In Defense of “The Dark Knight Rises”

Just a few days before the election in the US and my thoughts are turning to Christopher Nolan’s 2012 film, “The Dark Knight Rises”. I admit that for the first 3-4 years after “The Dark Knight Rises”, I thought it was a moderately disappointing entry into Nolan’s canon and the worst of the Dark Knight trilogy – as many people did and still do. Now I am not so sure – and I’d say it’s probably my favorite film of Nolan’s in that 2010-2019 decade – (“Inception” comes close but I find “Tenet” to be the superior film now and a member of a similar genre and tone) and my second favorite of the trilogy. I do like “Interstellar” and “Dunkirk” quite a bit from Nolan’s work in the past decade – but those two are probably my least favorite of Nolan’s films.

Focused on the institutional manipulation and bad lies by good people that can rot a city from within, “The Dark Knight Rises” is arguably an underrated and misunderstood classic. Unlike the Joker’s understandable wanton chaos that was a reaction to Batman’s sustained surveillance in “The Dark Knight”, (identified by many as Nolan’s metaphor for non-state terror actors and 9/11) “The Dark Knight Rises” (TDKR) offers a much more complicated and less binary and clean metaphor for the actions of its players. But it is a metaphor that is much more timely and frightening in 2020.

BANE

The manipulation that I speak of in the first paragraph arrives in many forms in TDKR – but its primary vehicle delivery is Bane. If Joker is the other side of the coin, then Bane is the inverse of Batman. He is a fanatical warrior who was trained by the same people as Bruce Wayne, and also left under distressed circumstances – like Bruce. Unlike Bruce, however, he is one who alliance lie with the defunct League of Shadows – through his partnership with Ra’s Al Ghul’s daughter, Talia Al Ghul. Talia is someone who introduces herself under an assumed name and identity, Miranda Tate, upon first coming into Bruce’s life. She manipulates Bruce emotionally and psychologically, gaining control of Wayne Industries away from Bruce as a way to help him with his coming war with Bane. Meanwhile Bane destroys Bruce both financially (triggering Bruce’s alliance with Tate/Talia) and physically. It is a one-two punch that only works with the two working as a single antagonistic force – but when it does work, it is a highly effective way to destroy the life of Bruce Wayne and Batman.

Whereas the Joker’s actions seemed to be a dramatic echo of 9/11, when TDKR first arrived, I viewed many of Bane’s actions and locations of attack as a note to the Occupy Wall Street movement. And I think a lot of people made that connection – perhaps even Christopher Nolan. However, the metaphor has only grown in the ensuing years and to now read Bane’s actions as merely a reflection of the Occupy movement feels both uninformed and reductive. When Bane finds out that Two-Face aka Harvey Dent was killed by Batman and that Gordon has been covering the event up, he uses the information not to blackmail Gordon or Bruce Wayne/Batman – but instead to erode public confidence in Gordon, Gotham PD, and Batman in tandem with his own hostile takeover of Gotham. Bane’s action mirrors so many things we see in today’s news cycle, where facts are interpreted or mis-interpreted into incorrect and false conclusions – and then those conclusions are peddled to the general public as facts as well.

Bane then uses the information to rile the general public into an outright class war (again echoing Occupy Wall Street) but which can also be seen in so many locations across the US this year. This is what happens when you people in leadership positions who choose to use fear and misinformation to manipulate the public into violence – all for their own good. For me it is this conclusion that makes The Dark Knight Rises such a complex and interesting film now. Did Gordon and Batman do the incorrect thing by manipulating the public’s knowledge of the Harvey Dent death? Probably – though they were trying to do it for reasons that benefited the public welfare, such actions, and the facts associated with them, ultimately became something that would boomerang around and be used against both Bruce Wayne and Gordon.

TALIA AL GHUL

Then there is Talia Al Ghul/Miranda Tate. I find it interesting that Miranda and Bruce’s scene in Bed is Nolan’s first sex scene since “The Prestige” (and yeah, I get that it’s barely a sex scene – so was the one in “The Prestige). Sex scenes are not something Nolan does often. I’m not trying to criticize Nolan here. But if he is going to have a sex scene in a film after all these years, it is probably going to be plot-centric and purposeful. And the one in TDKR certainly is.

