Why We Don't Deserve The Dark Knight Rises

It’s almost been a year since I blogged last. And, while I have a lot of stories to tell (production and release of my thesis film Rearview, the production and horrible deletion of my film Special, my various life changes over the past year, etc.), I wanted to start off my blogging again with something that I am very passionate about that doesn’t completely relate to my life story.

Well, at least not directly.

As I’m sure you all know, Christopher Nolan’s summer blockbuster The Dark Knight Rises opens in just two weeks. It will be the follow-up to the massively successful 2008 film The Dark Knight and the end to Nolan’s popular Batman film trilogy. But I’m not sure that most people (at least the general public) understand just how important and rare this film is. And how much we don’t deserve it.

You see, The Dark Knight Rises is not just a summer blockbuster. It’s not just a realistic or a “dark” take on popular comic book character Batman. It’s a piece of art created by an intelligent, risky artist on the largest scale imaginable. And just the very fact that it exists and that we, an incredibly ungrateful and mostly ignorant race of people, get to enjoy it is staggering.

Just what Christopher Nolan has done with the character is astounding. He has taken a comic book character that is a well-known piece of pop culture and has taken him to limits that I’m sure no one ever imagined Batman going.

When Christopher Nolan first got the job to direct a Batman film everyone got a little bit excited. Nolan was an artistic director known for the challenging indie film Memento who seemed to want to return Batman to his darker roots (something that was very welcomed by fans and filmgoers after the incredibly cartoony and embarrassing Batman and Robin film). As Batman Begins went through production, the Internet was a buzz that with the notion that Nolan was creating the first true-to-comic Batman film. And it was going to be just as dark as some the late 80’s, early 90’s Batman graphic novels had been.

However, when Batman Begins came out, it was a little different from what everyone expected. Sure, it was truer to the comics and graphic novels than the last Batman films had been. However, Nolan’s Batman was still not the Batman that lived in the comic book pages. He was something else.

What Christopher Nolan has done is try to create a Batman that could hypothetically exist in our own universe. It’s a bold move as it takes out most of the magic and I guess you could say “fun” of the Batman mythos. However, it allows for a story that is more grounded, relatable and, thus, more powerful than any other Batman film before it.

So when you see a comic book fan spouting off about how he loves Christopher Nolan’s Batman films because they are so “true to the comic,” he’s actually very wrong. While Nolan’s films do mirror some of the Batman graphic novel plot points, they almost have nothing to do the Batman of the comic book world. They are not comic book movies. No, what Christopher Nolan is making is a film series that is his own, unique artistic vision of the Batman mythology. He has taken inspiration from a creative medium and made it his own. And he’s doing so on an incredible scale with the backing of a powerful film studio.

This is insane. It should not happen. Hollywood is a place where money and success matter. It’s not a very creative or risky town. And what Nolan has done with the incredibly marketable pop-culture icon known as the Batman is incredibly precarious. The fact that he has Warner Bros.’ complete trust and support to do whatever he wants with Batman as long as it is in his vision is unprecedented.  

Just look at the recent Marvel Studios films. Those are very much “comic book movies” that are incredibly studio-controlled. If you look at Thor, Captain America, and even this summer’s wildly successful The Avengers, it’s hard to differentiate a director’s voice or vision. A lot of people like to say that The Avengers was such a Joss Whedon film but I don’t buy that. Aside from a handful of moments, it was hard for me to find much of Whedon in there (which is one of the reasons the movie didn’t really blow me away). Why? Because it feels just like all the rest of the Marvel Studios films. This is because the studio oversees everything and does not allow its directors much artistic control and license (this is pretty well publicized).

This isn’t the case with Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. Everything in his Batman films is his and his alone. And it’s just so incredible and frankly heart-warming to see something like that happen in dark, old Hollywood, where dreams are sh*t on at the drop of a hat.

