THE DARK KNIGHT RISES: Traversing the heights and depths of Gotham City and its Dark Knight

"I’m not particularly fond of Gotham. It’s like someone built a nightmare out of metal and stone."

Superman

Gotham City is on thin ice. Not only is its financial infrastructure on the verge of collapse, but its physical underpinnings are also decaying and rotting to the core. As art imitates life or vice versa, the fictional Gotham City on display seems at once, a microcosm of the current socioeconomic and political climate in which “Occupy {insert your city here}” factions and global threats of terrorism bubble and seethe in Director Christopher Nolan’s cinematic Petri dish (originally architected by Bob Kane and Bill Finger) and third exciting installment of The Dark Knight trilogy. And from another perspective, the ailing island metropolis is a juxtaposition of its wealthiest citizen, billionaire playboy, Bruce Wayne a.k.a. Batman (Christian Bale), who has remained a recluse since his previous film outing in THE DARK KNIGHT. Likewise crippled by corruption, so is Gotham’s savior who has stayed sidelined in his newly reconstructed Wayne Manor (since it was felled in the trilogy’s first installment, BATMAN BEGINS) who walks its hallowed hallways with the support of a cane as well as his faithful manservant, Alfred Pennyworth (the ironically spelled, Michael Caine).

No man is an island. But it is true that Bruce Wayne, the personification of the island Gotham City, does not prosper while in exile. Likewise, Gotham’s essential survival is dependent on the support it receives from Bruce Wayne’s philanthropy and Batman’s do-goodery. In each filmed installment of The Dark Knight trilogy, Batman is seen for a fleeting moment, standing alone, overlooking the city and keeping a lonely vigil - - as if he’s staring into a bottomless pit from whence he climbed. A Son of Man, in his case, Thomas Wayne (Linus Roache), who may be regarded as a Saint as he was partly responsible for much of Gotham’s creation and progress, Bruce is rightly a Prince of Man or as mob boss, Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson) in BATMAN BEGINS so dubbed him, “the Prince of Gotham”. Wayne’s palatial residence is located just on the periphery of Gotham City on the outside looking in (though still within the city limits as Wayne confirmed to D.A. Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) in THE DARK KNIGHT) much like Batman’s nocturnal spying on the city as it sleeps and similarly has a system of subterranean caves compared with Gotham’s underground tunnels.

In THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, when the symbolically idealistic and well-mannered Wayne Manor is invaded by a petty thief (with a larger agenda) in Selina Kyle a.k.a. Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) who surreptitiously makes off with Bruce’s mother’s pearl necklace (the ironically-tinged ‘family jewels’ which have since been restrung after being broken at the scene of Bruce’s parents’ death in BATMAN BEGINS), Wayne, the loneliest billionaire in the world, decides to act and do what he does best - - become a detective and seek her out. Proverbially speaking, curiosity may have killed the cat, but not the bat - - at least, not yet. By the time Wayne receives another house call from Patrol Officer-cum-Detective John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Bruce discovers that Selina’s not only taken the necklace, but also copies of his fingerprints off the safe which housed the jewelry, kidnapped a Gotham Congressman (Brett Cullen) and Blake reveals news of a near fatally-wounded Commissioner Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) by thugs in Gotham’s sewer system - - all of which are tied together in an elaborate scheme by an underground army of shadows bent on toppling Wayne’s financial fortune. While the physical soundness of multiple structures throughout Gotham are compromised by being laced with oil and explosives, by contrast, Wayne engages in a rigorous training regimen in addition to retrofitting his leg with supports to strengthen his lack of cartilage before entering the field of battle.

Conscious of current events that seem to mirror headlines of global economic apocalypses and the capability of cities to potentially achieve a state of lawlessness, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is such an uncompromising vision of our times. The chimerical catalyst for such events comes complements of the ominously named League of Shadows, a terrorist organization of skilled assassins (introduced in BATMAN BEGINS) whose function has been to destroy nations upon reaching their heights of decadence, suffering and injustice. With Gotham City targeted in its crosshairs, Batman, like his alias, industrialist Bruce Wayne, becomes the city’s warden and chief protector. So when he isn’t investing in various philanthropic pursuits to financially benefit the city care of assets he’s accumulated through his family’s legacy at Wayne Enterprises, Bruce utilizes equipment from Wayne Enterprises’ Applied Sciences division to ward off multitudes of Gotham’s criminal fraternity under the guise of the fear-inducing Caped Crusader, Batman. Following the passing of the League’s deceased helmsman, Ra’s al Ghul (Liam Neeson) comes its ahead-of-the-curve pupil and agent par excellence, Bane (Tom Hardy) who literally and figuratively holds the inhabitants of Gotham in a death grip with the threat of nuclear annihilation.