I mean we BARELY see Bruce and Rachel Dawes kiss in either “Batman Begins” or “The Dark Knight”. So I think it is significant that the first time he sleeps with someone on screen, she is figuratively screwing him over. Having sex with Miranda is a way to tell the audience that Bruce has let his guard down. And that he goes directly from the sex scene to fight Bane is always so glaringly noticeable to me.

Is this a Samson and Delilah situation – where Talia/Miranda has stolen Batman’s strength metaphorically – through his own misguided judgement? Maybe. I think it’s a little more complicated than that. I do think it is more of a red flag to the audience that Bruce is making one bad choice after another – getting in bed figuratively and literally with Miranda and then going to fight Bane when he is woefully unprepared physically and psychologically. It is interesting to note that Miranda does not reveal herself to be Talia Al Ghul to anyone until her final moment with Bruce where she is about to stab him and end his life. She plays possum for MONTHS, pretending to be one of the 1% of Gotham that is on the run and trying to dodge Bane’s men in the middle of his takeover. When Talia does finally reveal herself, it is only when she has no other choice and also when Bruce is completely vulnerable to her. But luckily his new friend Selina Kyle takes care of her. And this is also why I don’t think this is some kind of weird commentary by Nolan that Batman needs to live a cloistered life, like a Jedi. Rather he needs to find the right person. And that trusting the wrong person can be just as fatal as a fight with Bane.

ALFRED

Alfred leaves Wayne Manor/ Bruce Wayne towards the end of the first act when Alfred reveals that he had been withholding Rachel Dawes letter to Bruce (received in “The Dark Knight”) which revealed her true feelings to Bruce. She let him know that she had no intention of ever being with him if he continued as “Batman” because ultimately Bruce WAS Batman. The fact that Alfred hid this from Bruce so that he would not have a mental breakdown while Gotham was being tested by the Joker again speaks to a “good lie” that will ultimately have fatal consequences down the road. Moreover, Alfred’s secret echoes Gordon’s own secrets about Batman and Two-Face that are ultimately turned against him as we see Bruce is living in a world of secrets kept by him and from him and how it is ultimately his undoing throughout the film.

I think what is the most sad about Alfred is that both he knows Bruce is making a mistake but can do nothing about it. It’s kind of like knowing that your kid is going to do something wrong but knowing that they are going to be so headstrong about their decision that you would do more damage trying to stop them than by letting them go. In this case, Alfred leaves to let Bruce stew in his own anger. But before Alfred has a chance to reconcile, Bruce has been crippled and exiled from Gotham to the Lazarus Pit. And by the time Bruce returns, Alfred does not have enough time to reconcile, and is left to reconcile while crying over Bruce’s grave, with Gordon reading from “A Tale of Two Cities.” I know that some might find this a bit heavy-handed but that scene always gets me. This is THE emotional moment of a trilogy – even after vanquishing Bane and Talia Al Ghul and saving Gotham, Bruce never did get his chance to make-up with Alfred. Luckily a near end scene (probably) reconciles that for the audience. More on that later.

SELINA KYLE

One of the more interesting things about Selina Kyle is that she is one of the most well-rounded and independent female characters in Nolan’s canon. Her plot is not tied to any man, and if anything, Bruce’s fate, and moreover the fate of Gotham, is tied to Selina’s choices. While she doesn’t fly off into the night with a nuke like Bruce, she does save him and help a small resistance survive in Gotham when the city is locked down.

Selina Kyle cares about herself and her sustainability. Some might call it selfish – a grey character in a comic book film and genre filled with white and black hats – but I don’t. In fact I find Selina Kyle as a character to be completely relatable, especially in 2020. She is just someone that is looking to survive in the face of uncertain times and unstable rule.

But Selina is also the linchpin of the successful campaign against Bane and Talia Al Ghul. Without her ultimately forgoing her own instincts to flee Gotham when given the opportunity, she returns to save Bruce from death at the hands of Talia Al Ghul. She is not some damsel, but rather the conquering hero – and in a nice twist, even after all of Bruce’s victories in act three, he is the damsel here and Bruce needs Selina – and more importantly Selina’s choice – to save him from Talia.

A CITY ABANDONED

When “The Dark Knight Rises” first premiered in 2012, I found one part of the film simply uncredible – the idea that the government would abandon Gotham subsequent to Bane’s takeover. The idea that a federal government would not help out a city seemed unbelievable. Now with the events of 2020, and specifically some of the things happening in cities across the US from the horrific spring of COVID-19 in New York City to non-state sponsored violence throughout cities in the summer and fall, one can easily see that cities could be abandoned if the government was incompetenet enough.

