The Dark Knight
Rises is grim, grand and massive. It’s
the perfect conclusion to Christopher Nolan’s superhero franchise. I think it
deserves Oscar recognition in multiple categories. Now, don’t get carried away
because I said that. I know what I’m saying. I don’t claim the film to be multilayered
or subtle or perched on realism. It doesn’t aspire to achieve any of these. But
what it is set out to do, it couldn’t have been done better. The most brilliant
aspect of The Dark Knight Rises is the high degree of parallelism- there are several
primary characters in so many threads of events that run together
simultaneously.
Batman Begins
took us through the heart and soul of Bruce Wayne. We knew by the end of it,
why he does what he does. The other characters in the series including, and
especially, The Joker were strongly characterized. But we never knew why they
are the way they are. Character development was absent in the commercially
compromised The Dark Knight. In the Dark Knight Rises, the origins of every
character are known. Nolan split The Dark Knight into good and bad; like a logician
would. Scenes of ‘the people of Gotham’ planted on two ships and forced to
choose between the lives of others and that of their own came off to me as a
simplistic exercise in moral science. The act of Batman making the selfless
choice of playing scapegoat to Harvey Dent’s criminal activities rings false. Particularly
because this happens not long after he selfishly chose to rescue his girlfriend
over ‘the shining example of justice.’ Even with all these flaws, The Dark
Knight still emerged as a successful film. The Dark Knight Rises is the perfect
antithesis to both, the central theme of fear in Batman Begins and that one thing
that The Dark Knight had to say - “People deserve more than the truth. They
deserve their faith to be rewarded.” And I don’t believe I’ve come across
another film-maker letting the audience see him take diametrically opposite
standpoints on a subject and defend them both with equal conviction.
