I borrowed four spectacular scenes from two earlier films—the fantasy Inception remains one of the most amazing films I’ve ever seen, and the two air-attack scenes from Dunkirk are terrifying— but the ending of the war film is moving, too. The soldier, evacuated from the beach, is headed home on a train. Grateful Brits have reached through the train window to gift him and his mate with newspapers and then with beers ( Bass ales) and the soldiers read Churchill’s speech aloud from the papers. Here, Nolan is both spectacular and intimate.

He intercuts the train scene with the counterattack from Tom Hardy’s Spitfire. His character, Farrier, has stayed too long over the beach. His job is to protect the soldiers below him, and in doing his duty, he runs out of fuel. Farrier sets his Spit afire and awaits the Germans who will make him a prisoner of war, if he survives, for the next five years. Again, both spectacular and intimate.

David Lean, one of my favorite directors, could do that, could get you close to his characters. The developing relationship between Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif in Lawrence of Arabia and is one example; William Holden’s coward who becomes a tragic hero in Bridge on the River Kwai is another. It’s one of Holden’s finest performances, and he’s one of my favorite actors.

But Nolan’s characters seem even more real to me than Lean’s.

Now, with Oppenheimer, we have two master history teachers in David Lean and Christopher Nolan.

I wish that Nolan somehow could’ve had a chance at directing Gettysburg, a dreadful film based on a marvelous Michael Shaara novel. But we have, thank the Lord, Glory.

And, thanks to Nolan, we can enjoy once again big movies with heart.