Watching the film the first time, I found myself constantly being taken out of the film thinking how dumb this was that Seal Team Six did not enter the city and take all of these idiots out. Now, I think it is a completely believable and nightmarish scenario that might//could transpire. Maybe I’m a lunatic but I could see it happening. Scenes of citizens having to fend for themselves, the kangaroo court, the checkpoints throughout the city and on the bridges – all feel very real. Whether it was NYC in April, Seattle in June, Portland in July/August or other cities across the US, we now live in a time when non-state sponsored violence is a very real possibility and outcome – and TDKR shows this in all of its ugliness. This is why the nightmare that is Bane + a bad government is far more frightening in 2020 that the chaos of the Joker in “The Dark Knight”.

Did Alfred REALLY see Bruce at the end of The Dark Knight Rises?

One of the things I like so much about TDKR is that it allows for a bit of viewer interpretation for its ending (something Nolan loves – see the endings of “Inception”, “Interstellar”, “Memento”). Alfred is devastated at Bruce’s death and we see the reading of Bruce’s will, a statue of Batman being erected in Gotham, and have to wonder – was Batman’s sacrifice necessary to preserve his legacy and even a proper ending? Again – maybe. And it would make dramatic sense and to some darker viewers like myself, it would be something that I would love. But that would be phenomenally disappointing for most people and a huge downer.

So Nolan sets up an idea early in the film where Alfred says he always hopes to see Bruce one day, living a life having put The Batman far behind him:

“Seven years I waited, hoping that you wouldn’t come back. Every year, I took a holiday, I went to Florence. There’s this cafe on the banks of the Arno. Every fine evening I’d sit there and order a Fernet Branca. I had this fantasy: that I would look over, and I would see you there, with a wife, maybe a couple of kids. You wouldn’t say anything to me, nor me to you. But we’d both know, you’d made it. That you were happy. I never wanted you to come back to Gotham. I always knew there was nothing here for you, except pain and tragedy, and I wanted something more for you than that. I still do.”

At the end of the film Alfred sees Bruce and Selina Kyle at the cafe as he is ordering his Fernet Branca. Bruce gives him a nod, he made it. And the film gives some hints that his is the case in reality: that Bruce fixed the auto-pilot on the The Bat, that Selina is now in possession of the pearls which had a GPS, allowing Bruce to track her. BUT, one could also say that these are unrelated events – and that Bruce and The Batman died in the ocean saving Gotham from a nuke – which is a fitting ending and one where Bruce’s sacrifice really meant something – however dark that may be. THAT’S Batman.

One thing that is for sure is that Bruce’s connection with The Batman and possible persona of The Batman definitely died in the ocean, even if Bruce escaped… RIGHT???

John Robin Blake gets the cowl

I think that if you love fan service, and after this very serious essay I’d like to say I do… I think it is such a fun reveal at the end of the film (especially if you do believe that Bruce dies in the nuke explosion) that we find out that 1.) Bruce wills the keys to the Batcave to John Blake and that 2.) Blake’s middle name is Robin. 

For years fans wondered what Christopher Nolan’s version of Nolan would be – and we finally get that answer. But it is not something that is announced in a headline on Deadline or in a leak by some scooper on YouTube. Rather, for this fan service, we have to sit through the ENTIRE almost 3 hour film to understand that John Blake (Gordon and Bruce’s friend and compatriot) is actually Robin and that we have known Robin throughout the entire film. It’s a wonderful bit of earned fan service that both Chris Nolan and the audience deserve by the end of the film.

A Different Type of Sequel

In my estimation, there are two major types of sequels: the “Height of Their Power” sequel and the “Years Later” sequel. Now I think both are solid templates for sequels. But it is the former that is often praised whereas I find the latter just as interesting. The “Height of Their Power” sequels are sequels where we see a protagonist who during the first film was learning their trade but is now a master of their trade. And we get to see an entire story of them as a master. Examples of this include” “The Godfather 2”, “Terminator 2,” “Return of The Jedi”, and of course “The Dark Knight”. The other type of sequel, the “Years Later” sequel – is that which takes place many years later than its predecessor allowing for a natural amount of reverence to build for the subject which in a sense is the or at least “a” cornerstone of the film. Sometimes this is the case in actual real-world time (films like “Texasville”, “The Color of Money”, “Rocky 3” and “The Godfather 3”) and sometimes it is a dramatic device to show what time has wrought upon our once great champions.

