Dark Knight Rises brings epic trilogy full circle

After an interview with director Christopher Nolan and the stars of The Dark Knight Rises, Emmy winner Jake Hamilton congratulated Nolan on what he called "the best trilogy of all time". Several weeks ago, Buzzfeed.com made a list of their top ten trilogies of all time. With only Toy Story, The Godfather, and The Lord of the Rings ahead of Batman at #4, they clearly disagreed with Hamilton's contention. Although my personal ranking slightly differs from both parties, it's clear why Christopher Nolan's trilogy is held in such high regard. Not only did Nolan ingeniously re-invent the Batman saga, but he brought the story full circle in the finale, completing easily one of the best movie trilogies of all time.

Tim Burton was the first major director to portray Batman in the movies with the 1989 Batman film. With Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne, Burton went on to make the Batman Returns sequel in 1992. Though I was just three years old at the time, I remember Burton's version well. Danny Devito gave me nightmares as The Penguin. After disappointing reactions from Burton's sequel, director Joel Schumacher and Warner Bros. sought to produce a more family-friendly, less dark and violent depiction of the hero with Batman Forever in 1995. With Val Kilmer as the new Bruce Wayne and a star-studded cast of Nicole Kidman, Tommy Lee Jones, (Two-Face) and Jim Carrey, (The Riddler) the film enjoyed more success than Burton's 1992 version. Schumacher went on to do his own sequel of Batman and Robin in 1997. Although the film incorporated vintage Batman villains Poison Ivy, (Uma Thurman) Mr. Freeze, (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and a premature Bane character, it was poorly accepted by critics, taking the Batman saga into a considerable hiatus.

Eight years later. Insert Christopher Nolan for Joel Schumacher, substitute Christian Bale for Val Kilmer as Bruce Wayne, and in 2005 the Batman saga was reincarnated with Batman Begins. Nolan brought the iconic figure back to life in a way that re-connected us with a new and improved Batman story. The beginning of the movie featured a Bruce Wayne plagued by fear and self-pity. In fact, the very first scene is a flashback described by Bruce as one of his great nightmares. As the legend goes, Wayne's parents were murdered in front of him at a young age. Nolan showed us a Bruce Wayne who was truly lost, and he granted us a fresh start with his character as he began the journey to heroism.

Batman Begins was about embracing the fear.

Nolan intertwined his new story with some Batman history. Ra's al Ghul was an ancient enemy of Batman's from the 1970's comics and early animated television series. Not exactly the most popular of the crusader's foes, Nolan integrated his character as not just a contemporary villain, but the person who instills a sense of purpose in Bruce. It was Ra's al Ghul (played by Liam Neeson) who trained and inspired Bruce's eventual vigilantism by preaching commitment to ideals and making himself, "more than just a man." It was Ra's al Ghul who recruited Bruce to 'The League of Shadows' and taught him how to face the darkness and fear. Bruce used what the league and al Ghul taught him to formulate a symbol that the criminals of Gotham City would fear. Nolan had successfully delivered a full rebirth of Batman, also largely due to unanimous public acceptance of Christian Bale as the new Bruce Wayne. The villain was good, the props were awesome, the story was innovative, and just like that, Batman was cool again.

In 2008, Christopher Nolan gave us The Dark Knight, the most epic sequel of any superhero saga. Nolan himself confirmed the theme of fear in Batman Begins, which then became chaos in The Dark Knight, using The Joker as the main villain. Although Heath Ledger will sadly never see his performance in completion, his rendition of the villain will undoubtedly go down in history. Ledger brought a psychological disorderliness to The Joker that was unmatched. He invoked utter chaos on Gotham City with his mastermind antics and hidden motives. Batman was confused by him, practically clueless as to how to stop a man whose only mission seemed to be raising complete hell. "Some men just want to watch the world burn," as Bruce's butler Alfred explained in the movie.

The Dark Knight was about doing what was necessary in the face of chaos.

