The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Director: Christopher Nolan

Cast: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Anne Hathaway, Michael Cain, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard 

Has there ever been a blockbuster trilogy so riddled with tragedy? There was Heath Ledger's death before the release of The Dark Knight in 2008, then the movie theater shooting on the night of the premier of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado. In addition, a stuntman was killed during the filming of the second film. The fact that Nolan's trilogy presents some of the darkest, most villainous subject matter ever to be manifested on film only makes these tragedies more exceptional and disturbing. 

Batman Begins was a promising version of the Batman saga that neglected the fantastical world of most superhero movies in favor of a realistic interpretation. Billionaire Bruce Wayne's spiritual ascent from his anger over the murder of his parents is propagated by his mentor, Ra's al Ghul (Liam Neeson), whom he must defeat in order to save the city he strives to protect. At the end of Batman Begins, his childhood love Rachel (Katie Holmes) tells him she will be with him once he no longer needs Batman. But does Bruce need Batman more than the city needs him? The finale of the first film ends with an eerie foretelling of a new villain, the Joker, and Lieutenant Gordon (Gary Oldman) comments that the presence of Batman, a faceless vigilante, has created a new brand of criminal, one also masked and with a taste for the "theatrical". In other words, we have the irony that Batman exists to protect Gotham, yet in doing so, propels the most insidious and nefarious criminals to come out of the woodwork. 

The ending of the first installment presented a terrific set-up for The Dark Knight, a cinematic force of momentous consequences. The Dark Knight represents a world so close to ruin by a villain so terrifying and relentless, not only in his intentions and achievements, but also because he paradoxically refers to himself as "an agent of chaos". As Alfred (Michael Cain) warns Bruce in the second film, "some men can not be negotiated with." They only want to see the city burn.

Throughout The Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne is frequently in over his head. Nearly out shadowed by the Joker's maniacal plots, it becomes clear early on that in order to continue protecting Gotham, Batman must rescind any desire to be recognized for his heroism. This was the purpose of the character Harvey Dent (Aaron Erickerson), a politician and therefore a legitimate (i.e democratic) hero who upholds our society's most benevolent intentions. Dent's fall is anticipated when he claims to be Batman, thinking this would appease the deranged Joker. Maimed and ruined by the death of his fiance Rachel, Dent wears a mask as well, but it's a grotesque and vertical monstrosity-- a two-faced, hypocritical concoction-- very much unlike the meticulous creation of Batman, or the apathetically splashed on make-up of the Joker.

Batman must take the fall for Dent's failures to prevent the city from losing hope for the goodness of Gotham. The reasons are delightfully ambiguous, and perhaps, as Gordon puts it, "Because he can take it." And herein enters one of several primary themes that pervades the films; the importance of hope and the threat of its demise.

When I first heard that The Dark Knight Rises would not pick up where we left off, but begin several years after the last film ended, I was disappointed. However, I see now that in order to complete the trilogy, Nolan would have to establish a back-drop for Wayne's selfless herosim; namely, that he is essentially a lonely misanthrope keeping a watchful eye over Gotham's period of piece. All that is torn to shambles with the arrival of Bane (Tom Hardy), whose character's fortitude and motivation are as insurmountable as, let's say, scaling the walls of the pit of a prison from which no man has ever escaped.

The Dark Knight Rises is already a cinematic classic, a powerhouse of sequences and characters not easy to erase from modern memory. Anne Hathaway's Selina Kyle represents how society forces members to resort to illegal means as survival, while Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Blake serves a practical role of both bringing Batman back from seclusion and serving as the point of view of a city crumbling to ashes.  

Is there any metaphor in film more uplifting and perfect than that of Bruce Wayne emerging from the pit, after his body has been broken and his city razed? Is there any other villain so diabolical and yet shockingly sympathetic as Bane? It is hard to imagine that there will ever be another director that will create such a complex narrative, nuanced characters, and thoughtful social commentary with Batman in years to come. This is the primary reason Nolan's Batman trilogy is so important, and overtime, will help overshadow the terrible tragedies surrounding it.