated by acclaimed British actors depicting a true story. This year also sees the release of Darkest Hour, Joe Wright’s drama following the early decisions in World War Two made by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, played by Gary Oldman. Together, these films have been primed for the Oscar race, many months before the generally accepted upon season of consideration begins. It may seem far too early to even be speculating about Dunkirk and Nolan’s chances at winning such an award, but rest assured that a lot of people have already committed to bringing home the gold for this.
The means for winning an Oscar have changed a lot over the past couple of years. Following the controversy over the lack of nominees of colour, led by the online grassroots campaigning of #OscarsSoWhite, the Academy promised to greatly diversify its voting bloc by committing to gender parity by 2020. Last year, a new batch of Academy members, most of whom were women and/or people of colour, made their voices heard and bolstered the vote for Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight to take home Best Picture. This diversifying of the Academy continues, with a new batch of members introduced this year, so it remains to be seen how the trappings of so-called Oscar bait appeal to them. The average Oscar voter may still be a white guy in his late 60s, but that won’t be for much longer.
That could easily benefit Nolan. Dunkirk is not a typical war film. It’s far more focused on interrogating the notion of heroism than depicting a black and white tale of winners versus losers on the battlefield. It contains all the expected spectacle of such a story but with a lean, laser-like focus on the impossible conundrum so many soldiers faced: Wait around to die or make your escape and be branded a coward. That kind of film, which shuns simplified notions of patriotism during wartime but remains proudly British in its aims, could play well to the new Academy members as well as those more used to traditional storytelling. War films are in the blood of the Oscars: The first ever Best Picture winner was the 1927 silent drama Wings, starring Clara Bow. Rewarding Nolan would be new territory for them but Dunkirk itself would simply be a fresh addition to their history.
All of this talk of Oscars, which will follow the film until the 2018 ceremony, overlooks one crucial element that is oft-overlooked in these discussions: Nolan really doesn’t need the Oscars. Recognition from your peers is certainly nice, but Nolan is now so beyond the realms of most directors in terms of visibility, acclaim and money. He’s earning more money than most directors ever will, his films are massive box office players with guaranteed profits (even with a lofty $150m budget), and he commands immense loyalty in the industry, ensuring he can essentially do whatever he wants for the rest of his career. That’s a kind of power very few directors, or indeed any film industry player, have. An Oscar would be a lovely cherry on top of an already sumptuous cake, but ending his career without one wouldn’t cast much of a shadow. After all, Alfred Hitchcock never won a Best Director Oscar.
Right now, the main priority of Warner Bros. is to get Dunkirk into as many theaters as possible to ensure a robust Summer box office, but after that, the awards chatter will begin afresh. This is certainly a film that deserves immense respect and enthusiasm from the industry, with its stellar approach to well-worn territory. Time will tell whether this becomes Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus, but whatever happens come Oscar season, his legacy is sealed with filmgoers and Hollywood alike.
- Dunkirk Release Date: 2017-07-21
