For some time to come, the movie will be associated, of course, with the appalling killing spree in Colorado and the debate on US gun culture. It wlll be used as a bludgeon in the question over the influence violent images have on unstable individuals. This post is an attempt, however, to discuss DKR simply as the conclusion to a trilogy.
Tickets still nearly £3 cheaper than Glasgow and designed by the son of Ramsey MacDonald
I've never watched Batman Begins or The Dark Knight since I saw them in the cinema. No particular reason except perhaps a disinclination brought on by the depiction of a society in the throes of anomie. I wasn't champing at the bit to see the film but I've been reading a lot of Bronze Age Batman lately; plus, you know, Sunday in Elgin. Besides, I haven't seen a movie with an intermission for over thirty years.
The film begins with a tense and spectacular mid-air kidnapping. It cuts to Gotham City long years after the Joker's reign of terror; where Bruce Wayne is a recluse in his suite in stately Wayne Manor, in the vein of Howard Hughes or Charles Foster Kane. A new character, the amoral and alluring Selina Kyle, gatecrashes Waynes' insular world and the Batman rises from his torpor of loss and sacrifice. This for me was the biggest success of the film: the rising and advancing of the campy 60s fantasy femme into a "kickass" and nuanced antiheroine. Where Michelle Pfeiffer was the fetishistic, unhinged undead, ( and bloody good, in that Bat-world!) Anne Hathaway is a multi-skilled survivor and rival to the Black Widow as Comic Book Movies Most Empowered Female.
Bruce Timm's version of the 60s Catwoman
The imagery of "rising" also refers to the plot beneath Gotham, the source for me of uncomfortable resonances with real-life atrocities, including Aurora. The identity of the mastermind behind the grandiose and complex scheme to destroy Wayne financially and to decimate his city should have been obvious although I did peg this character as a wrong 'un early in the film. (If you really want this twist spoiled, this is a vintage character featuring in current Bat-books. Yes, that's right- Bruce Wayne's long-lost brother! Actually, the character's first name is a huge clue in itself.)
The theme of the film seems to be our fears of dissolution and bloody revolution- the moment when the Have-Nots exact their revenge on the privileged Haves. The speed at which occupied Gotham becomes a lawless fortress, where the comfortably-off elderly are dragged into the streets to survive, is alarmingly convincing . These scenes are a nightmarish echo of images from last summer's London riots. The kangaroo courts that then take place are presided over by Bane's fanatics and formerly-incarcerated criminals. Torchwood's Burn Gorman is one of the many victims of Crane's sadistic twist on "exile". But hasn't Batman always responded to society's bad dreams- whether those dreams were organised crime or atom-age monstrosities?
For me, DKR regains the heroic note that seemed to be missing, as I recall, from The Dark Knight. Despite the melancholy tone of the conclusion, there were still moments of optimism. Anyone with half a brain surely knew how Alfred's last scene would pay off and the climax of Det. Blake's story made me grin.
My main complaint would have to be the inaudibility of much of the dialogue: sometimes due to poor diction, sometimes to dominant music. But mostly because of Bane's mask: " Mwmph hmph Gotham hmph mwph despair". Seriously. (Oh and Catwoman isn't called that. Must be too silly and comic booky. And I thought it was "Ray-sh al Ghul" not "Razz". And shouldn't it be "Master Bruce" not "Master Wayne"? So,there's that.)
This intense Batman movie rejoices in a stellar cast where there's scarcely a weak performance. Kudos especially to the subtle Tom Conti; the measured Morgan Freeman; the sprightly, vulnerable, masterful Michael Caine; the noble and dogged Joseph Gordon-Levitt (whom I didn't recognise from Third Rock!) ; and at last, the wry, greying Batman inhabited by Christian Bale. Forget my initial reservations; I would recommend The Dark Knight Rises.
Coming soon: Majenta Pryce in the Tardis and more Bronze Age Batman over at Materioptikon
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