Through the character of Bane (Tom Hardy), Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises” consternates audiences with one of the evilest villains in recent film history, second perhaps only to Anthony Hopkins’ cannibalistic Hannibal Lecter. Bane, at least, is content to merely terrorize and kill his victims.
Throughout the course of the film, we get to know Bane and his repulsive ilk, with the final third of the film bringing everything together in a mighty fusion of plot, philosophy and special effects. Until then, however, we are faced with a rather confusing mix of foreboding, disparate elements.
Mumbling and slurred accents often render “ the dialogue indiscernible, as Hans Zimmer’s deafening, raucous score adds to the confusion, competing for our ears’ attention. When the fog finally lifts, though, this is one heck of a superhero yarn.
Such an ambitious storyline demands a complex web of details, as well as commercial considerations that pay the rent. Still, filmmaker Nolan, who co-wrote and directed “Memento” (2000), has proved that he is capable of far more concise, sophisticated storytelling. Some artistic restraint, a general tightening of the storyline, could have gone a long way in making this a great movie instead of just a good one. As any decent stage director will attest, one must watch from the heights of the cheapest seats to ascertain that everything is being communicated to the audience. That’s assuming you don’t want the lines muffled and aren’t looking to induce sensory deprivation. Surely a deft hand in the editing room, where dubbing and a judicious manipulation of volume control can do wonders, would exponentially enhance the film’s production value.
Said technical shortcomings enumerated, it behooves to note a fine cast, especially Tom Hardy as the vile Bane. If sheer evil-doing could affect a movie’s rating, this PG-13 film would surely have been R-rated. Luckily, Christian Bale is able to counter Bane’s wickedness, evincing a very capable, if worrisomely reluctant, champion.
Supporting these dipoles, Gary Oldman plays a great Commissioner Gordon; alluring Anne Hathaway is as exotically capricious as Selina Kyle’s original Catwoman; and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is award-worthy as Blake, a no-doubt-about-it good cop. And, of course, Alfred, the family retainer no hero can do without, is played by the venerable Michael Caine.
The epic “The Dark Knight Rises” is told through a revolving exposition of characters, each taking a turn on the script’s psychiatrist couch, wherein tales of abuse, misuse and all manner of base cruelty are plaintively divulged. Reaching a cataclysmic pitch, the disquiet finally manifests in a politically astute monograph detailing the siege of a city. Shades of Nazi occupation during World War II, most of
Gotham is crippled with desperation, guilt, doubt and fear. Even the federal authorities, blackmailed by the invaders, have their hands tied. And just to further obfuscate matters, the fatalistic cloud that hangs heavy over the metropolis makes it near impossible to tell the good guys from the bad.
Meanwhile, back at Wayne Manor, where Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne has essentially retired his Batman attire in mothballs, the title character suffers his own grief — an emotional funk as only a true superhero can experience it. To rise above personal demons and save the day, or not? That is the question.
It doesn’t get much bleaker than this. Intentionally or not, director Nolan has brought all the apocalyptic doom and gloom of an Albrecht Dürer engraving to the silver screen, replete with just about every existential enigma in the book. Thus, the film works on two levels — as a surface, adventure saga, and as an esoteric, medieval exploration of the questions of human existence.
I’d be interested to hear what a panel of Harvard sociologists and theologians might make of this attempt to pick apart the darkness of humanity. What would really be great is if the director answered, at least in part, his Delphic inquiry. But alas, we won’t be finding out the meaning of life here.
In the end, the film turns conventional, and we’re left merely taking another dip into the Batman legacy, getting a hint of the future in the bargain. Well, at least there is a future. That’s something. And so is this — a mainstream film that plays like a Wagnerian opera. Viewers seeking their fill of Sturm und Drang will find that “The Dark Knight Rises” to the occasion.
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