Tenet (film): Watched it a 3rd time, I'm still confused

I'm ok with films that don't finger-paint the storyline for you and I even kind of like films where you don't really know the entire story once it is over. Backrooms was a good example of this because the ending to that is very much in the eye of the beholder, but I would't say that I spent most of the actual watching of that film confused, more like strangely terrified of I'm not even sure what.

In Tenet, Christopher Nolan took on a very ambitious project which must have been a nightmare to film and that is part of the reason why I have such fond memories of it. I watched it twice in the past and seriously paid close attention, but even then there were a lot of things that I ended up missing so I figured I would give it a 3rd try.

On my 3rd watch I noticed a thing or two extra, but after it is over I'm still not really completely understanding of what the hell all of this is about. It's still a good film, but I can understand completely why it is that nobody out there is really sure what the over all story even is.

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Tenet involves time-travel but not in the Back to the Future sort of way where you just dial in a time and get back to whatever year you want. In Tenet, you can reverse time, but only your time and whoever it is that walks through this reversal machine. Then you are simply moving backwards and many of the other things in life seem forward to you, but you are actually moving backwards around everything else you are interacting with.

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This results in some really crazy fight scenes where the movements of one of the participants seems completely strange but it isn't until you get to see that same fight from the other perspective that you realize that at all times, one of the people fighting is doing things in reverse or so that is the perspective of the person who happens to be going forward in time compare to the person in it that is going backwards.

Confused yet? Well that is what the entire movie is like.

This film is good, but definitely not for a casual watch. The first time I saw it I was horribly confused and when it was over I didn't really understand why it was over. or how it was over. I just knew that it was because Nolan's name popped up on the screen during the credits.

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According to the two actors who were involved in a fight scene where one of the combatants is moving in reverse, this was a crazy, frustrating, and time-consuming process for the actors and stunt-men involved because obviously they cannot bring in a guy who is literally walking in reverse. These carefully choreographed scenes had to be done many times with just tiny snipped of the overall scene being done at a time.

It's really quite an amazing feat when you stop to thing about how complicated that would actually be.

It gets to be downright creepy when a highway chase looks as though a car is driving backwards at high speed own the highway pursuing you, but it isn't until later that we realize that as far as the other person in that situation is concerned, you are the one that is going backwards, not him.

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There are very few characters in the film that actually understand all of what is going on here and I think that we, the audience, aren't actually supposed to understand it but rather, just accept it and enjoy the amazing effects along the way.

There is a large-scale military battle of sorts that must have been an absolute nightmare to film because there is team red who is going forward in time, and team blue who is going backwards

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This alone is tough to figure out watching in real time because many of the explosions happen in reverse because those particular soldiers are fighting primarily against the enemies who are also moving backwards. There issue that is still difficult to wrap my head around about how we don't really know what effects a moving forward bullet would have one someone that is moving backwards in our timeline because as far as their perspective is concerned, they get "Un shot" at that particular moment in time since our bullet is moving forward in time and they are moving backwards though it.

It's all very confusing and you are better off just accepting it and moving on and enjoying the ride.

Nolan utilizes some pretty crazy methods to get this done but he didn't just stop at the visuals, When we change perspectives from someone traveling forward in time to someone traveling backwards, the music changes to almost sound like it is moving backwards as well. The subtle changes like this in the movie are really impressive to see and hear and I don't think you can really grasp all of this the first time you see the movie.

I think it is worthwhile to watch again even if you already know everything that is going to happen. It's a wild ride, even if most of the time you have no idea what is going on.

Should I watch it?

If you appreciate Nolan's excellence than I say definitely. If you appreciate Nolan though, there is a good chance that you have already seen it. If you don't like confusing movies this one will probably not float your boat, but the visuals will impress you regardless.

I know some people that would absolutely HATE this movie such as my mother. She requires something that is spelled out for you very clearly and if a film doesn't deliver that she cannot enjoy it. So for that sort of person I would say skip this one because this is one of the most difficult to wrap your head around movies I have ever seen. I still don't really understand all of it and I have watched it 3 times.

This movie ended up losing a bit of money, which is rare for Christopher Nolan, but to be fair it was released in the USA cinema scene back during crazy Covid times when they weren't allowed to sell most of the tickets during distancing days. I'm surprised they bothered to released it all during that time. It has since likely made its money back, but it has been a long road.

_{This film can only be legally streamed as part of a subscription via Amazon Prime. It can be rented and purchased on a wide variety of other platforms. It is not on Netflix}