And lucky for us Christopher Nolan’s artistic vision of Batman is really, really good. The films have incredible scope, design, acting, directing, cinematography and music. They also have an amazing atmosphere that feels real and unique. Experiencing these films is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. They are amazing pieces of filmmaking that manage to be both entertaining and thought provoking. Who else could make a Batman film that deals with current political events such as the Wall Street crash and occupy movement that is not overtly preachy and can still be entertaining to the masses?

Nolan is also shooting these movies on film. Sadly, in this day and age, that is now a rarity. Of all the summer blockbuster films being released this year, The Dark Knight Rises is the only one actually shot on film stock. It is also one of the only blockbuster films not being projected in 3D. This is because Nolan refuses to give in to this gimmick. Still, he manages to push technology even further by shooting over an hour of the film with giant IMAX cameras. This allows for most of the film to be projected fully on 70 foot IMAX screens. On regular screens, the IMAX footage will appear crisper, fresher and more detailed. 

And, along with all of this, these movies mean a lot to me personally. After all, I would not be writing such a long and passionate article if I did not feel a strong, personal connection to these films.

My first exposure to Batman was actually the campy Adam West 1960’s television show. Re-runs (obviously, I was a kid in the 1990’s) would come on this one channel and I just couldn’t get enough of it, no matter how stupid it was. I soon moved on the Tim Burton 1989 film and the 1990’s animated television series. It was during this time that Batman became my favorite comic book hero.

However, it wasn’t until I began reading Batman graphic novels during my late high school years and early college years that I really fell in love with the character. Book such as The Killing Joke, The Dark Knight Returns, The Long Halloween, Hush and Year One changed my perspective on the character and just what you could do with him. This wasn’t a comic book character like Spider-man or Superman. He was a real human being who lived in a dark and dangerous world. And he could be used to explore some really important and sometimes disturbing issues.

I feel like Christopher Nolan realized this and used Batman to his fullest extent with 2008’s The Dark Knight. This film changed a lot on my perception of the character of Batman and my understanding of filmmaking. I saw The Dark Knight five times in theaters in 2008 (a rarity for me, seeing a film twice is usually my max). I was so excited for its release that I arrived with some friends to the midnight show at 6 pm just because I wanted to be first inside.

By the end of my first viewing of The Dark Knight, I realized that I had seen something truly spectacular. I had seen my favorite interpretation of the character and his world so far. Heath Ledger’s incredible performance of the Joker had blown me away. The atmosphere and scope of the movie had sucked me into the film’s world. I found Wally Pfister’s cinematography and Hans Zimmer’s score both beautiful and haunting.

My eyes were actually tearing up and my heart was swelling by the end of it. It sounds stupid but it happened. But it wasn’t because the movie made me sad. It was because I knew I had witnessed something really special. A work of art that was both intelligent and entertaining. A new, innovative form of storytelling. A comic book movie that transcended the idea of being a comic book movie.

Now, in just two weeks, The Dark Knight Rises will be released and it has the potential to do all of these things and more.  And, as we get closer and closer and I get more and more excited, I start to think we honestly don’t deserve a film this incredible.

Because The Dark Knight Rises is incredible.

I can say that without even knowing if it is even any good (though earlier reports are suggesting it is that good… more even). Just the fact that Christopher Nolan has gotten to make one of these films again is amazing. The fact that Warner Bros. has put so much trust into him to do whatever the hell he wants with Batman again is amazing. The fact that the man gets to make his art on such an expensive and giant level is amazing. Because no one believes in art anymore. And no one can create it like this.

So when I see people complain about Catwoman (“she should have a cowl on her head like in the comics!”), I want to say “f*ck you, you don’t deserve this film.” When I see comic book nerds complaining about the changes that Nolan makes for his films, I want to rip them apart. We shouldn’t be nitpicking or whining about these films (and yes, this was even something I was guilty of when I first saw Heath Ledger’s Joker costume back in 2007). We should realize just how damned lucky we are to live in a world where someone like Chris Nolan exists and is giving us his vision of a character that we love.

We don’t deserve a movie with this much care and love put into it. But, damn it, I’m so glad we get to have it.