Christopher Nolan’s take on the Batman mythology was always far removed from Burton’s grotesquerie and Schumacher’s camp rendition of DC heroes and villains. Nolan’s imagining of the character and the universe he inhabits is, in this third and final instalment especially, dark and despairing. This was always a strength of the series: that it took itself seriously, and allowed the films to speak to social conditions familiar to its audiences. Judging by the box-office intake, audiences responded positively to an iteration of a familiar character that is as flawed as the heroes of ancient Greece. From the outset it was clear that Nolan’s Bruce Wayne would put duty above pleasure at any stage, sustaining the billionaire playboy persona only insofar as it covers the version of him that is most authentic, the Batman.
In The Dark Knight Rises, Nolan and co-screenwriter Jonathan Nolan borrow from, amongst other sources, the critically acclaimed Knightfall storyline to shape their final entry. Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) has become a recluse since the death of Rachel Dawes in The Dark Knight. It’s been eight years since Batman faced The Joker, since Harvey Dent died, since Batman instructed Gordon (Gary Oldman) to tell and sustain the life-giving lie: Gotham City would be saved if they had a hero (Dent) to believe in, with an antagonist, Batman, to take the blame for his death. With Gotham’s crime at an all-time low, there is no need for a masked vigilante to assist the police in apprehending criminals.
Until Bane (Tom Hardy), a nearly supernaturally strong mercenary with shadowy links to key figures in Gotham, shows up. With the police unable to sufficiently respond to this unanticipated threat, Batman is forced to reconsider his self-exile. Also, Wayne is visited by Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), a cat burglar with greater plans than to simply steal some of Wayne’s possessions. New additions to the supporting cast include Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Blake, a beat cop supportive of Gordon even when the latter is being undermined; Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate, a prominent investor in Wayne Enterprises; and Matthew Modine as Foley, a policeman gunning for Gordon’s job. Michael Caine has a superb moment in his return as the butler Alfred.
The Dark Knight Rises provides what one expects from a Nolan Batman movie: big stunts, large set pieces, and some unexpected plot developments. But Rises is its own film, one that negotiates its way around much of what made Dark Knight such a fan favourite. Obviously The Joker is missing – he was always Nolan’s prime villain, and he left it at that. There is not attempt to link Bane to Joker or to make Bane into a Joker-like figure of anarchy. But there are other things, such as changes to the narrative focus, which I will address below. Please note: massive spoilers follow.
Arguably, Dark Knight was The Joker’s film, with Batman caught between the anarchist, the centurion and his great love. Joker, being what he is, wasn’t Batman’s enemy: Dent was. Dark Knight inserted Joker into Gotham and we watched the world burn as Batman struggled to keep his community from going up in flames, facing off with Dent in love and aspects of governance. Rises is all about Batman, however, even if he is not as physically present in the film as in the first sequel. This film follows Wayne’s trajectory towards reaffirming his position in the community even if it incurs great costs. His time in Bane’s pit is to a great extent an extension of his own self-exile in Wayne Mansion; individuation, as Jung would remind us, occurs naturally and artificially, and a natural process of psychological maturation is here intensified and focused by Wayne’s forced expulsion from Gotham.
The film’s focus on one’s commitment to the community is also located in Gordon’s increased activity in the film’s second half. As a constant supporter of Batman and a propagator of the lie that ended the second film but kept Gotham going, Gordon here becomes the type of figure that he used to pursue, someone who, once the lie is exposed as such and having always anticipated its end, gets his hands dirty. This is also indicative of the film proceeding with what we’ve come to know and understand of some supporting characters: Gordon gets angry based on having to sustain the lie for so long; Alfred refuses to watch as Wayne destroys himself.
In addition to the familiars, Rises introduces interesting new characters. Setting Blake up as Robin towards the film’s very end was highly problematic for some, but Blake, as a younger incarnation of Gordon’s principled engagement with law and order, perfectly fits this Batman universe. Based on the Gotham we’ve come to know, Blake is exactly the kind of person that city could help produce – that, of course, as well as hardened criminals. Yet again the villain comes from outside the community to destroy Gotham. Bane, as revealed towards the climax, had no community, and when Talia bonded with him, the relationship obtained a pathological and almost tragic dimension. Bane is not simply opposed to Batman, but to Blake specifically, as the characters demonstrate how engagement with the community (or lack thereof) can shape one’s life. They are thematic counterpoints. Being Batman’s right hand man is a natural development for Blake.
Another new character is Selina Kyle, not once referred to as Catwoman. In fact, there is no iconic moment for Kyle, no Pfeiffer-esque acknowledgement of the absurdity of the character. Rises’ Selina Kyle is a Trickster with an uncertain trajectory. She tarries with Batman until he convinces here that they’re on the same side. Some people have issues with her being the one to dispatch Bane. Since Bane literally breaks Batman earlier on, shouldn’t Gotham’s son be the one to avenge himself? Not necessarily; Bane, after all, is not the primary villain – Talia is. And Batman and Talia have a showdown of their own. If Bane is killed by what is essentially a bullet fired from a big gun, well, of course he dies. He is only human, and his vulnerability is emphasised by his emotional response to Talia’s monologue. He broke Batman, but he is himself not invincible.
That Kyle kills Bane is additionally meaningful not because she’s a woman (let us not fall into some misguided woman-kills-male-maniac reductionist reading!) but because she is one of the people that Bane actually addresses when he calls upon “the people” to take back “their city”. Earlier in the film, Kyle tells Wayne that he and the rich, the 1%, must “batten down the hatches” because the time has come for the 99% to get their due. And where Bane positions himself as a false prophet for the disenfranchised (mostly, prisoners), Kyle really is one of the 99%. Her takedown of Bane is appropriate, if brief. The homegrown Gotham criminal vanquishes the ideological pretender.
The film has some iconic scenes. There is a shot of Kyle speeding along on the Batcycle (I think) reminiscent of the Joker putting his head of a car window, enjoying the wind in his hair. But Nolan, always a fast cutter, does not allow us to savour the flow of this scene, this moment of joy, and undercuts it much like he did with the latter scene in Dark Knight. And the images of people swinging by their necks from construction cranes, as seen on TV no less, are surprisingly unsettling.
Rises has some problems. I’ve never been a fan of the digital read-out except in Speed, but I understand its purpose for the audience. Also, for a film so focused on being ‘realistic’, much of the violence is notably bloodless and, as a result, too clean. A more pressing issue is Nolan’s occasional disregard for narrative time. There are dizzying time gaps ranging from how, in a single quick scene, Kyle and a hostage start at the top of a building and are, within seconds on the tarmac far below, to Wayne’s inexplicable return to Gotham from India. Finally, the film really should have ended four seconds earlier. Too often Nolan over explains things and in so doing waters down the dramatic effect of a given moment. Consider Gordon's flashback followed by the unnecessary exclamation: "Bruce Wayne..." When the wise lawman finally realises who Batman really is, as the flashback demonstrates, he certainly does not need to spell it out.
Even with certain plot and editing issues, The Dark Knight Rises presents a weighty conclusion. Some will miss the unpredictability of a Joker-like figure, as well as the humour that accompanies such a character. Nonetheless, Rises is easily the equal of Dark Knight; the former is slightly less spectacular than the latter, and it finally gives the Batman character his due.
A final observation: how perfect that where one lie is revealed, another one takes its place "for the greater good" (and personal gain) at the film's end. As Dark Knight ended, citizens of Gotham needed a hero, even a dead one. Rises gives them that hero, but Gotham still doesn't trust its people with the truth.
