*Just watched the entire trilogy in one sitting to celebrate the release
of TDKR on DVD. No, I don't have a life, nor the energy to write
anything about it, seeing as it's 3am. Luckily I do have some guff I
wrote a while back about the brilliance that is the character arc of
Bruce Wayne from when I thought I was doing a film module at university
this year (it turned out to be about music in film).*
Rises is pretty much the perfect end to the trilogy. The arc of the League of Shadows is revisited and truly finished, Gotham is left in a state where it can take care of itself, and most importantly to me, Bruce Wayne finally deals with the idea of Batman: what it means to him and how it has affected him.
Bruce Wayne and Batman
The trilogy is very clearly cut into the three stages of Bruce's
relationship with Batman. There are three clear stages of development
for the character: Bruce Wayne the Child, Bruce Wayne the Batman, and
finally Bruce Wayne the Adult. In
Begins, Bruce's emotional
development is halted with the death of his parents. He is incapable of
dealing with it and runs away at the first opportunity (going to
college), and only returns once he has what he thinks is an opportunity
for closure: killing Joe Chill. When he's robbed of that opportunity he
runs again, this time only to find a purpose he thinks will help solve
his problems. He creates the alter ego of Batman initially to deal with
the problem of the League of Shadows. Despite telling himself it's just
for this problem, he retreats into Batman and Bruce Wayne the child
doesn't return. We see a fake Bruce appear; taking supermodels out to
dinner, massive parties and generally being a playboy. These aren't him
it is the start of Bruce Wayne becoming the mask. Taking the joker card
at the end is a signal both to the audience and Batman himself that he
knows this isn't over, despite the LoS being dealt with.
In
The Dark Knight,
we see that Bruce is gone completely. His infatuation with Rachel
exposes the lack of emotional development since his childhood. There
isn't ever anything sexual suggested in their relationship, he is simply
in love with her because she's the only connection he has left to his
happy childhood, outside of Alfred. Not only does he want to go back to
how it was, but he isn't even after an adult relationship with her.
Rachel's speech on the balcony, and her letter to Bruce, demonstrate how
much Batman has taken over. When she is gone the last shred of Bruce
the Child is gone and there is only Batman and the mask he puts on for
the public. When he finds out that Rachel was going to wait for him
(having not got the letter) he tries to find redemption by giving up the
Batman mantle by sacrificing himself to save Gotham, by taking the fall
for Dent.
But once we reached
The Dark Knight Rises we
can tell that it didn't work for him. He is still Batman, it's just he's
locked himself up. Once again, he tries to deal with the pain of loss
(of Rachel this time) by running away, this time hiding in his house.
The emergence of Bane and Selina Kyle (who is extremely important for
Bruce/Batman's development) gives him purpose again and he leaps at it,
once again allowed to be himself (Batman), and also to use his Bruce
Wayne mask again. It's a very telling fact that, on track Kyle down to
the masquerade ball, Bruce is the only notable character there not
wearing an actual mask, because his face
is his mask. This return
to his old ways prompts Alfred to reveal the truth about Rachel, which
is where the descent down the far side Mount Mental Health Problem
begins and Batman starts to become Bruce Wayne again, but this time
Bruce Wayne the Adult. From here everything dominoes, he loses
everything that has previously defined him: he loses Rachel's love, he
loses Alfred, he loses his money. With everything crumbling around him,
he does actually manage to start something like an adult relationship
with Miranda. It might not be the most mature relationship, but it's
definitely a more adult attract than that of Bruce to Rachel, clearly
signposted by the fact that Miranda and Bruce actually have some sort of
physical relationship.
Many have said that TDKR feels like two
films crammed into one, especially with two rebirths of the character.
I'm not convinced. The first one, where he becomes Batman again, I think
is just him being able to act on what he's wanted to for for 8 years.
His true rebirth comes in the pit. Here, the seed is planted that the
deathwish, his lack of fear, he's had ever since his parents died
(prepared to throw his life away murdering Joe Chill and his readiness
to die as the ultimate sacrifice as batman) is his weakness rather than
his strength. Batman/Bruce takes this and uses his fear of seeing Gotham
burn to escape the prison. But that's not the full lesson, he's still
prepared to die for Gotham. But Selina Kyle saves Bruce from Batman, and
it's she who finally splits Bruce the Adult from Batman.