Whereas Batman signifies idealistic virtue and generosity, Bane is pure evil incarnate whose unrestrained strength and unyielding display of physical superiority and strategic might make him a considerably fierce opponent of the Caped Crusader who intends to not only break Batman’s body, but also his spirit. When Joker (Heath Ledger) contrasted himself to Batman in THE DARK KNIGHT as “an unstoppable force” against “an immovable object”, the stakes have risen to new heights as far as the combative forces of Wayne versus Bane are concerned. Even their monikers - - Wayne and Bane - - suggest a parallel dichotomy. Similarly, both men were practically raised in prisons where their bodies were punished, yet their spirits were strengthened. In Christopher Nolan’s Bat-verse, Wayne and Bane were enlisted (albeit briefly for the former), mentored and trained by the League of Shadows in which they mastered the arts of deception, theatricality in warfare, facing their fears and embracing one’s surroundings. With Bruce Wayne choosing the path of righteousness, this action prompted the League’s associates to destroy Wayne Manor and thus begins Batman’s inevitable collision course with his ultimate nemesis. Bane and Batman are thus opposite sides of the same coin, perpetually flipping in mid-air, propelled by the forces that have provided them strength and ever fighting to see who comes out on top.

There are elemental forces at play in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (and throughout the trilogy); thematic devices that pulsate through the film much like the pain-dulling gas that pumps through Bane's face-hugging headgear which frighteningly resembles a partially exposed skull. Not only is there the constant struggle of Good vs. Evil, there also exists the elements of fire (Batman’s makeshift ‘Bat Signal’ beacon ignited on one of Gotham’s bridges) and ice (the icy waters literally encase Gotham City). As the film begins, there is a glimpse and sound of ice cracking which continues a visual and aural motif first introduced in BATMAN BEGINS when Ra’s al Ghul trained Bruce Wayne in an icy arena during which exercise Wayne learned the hard way the importance of controlling one’s surroundings by falling through an icy floor. The appearance of ice in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES becomes a horrifying destination for those exiled to death by the newly appointed judge of Gotham, Dr. Jonathan Crane a.k.a. Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy), who holds a freakishly Dali-esque kangaroo court at Bane’s request whose only two sentences for the wealthy individuals and law enforcement officials he tries for their misdeeds against Gotham City (hearkening to those embroiled with Lehman Brothers, AIG, Bernie Madoff and Enron on the opposite side of the movie screen) are Exile and Death. Ironically, it is Bruce Wayne who engages his own sentence of self-imposed exile and although he may exist in a weakened state, he survives nonetheless. And when Batman appears on the ice to save a newly-exiled Commissioner Gordon, the same man who had comforted young Bruce after his parents’ murder, he moves comfortably on its slippery surface obviously graduating to the final rung in his training by achieving a sure footing on the shaky terrain that surrounds him.

Also present is the inclination to fall or rise as well as the presence of light/hope and shadowy darkness/despair. It’s interesting to note that one of the weapons in Batman’s arsenal is a light gun (EMP or Electro Magnetic Pulse device) he uses to disrupt electronic equipment and humanely dispatch his foes as opposed to the lead and firepower unleashed from Bane’s militia onto the people of Gotham City. Money does not equate to man’s true power as Bane intimates to Bruce as he disables Wayne’s fortune during a daring digital heist at Gotham’s Stock Exchange. When “a small fortune” is raised for Bane’s destructive enterprise by a dubious and hostile business tycoon, Daggett (Ben Mendelsohn) and upon meeting his financial benefactor for the first time, Bane remarks, “speak of the Devil and he shall appear”, moments before breaking Daggett’s neck.

Born in the shadows of a prison nicknamed “The Pit”, a veritable “hell on earth” that offers its inmates little chance of escape, combined with the expert tutelage he acquired from the League of Shadows, Bane skillfully controls shadows more than Batman is able to conjure them as he successfully demonstrates in their first physical encounter with each other which leaves the Batman broken. Wayne, on the other hand, was born into a “decadent nest” of the Regency Room, a further contrast of Bane’s rise from the depths whereas Bruce/Batman inevitably finds himself falling to the depths in anticipation of a confrontation with Bane somewhere in the middle of their respective journeys on the battlefield of Gotham City.

A constant specter surrounding Bruce Wayne, both in a real and imaginary sense, has been the imagery and presence of a single or multiple abounding bats. Even his Bentley automobile presents a winged logo with the letter "B" (for Bruce/Batman?) with an extension of a pair of wings. The bat is Bruce’s totem and appears when he least expects it. The Gotham Police Department uses a bat signal (predominantly at night) when they require Batman’s assistance and its diffused beam often shines in tandem with the moon. The bat is a reminder of the initial fear he felt for the creatures when he tumbled into a well on the grounds of Wayne Manor and they frightened him as a child as they emptied from a cave and their winged flight consumed him. And by the same token, the bat provides Bruce with hope and invisible wings to fly - - as he uses to his advantage in his leap of faith to escape from the abyssal “pit” into which Bane had placed him in to rot and die.