Batman had to make some crucial decisions in The Dark Knight that evolved his character. The Joker masterfully plotted the city against him, demanding that he reveal his true identity. Harvey Dent became highly instrumental for this film. Starting out as Gotham's new District Attorney and "white knight", Dent experienced chaos in his own life at the hands of The Joker, driving him to become the villain we know as Two-Face. Although Two-Face's reign only lasted through the final portion of the movie, his character actually gave birth to the dark knight (so to speak). On the brink of killing Commissioner Gordon's family out of vengeance, Two-Face was inadvertently killed by Batman. Anyone who knows anything about Batman knows his one rule: no killing. Afterwards, Batman confesses to Gordon, "I'm whatever Gotham needs me to be", a powerful statement before he runs off into the night. Batman's newly accepted role transformed him into this "Dark Knight" persona. No longer was he the traditional hero.


Christopher Nolan's theme for The Dark Knight Rises was said to be pain. The final chapter to the Batman trilogy began with no Batman at all. Since Gotham City didn't know the true story, they blamed Batman for the murder of their "white knight" Harvey Dent, forcing the Batman into an eight year hiatus. The beginning of the film showed us a Bruce Wayne who was weak, injured, and detached from society. We first see Bruce in his initial encounter with Selina Kyle (Catwoman). His facial hair and walking cane represent his suffering and seclusion. We experience his own pain just by the very sight of him, and the enormous cost he paid for stopping men like The Joker and Two-Face in The Dark Knight.

From Batman's perspective, Nolan's theme of pain remained consistent, coming from a villain whose name happens to rhyme with the theme. Nolan's depiction of Bane was different than any before him, particularly the attempt from Batman and Robin in 1997. But one attribute was the same, Bane's imposing physical presence. We see Bane induce more physical pain on Batman in The Dark Knight Rises than any villain prior. Batman's physical strength left him defenseless against The Joker in The Dark Knight due to his profound carelessness (Joker would simply laugh when Batman struck him). Hand-to-hand combat is where Batman is supposed to thrive, and Bane simply out-muscles him in their first confrontation. For the first time, we see Batman suffer severe physical pain at the hands of his opponent.

The Dark Knight Rises is about being able to rise from the darkest pits of failure.

The theme of pain segued into this spirited idea of rising, which really gave The Dark Knight Rises an empowering tone. Nolan didn't name the film The Dark Knight Returns for a reason. This wasn't just a story about Batman returning. After Bane defeated Batman, he exiled him to a solitary prison of which there was only one escape, to climb your way out. When Bruce takes on the challenge of escaping, the scene is beyond captivating as the inmates in the prison pronounce a foreign chant in unison which means, "Rise".

My opinion of a great trilogy is one that concludes by capturing those same emotions from the first film, almost to remind the audience how far our protagonist has come. Nolan accomplished this by taking Bruce back to a place quite similar to the beginning of his journey. Once exiled by Bane, we found him once again physically beaten and tormented by his own failures. As no coincidence, Bruce woke up in the prison one day hearing a question his late father used to ask him; a question we had not heard since Batman Begins,

"Bruce, why do we fall?"- the answer being: "So that we can learn to pick ourselves up," or in this case, so that we can learn to rise.

More notably, our villain from Batman Begins turns out to have an essential imprint on The Dark Knight Rises. The child of R'as al Ghul returns for reckoning and vengeance (believe it or not, that's not a spoiler) on Gotham City in a way that truly brings this story full circle.

There are aspects of Nolan's creative genius that I did not touch on. For instance, having Christian Bale use a different tone of voice for Bruce Wayne and Batman. The raspy voice he used for the hero made the dual personality complex appear more authentic. All of the previous directors allowed their lead role to use the same voice for Wayne and Batman. A minor detail, but wouldn't that make it easier to determine his identity? Just a thought.

Never mind the fact that each one of Nolan's films featured extraordinary casts, enrapturing musical scores from Hans Zimmer, or phenomenal computer-generated cinematography and props; the reason why Christopher Nolan's Batman saga is #2 on my list of all-time trilogies is because each film was considerably better than the last. This is why I put Nolan's Batman in front of The Godfather, perhaps controversially, because most would agree that The Godfather III doesn't compare to the first. I'm not so sure the same could be said for The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which I still feel is undisputed at #1. Still, Nolan's trilogy not only defied epic proportions but changed the scope of superhero films forever. The progression and successful completion of the storyline earns it a rightful place in movie trilogy history.

- Martin S.

@marley_mcfly