Oddly this “years later” sequel is usually something that is done for GREAT films where a traditional sequel is not necessary or warranted from a sheer plot standpoint. So it is not surprising that Nolan picks this device for a sequel to “The Dark Knight” (held by so many to be the greatest comic book film of all time). It’s almost like distance is needed so that some sense of perspective might be imbued upon Batman and his career. He is basically a legend as almost a generation has grown up knowing little about his exploits and certainly not seeing them in person. This is why the “your in for a show tonight” line really hits. And although It’s been nearly a decade since Gotham has seen Batman, it has been 4 years for audiences (an interminable amount of time for audiences expecting a comic book sequel in the MCU era when they get the films a year).

The Theme of Resurrection

Going hand-in-hand with the “Years Later” sequel that is TDKR are the themes of resurrection and perseverance. Resurrection is something that echoes throughout the film. Bruce arguably goes through three resurrections in the film – becoming Batman again in Act One, healing himself and escaping the Lazarus Pit at the end of Act Two, and finally appearing in Italy after he destroys the nuke. But it is the second resurrection that is played most dramatically in the film as it is tied to perseverance and belief.

Batman has always been a hero who relied on science, logic and planning. But trapped in the Lazarus Pit he has little of the things that make him strong. But he does have one quality that has always made him a formidable threat: perseverance. And while in the Lazarus Pit, he also learns to believe. As Bane tells Bruce, “it is victory that has made you weak”, it is Bruce’s failure to realize and imagine that Bane and Talia/Miranda have been running this pincer move (shout out to Tenet) on him. It is the unpredictable opponent that is just as well organized and scientific as Bruce is (which Bane is).

By the time Bruce returns, he is now out-thinking and surprising Bane and Talia/Miranda. And he is now out-believing them. He has become just as much of a fanatic as Bane – willing to give his life for HIS cause.

One thing that I love about this entire resurrection arc is that TDKR is one of the few films where the villain’s theme, Hans Zimmer’s GOTHAM’S RECKONING transforms into RISE and becomes the hero’s theme. This occurs at the beginning of the third act when Bruce escapes the Lazarus Pit. It’s an amazing moment and a true way to echo Bruce’s journey of resurrection, perseverance, and reclamation.

Stray Thoughts

More about TDKR and its greatness:

1. The Opening Plane Sequence. This is one of my favorite scenes in any Christopher Nolan film and I think in terms of spectacle it is only rivaled by a few set pieces in Inception and Tenet. It is an homage to Bond films and also a way for the film to set its stakes and build the legend of Bane in just a few short but absolutely astounding moments.
2. David Lean/ Doctor Zhivago as a source of inspiration. Nolan has said that he was inspired by David Lean and specifically his film “Doctor Zhivago” as a visual palette for TDKR. I think this is awesome because it is such a departure from “Batman Begins” (look inspired by Asian cinema and specifically Korean films) and “The Dark Knight” (which we all know was inspired by Michael Mann’s Heat). I went to watch Zhivago on the big screen a few months after watching TDKR at a retrospective and it really ignited my change in opinion on the film. Not only is it inspired visually but Zhivago, like TDKR, is an epic and at its center is a man divided between his duty to a cause and his love for a woman in the face of facism – again recalling TDKR.
3. Daylight and Snow. The finale occurs in broad daylight and in the snow. Again, recalling the visual cues of “Doctor Zhivago”, TDKR features snow and daylight prominently. This is an ice cold city in the middle of winter and Batman does not have the cover of night to shield him – as he does in “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight”. Villains and nuclear bombs do not wait for the sun to set and it is fun to see Nolan embrace this fact.
4. Best Moment In The Trilogy. My favorite moment in the entire Dark Knight Trilogy occurs toward the end of the film, as The Bat flies out of the city through the middle of an explosion. John Blake is stationed on the bus with a class full of kids from the orphanage. He is cautioning them to brace for impact from the nuke when the explosion hits. He thinks its the nuke – but its not. One of the kids yells “It’s the Batman”! And that scene gets me every time. With Hans Zimmer’s score pumping it is the closes that I can think of a film echoing a triumphant moment in the comic books told well through both visual and narrative cues in such an emotional moment. It is an absolutely masterful sequence by Nolan.