Christopher Nolan
The Dark Knight Rises

[contains spoilers]

There is a nuance of meaning in the original title of the film that is lost in the dreadful Italian translation. The Dark Knight "rises" in this final chapter and does not simply "return." There is a significant difference between the ascending motion and that of a simple return. In fact, the film presupposes a moral elevation of Bruce Wayne and not just a return to action. And this is precisely the deepest core of meaning in the film: Batman ceases to be dark, comes out into the daylight, and fights alongside the police, respecting the ethical code of law enforcement and ultimately showing himself to be a soldier among many, albeit special and equipped with immensely superior means, but still a soldier. Or rather, he becomes one over the course of the film (his first appearance is anarchic and individualistic). In this sense, we are faced with the least superheroic superhero movie ever. Batman fights twice with Bane; once he loses brutally (one of the most beautiful scenes, with the sound of water dripping and the villain’s diabolical voice hitting even more than his punches), the other time as well, if not for the providential intervention of Selina Kyle. This Batman is weak, alone, devoid of strategic genius. He faces the enemy almost as if he voluntarily seeks defeat, death. The fundamental moment in the change of mindset is imprisonment, when a man makes him understand that to be stronger, he must fear death. Bruce will manage to climb out of the pit, but his superhero qualities will remain imprisoned down there. With Wayne's fear, Batman ceases to be The Dark Knight and becomes a "super-cop", as I said; the inevitable consequence of this transformation is the secret escape in the finale that allows the new man Bruce to rebuild a life and love, definitively forgetting Rachel with the discovery of her will to marry Dent. Being a superhero and being a moral and "human" man are in contrast; it is necessary to choose one of the two paths. Wayne's upward trajectory is traveled in reverse by John Blake, who goes from policeman to solipsistic superhero, without trust in law enforcement. 

The heroism of this film is choral, totally realistic; the villain Bane uses strategy and intelligence to achieve his goal, he has an army at his disposal, and therefore needs a response organized and orchestrated by multiple minds. The mad and individualistic wickedness of Joker was faced by extreme heroism, without rules, and it too was individualistic. In this third chapter the evil is collective and requires a collective good. In this context, the figure of James Gordon emerges triumphant, the purest distillation of all the positive values Nolan wanted to infuse into this film. Bane, on the other hand, is "the absolute evil"; his proposal of an alternative society that rebels against the tyranny of the oppressors (and the rich) then proves to be only a worse tyranny, in which the citizens’ rights are totally nullified. 

In this clash between good and evil, one can read all of Nolan's disillusionment: the solitary superhero has no future, the qualities of a single individual can do nothing against armies. Beyond the inevitable happy ending, the real implicit struggle is precisely between an individualistic conception of good/evil forces and a collective one, more modern but much less poetic. What is the director's final answer? Well, Bruce Wayne escapes from Gotham after saving it, but leaves his legacy to the future Robin: in short, the hero is downsized, but he does not feel like leaving his city without ensuring it a new champion. Therefore, there is no definitive word on the matter. 

The film itself enjoys an adrenaline-filled and well-structured second part, but the first abundant hour is excessively slow and cumbersome. The plot is intricate enough not to make the scarce rhythmic power of the first fraction noticeable; The Dark Knight is in this sense unattainable, plot and action, reflection and adrenaline blended perfectly. Unfortunately, Nolan fails to repeat himself, being too focused on the ethical and metaphorical implications of actions and not enough on the pure visual pleasure of cinematic enjoyment. Overall, the plot is moderately successful, although there are some rather hasty passages and scenes cut with the hatchet. Given the vastness of the matter covered, falling into some small empty passages was inevitable. Some forcefulness can also be tolerated (Selina Kyle betraying Batman and being forgiven just like that, on the spot), more disappointing is the anti-epic nature of some key moments, such as the deaths of Bane and Talia al Ghul, dismissed without even a bit of healthy rhetoric (consistent with the film’s anti-individualistic vision). 

The characters are certainly the bitter note of the film: the brilliant Alfred of the second episode has turned into a gloomy moralist, whose function is important even when appearances are boring. Joker was an aesthete of evil, a philosopher speculating on the wicked inclinations of the human soul, an anarchic, unattainable monster. By comparison, Bane is utterly destroyed: a mercenary with a square mindset and without conflicts, banal and predictable. Talia al Ghul, revealed in the final twist, has credibility close to zero. In general, all the characters have less deep psychology compared to The Dark Knight, also because, already as it is, the film lasts 164 minutes, it was unthinkable to lengthen it further. However, Batman and Catwoman are well developed and very well portrayed by Bale and a surprising Anne Hathaway. The remaining actors, however, do not stand out for particularly virtuous performances, especially Tom Hardy, who could have expressed much more with his gaze and instead always seems to stare into the void. 

It remains a high-level action/police film, but the complexity and poetry of the previous episode are now a memory. One can’t even blame Nolan too much; the producers' desire to give a positive conclusion to the trilogy obviously prevailed, and moreover, creating a new Joker was practically impossible. These two combined factors render The Dark Knight Rises a decent film but far from the heights reached in 2008. 

Despite a plot that is overly optimistic, Nolan still manages to insert his deep reflection on the impossibility of heroism in a realistic society like his Gotham. Individual values are nullified in today's war, what counts is numbers, weaponry, technology, military organization. What Nolan presents to us is a world without heroes (with the Robin subplot placed there specifically to leave a contradictory glimmer), a world in which people fight a civil war with no winners or losers, where Batman's true power is possessing the Bat-wing, an eternally shaken world by the contrasts between power holders and those who wish to conquer it. It is an irresolvable and eternal struggle; there is no individual who can keep it under control, not even a superhero like Batman. The fate of man is to fight himself to extinction. 

7+/10