The Dark Knight Rises - Review and Reaction

[olivia_sutton]

• Title:  The Dark Knight Rises
• Director:  Christopher Nolan
• Date:  2012
• Cast:  Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordan-Levitt, Burn Gorman

The film was AWESOME, though it was very different than I expected.  I'm a fan of  the Batman graphic novels, and I've read all of Knightfall - all three volumes of it, so I'm familiar with Bane.  I also know of Bane from the various versions of the "Breaking of the Bat" story done in animation (both in Batman:  The Animated Series, and the more recent The Batman). The storyline in Chris Nolan's film is quite different.  Catwoman, also, is quite different in this film -- a complete sociopath who really hates men.

However, that said the film is really, really good, and I enjoyed it.  My theater was probably 2/3rds full, not sold out, as I expected, but more about that later.

SPOILERS BELOW



In Christopher Nolan's film, Bane's "Breaking of the Bat" is as psychological as well as physical -- and Bruce's psychological comeback is more important than the "mere" physical training he needs to overcome Bane's attack.  Bane systematically destroys Bruce -- taking Wayne Enterprises, Bruce's fortune, even Alfred leaves him -- in an attempt at "tough love" on Alfred's part that goes horribly wrong.  And yes, I cried at that.  Actually -- Alfred gets some wonderful, and moving, speeches in this film -- speeches that brought me to tears, and Caine delivers them in a voice wracked with pain.  Finally, Bane, in a scene ripped straight from the graphic, and that marvelous splash page that so many Batman fans remember so well, holds Bruce over his head, and pulls him down, cracking Bruce's back on Bane's knee.

But the moment is over quickly -- almost too quickly, without that lingering sense of  doom from the comic.  But then Bane goes a step further -- instead of Bruce being able to go home to Wayne Manor and lick his wounds, with Alfred's healing hands to count on -- Bruce is alone (Alfred's left), and Bane beats Bruce some more, then takes him to the prison where he was born.  There, Bruce is abandoned in a prison where a circle of light beckons that freedom is right there, out of reach.  Bane calls it the pit of despair -- and notes it is all the worse - because the prisoner has hope of  escape.  Bruce slowly recovers, helped by a prisoner who first feeds him, then tends his wounds, tells him the story of  Bane, and then helps him to escape.  And Bruce, does escape.  But Bane hasn't been idle during his absence -- terrorizing Gotham City, blowing the city's bridges and connection to the outside world, stranding the vast majority of the city's police department in underground tunnels, and bringing in an era of mob rule, looting, and every kind of destruction imaginable.  To make matters worse - in the takeover of Wayne Enterprises, Bane has taken the prototype weapons in Applied Sciences (where Bruce goes shopping for new Bat-toys) AND has gotten his hands on a new Fusion Reactor, originally developed to provide clean, sustainable energy -- now weaponized into a 4Mton b*mb.  And the way the b*mb's been rigged - it can be detonated by a trigger -- and will go off in six months anyway -- in other words, it's also a time b*mb.

Bruce returns and works with  Commissioner Gordon, a young police officer, Blake, (the young boy Batman saved in Dark Knight), and even Catwoman to avert disaster.  In the end, Batman successes, but at the cost of his own life -- or so we are left to believe, 'til the very end.

Yes, it's very much the Hero's Journey as described by Joseph Campbell.  At Bruce's funeral, Gordon quotes one of my favorite books, A Tale of Two Cities, and Alfred is completely bereft, thinking he has failed Bruce.  Even Bane's origin, as tweaked in Dark Knight Rises has a reference to Les Miserables.

But what makes this film rise to cinematic greatness, is the way Nolan actually uses imagery.  Just as the Batman books, often boil down to a single image in a single graphic novel or book, that sums up the story (Bane breaking the Batman's back in Knightfall, Bruce holding the beaten, broken, and very dead body of Jason Todd in A Death in the Family, Barbara getting shot in the stomach in The Killing Joke, even Batman's very origin of Bruce kneeling in his parents' blood in an alley, the white pearls everywhere, etc - all strong images) -- Nolan's film often goes silent, an image fills the screen, and the music takes over, setting the tone.  And yeah, Hans Zimmer's score is once again, amazing.

I also loved, loved, loved how Nolan tied his three films together, like an actual trilogy forming a single story with three acts -- as opposed to an endless parade of  sequels.



END SPOILERS (read under LJ-cut  for more).

Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable movie, one I will see again, and will buy on DVD.

Now -- on to the real world.  As we all know, some guy went into a movie theater in Colorado and shot the place up -- killing several people and injuring even more.  It was horrible -- make no mistake.  But to suggest that Batman caused the crime because it's a violent film, is sheer lunacy.  Batman, for the record, doesn't use guns and never kills.  Even in the Nolan films, which push the violence envelope, he never kills.  Second, to suggest Warner's should pull the film?  Also nuts!  People need to treat the film for the fantasy that it is -- the film-makers didn't cause the violent tragedy.  Are there moments in the film that make you wince now?  Yeah.  But I wince when I see the New York World Trade Center in old movies and TV shows too.  Sometimes sh*t happens.  In this case, someone was at fault -- but that person is the one who held the gun and the guy who sold him automatic weapons and ammo -- NOT the makers of popular entertainment, NOT Warners, NOT Christopher Nolan, and NOT DC Comics.  Oh, and the Republican Congressman now blaming saying Batman is an attack on Judeo-Christian values?  What planet is he from and what drugs is he taking?  That's the most whacked-out conspiracy theory I've heard in awhile -- and my office cubicle mate comes up with new ones almost daily.

So, the evening went well.  Loved the film.  Must re-see it.