Hideo Kojima Praises Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk

"Dunkirk gave birth to a new kind of war movie."

By Hope Corrigan

Game industry legend Hideo Kojima has sung the praises of Christopher Nolan's latest box office hit Dunkirk.

Kojima penned an article for Rolling Stone in which he compares Nolan's latest film to his own works and talks about how both make great efforts to convincingly depict war. In his collum, the Death Stranding creator explains why he believes "Dunkirk gave birth to a new kind of war movie."

"By refusing to rely on computer graphics, opting instead to create life-size sets and employ a large cast of extras, Christopher Nolan recreated the war movie construct," Kojima wrote.

Kojima goes on to explain that the narrative structure of Dunkirk is not dissimilar to his own works and his aspirations for future projects.

"Its approach to technology in movie making and refusal to rely on defeating one's enemies as a portrayal of war, reminds me in many ways of my work on Metal Gear and where I hope to see my next game go," he explained.

This lack of glorification of war, as well as the use of minimal dialogue and focus on simply trying to survive are all themes which Kojima resonates with. He continues to talk about how other films with these aspects have also been of inspiration.

"These are the tactics that confuse the German soldiers and eventually lead the Allies to victory. It is an anti-war movie. Using The Great Escape as one source of inspiration, I came up with the idea of Metal Gear."

Kojima rounds out his article by musing on these "war movies without conflict" and their style of storytelling and what it can mean in regards to video games.

"So, is it possible to tell a similar story using the interactive medium of video games? My 30-year struggle to answer this question has been Metal Gear."

Dunkirk debuted at the top of the box office when it premiered earlier this summer — be sure to read IGN's full review of the film for more. And though the game skipped out on E3, the first graphics demo of Kojima's upcoming game Death Stranding was recently revealed. For more, check out everything we know about Death Stranding so far.

Hope Corrigan is a freelancer writer for IGN.

Let's block ads! (Why?)