Christopher Nolan and the Philosophy of Neo-Noir Case Study

Christopher Nolan and the Philosophy of Neo-Noir - Case Study Example In the neo-noir sense, the product of the narrative can be invented. What looks like facts in narratives may be viewed as pieces of the puzzle and can be reassembled to bring out various end products. Nolan brings out a moral ambivalence brought about by the inversion of traditional values. He also brings out themes on social criticism by preventing crime and violence, and different feelings like paranoia and alienation brought about by various situations and different moods of dislocation. Nolan also brings out disorientation as a theme on the viewers part. These themes focus on key areas that make up the plot (Conard, 46). Christopher Nolan also uses stylistic devices that include the constant opposition of light and shadow, the use of non-classical narrative patterns, the relation between camera angles and scenes and incoherent plot lines. He also uses the characters of various positions within shots, their unmotivated actions that cannot be understood and incoherent plot lines. There is also the use of flashbacks that portrays the non-chronological order of events. Nolan uses all these devices to portray the anti-hero protagonist who is a good person but has to make questionable decisions due to circumstances (Conard, 58). The function of a master narrative is that it is constructed and designed to bring out an affirmative and an off-putting in every situation. Nolan’s story concludes with Leonard Shelby the anti-hero protagonist, as someone who goes through the good and the bad and still manages to rearrange the clues in order to come out on top. This brings out the neo-noir sense that we can either see good or evil in a situation or person depending on how we rearrange the pieces of the puzzle. Leonard distorts this syntactically to be either on top or towards the bottom.