When
Talia literally stabs batman in the back, it's the final straw for him.
The only thing he gained (Miranda) while losing everything else, is gone
and there is literally nothing left in Gotham for him. He's knows that
he can't stay, and more importantly that Gotham needs the Batman to
leave, to serve the real role that the Harvey Dent lie did, to die for
the protection of the city. He isn't needed any more because he has
inspired Gotham: Gordon is able to stop the bomb, John Blake is able to
rally the escape attempt from the island and stand up the the heartless
cops on the bridge, and the cops were no longer living in fear of the
criminals (as they were in Begins and TDK) and they actually charge
fearlessly into gunfire to prove so. the only thing Batman is needed for
is to get rid of the bomb after defeating Bane. He can't beat Bane that
easily though, until Kyle turns up and blasts him away without
difficulty, something he could never do (thanks to his rules). It's
proved that batman isn't the only one capable defeating these guys, and
also that he has inspired those who might seek selfish ends to rise up
and do what's right. After that, he only has to get rid of the bomb. The
kiss before he flies off seals the deal, even though she's been in his
head since the "You've given them everything" scene. He realises the
true lesson was not that he should have fear of failing, but that he
should fear death because he can always take control of his life and be
happy. If Kyle had never originally spurred him into action, or got into
his head that he (the AdultBruce/Batman hybrid that returned from the
pit) didn't need to give everything he probably would have fulfilled
the fantasy that Alfred was so worried about. But instead he uses the
autopilot and bails, runs away with Selina and finally becomes the happy
adult that he deserves to be. Batman is finally gone: Gotham has been
inspired and needs him only as a symbol as to what any person can do,
and Bruce himself has moved on and grown up. It's a truly great
character arc for the three stages of him and works really well to give
Bruce the closure that he will never get in the comics (thanks to the
nature of the medium).
*And here's another load of guff that I penned at the same time, but this bit's just some innane ramblings specifically about the last film*
Other Thoughts
To
focus more on TDKR, I was left a bit muddled on the whole politics of
it. Nolan's trilogy's been very closely tied to the post 9/11 world and
dealing with terrorism. The whole idea of "do the ends justify the
means?" and and how far a man is easy to see in TDK with the cell phone
thing, it's a massive invasion of privacy in the name of national
security. It follows on into TDKR with the
Patriot Dent Act:
people are imprisoned without chance of parole and held in some super
high security hellhole. Bane comes in and takes advantage of all this,
exposes the establishment and its secret police (Batman) for covering up
lies so that they can round up anyone who might even have a chance of
being guilty of
terrorism crime.
That all creates a very
anti-establishment, pro-Occupy Wall Street/civil uprising sort of
feeling y'know? It might not be what you agree with but that's how it
seems. You might not agree with Bane's methods (the bomb that will be
triggered if there is interference with the upsetting of the status
quo), but his cause is kind of noble. But wait, it isn't because the
bomb is going to go off anyway regardless and all the hope of social
revolution was a lie. Couple this with the portrayal of this social
uprising as incredibly violent against the 1% (kangaroo courts, dragging
them into the streets to beat them) and the message becomes incredibly
muddled. Are the those uprising righteous or not? The only message you
can sort of make out is not to trust those who present themselves as
ideological leaders: both Bane and the establishment (Gordon, Mayor
Garcia, Harvey Dent and, by proxy, Batman) lied to achieve their aims.
If any political message is there, it seems to be that moderation is
key: go too far right and you get Batman police-state, and too far left
and you have a similarly oppressive anarchist system with a power
vacuum (ready to be exploited by the likes of Bane, or even Scarecrow).
Again
Selina Kyle becomes the central figure in the argument. She's the only
one who doesn't have an extremist viewpoint and is willing to change her
mind. It's ingrained into the ambiguous nature of the catwoman
character. At first she's all for the idea that "a storm is coming", but
once it arrives she's wandering the wasteland lost and uncomfortable
(looking around the wrecked apartment that "used to be someone's home").
She largely represents that the common, reasonable man can be just as
powerful as those in power. She wears as mask, but doesn't hide behind
it in the way others and she's far from a force of nature like all the
other "super" characters in the series. She is the common man that
eventually saves Batman and ultimately tips the balance in aid of the
good side.
*Note: I'm happy to admit that my thoughts on the Selina Kyle character may be influenced by just how disarmingly pretty Anne Hathaway is.*