In the white-knuckle opening of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, the subterranean prison cell “pit” is brilliantly contrasted with a fuselage cell of an aircraft bringing Bane to justice. Upon the craft being incised by airborne assailants on Bane’s payroll (or rather, that of his financial beneficiary), the remnants float to the ground like a shattered silo as Bane is airlifted and rises into a second getaway plane hovering overhead. Bane exudes menace and thrives in darkness, cunningly maintaining his post in the underbelly of Gotham City before literally turning the tables on Gotham’s entire police force by sealing them underground giving Bane and his army the upper-hand as they head topside to wreak full-scale havoc. Offering the population no chance of escape, bridges to the outlining cities are blown furthering the theme of the city’s degradation and Gotham City is conveniently sealed as tight as a drum.

The film has an affinity for (physical and musical) percussion complementing the visualized destruction and unrest as composer Hans Zimmer’s unrelenting and barbarous drumbeats reverberate through its film score as they do through Gotham’s cavernous tunnels, shadowy alleyways, marbled hallways and skyscraping corridors and cathedrals towering above the city streets, as they also underscore the film’s relentless fisticuffs and bone-crushing body blows. Comprised of equal parts exalting and triumphant harmonies, bespeckled with ominous and enigmatic variant tonalities, the film’s score punctuates the on-screen action and reaches high altitudes - - the aerial photography hasn’t been higher in the trilogy thanks to Wayne’s acquisition of a flying apparatus which Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) calls "the Bat" (unofficially, the Batwing) - - and echoes to the depths of the island’s foundation wherein multitudinous underground channels are circumnavigated by friend or foe of the Batman. When the score isn’t moving at a quickening pace as if time is about to run out for Gotham while Bane’s army grows in numbers highlighted by accelerated synthesized notes of brawn and vigor, it takes its time while achieving a sinister theme for Catwoman which sounds as if a kitten is nimbly tickling a few select piano keys.

Déjà Vu or Danse Macabre?

Just as musical cues from prior films in The Dark Knight series are re-visited, so appears a spirit from Bruce Wayne’s past or in this case, a “Ghul”, namely, Ra’s al Ghul’s daughter, Talia a.k.a. Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard). By using the cover of a clean energy project in which Tate is investing which could benefit from power harnessed by a fusion reactor in Wayne’s possession, she seductively sinks her claws (and at one point, penetrates a blade) into Bruce bringing new meaning to the phrase “hostile takeover”. More common in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES than in any other film in Nolan’s trilogy is the element of duplicity and those that hide behind a mask. As a goodwill gesture to the upper crust of Gotham society, Tate even hosts a lavish masquerade ball which heightens the film’s duplicitous nature wherein characters (and objects) conceal their interior motives with a deceptive exterior disguise - - a Congressman (who utters that Gotham is in the midst of peacetime when it is inevitably leading to war) goes on the lam with Selina Kyle and trades in his three-piece suit for a Hawaiian shirt; for Bruce Wayne (who wears a cape and cowl to become Batman even though he advises Lucius Fox he’s gone into retirement), his lifestyle as a wealthy playboy seems like an irony as he needs a cane to get out of his Lamborghini; an uncrackable safe is cracked; a decoyed armada of trucks with lead-lined roofs, only one of which is concealing an atom bomb, roams the ghettoized streets of Gotham.

The epitome of two-facedness, complements of deceased former D.A. Harvey Dent a.k.a. Two-Face, has left behind a legacy of nearly a decade in the ironically titled “Dent Act”, a band-aid meant to hold the city of Gotham under subordination. But, like a “dent”, it too is as hollow as a crater in the weakening foundation of Gotham and by revealing Harvey’s true nature of corruption would send figurative shockwaves through the city (or as Blake remarks, “a lie to keep a city from burning to the ground”) as opposed to literal waves of destruction at the expense of Bane’s atomic bomb in his arsenal. Miranda Tate, an associate of Bane’s through her father’s relationship with the League of Shadows, thus wishes to make a ‘dent’ in Gotham and uphold her father’s legacy (in direct contrast with Bruce’s father’s hope for Gotham City) - - specifically, a six-mile dent due to its blast radius with the added pleasure of Batman feeling “the fire of twelve million souls”. By hesitating to make the reveal about Harvey Dent in a speech that was to be given by Commissioner Gordon, the truth is prolonged, quite cleverly in fact, to fall into the wrong hands, as the only character in the film who is capable of delivering such truth is none other than Bane. Projected by Bane standing atop one of Wayne's commandeered tumblers, Gordon’s written words are as powerful as the tumbler’s turret blasts into a prison’s wall through which thousands of criminals escape their dark imprisonment under the Dent Act into the light of day.

Often seen bare-chested or donning minimal attire, truth is tailored into what sleeves Bane chooses to wear. He utters to his benefactor, Daggett, that he is “Gotham’s reckoning” just before he subdues him off-camera as Bane’s mercenaries are simultaneously plotting their masterstroke for Gotham’s demise in another screen space. In the film's opening moments, Bane tells a CIA agent (to whom he is introduced as a “masked man”) that crashing his plane while they’re onboard it is part of his escape plan and continues to do so as he promises the government agent “with no survivors” - - just moments after Bane allows him to pry a black hooded disguise from over his head without a struggle. Bane may be a “necessary evil” as he proclaims, but nevertheless, he is a harbinger of truth. The one disguise that he does don in his attack on the Gotham Stock Exchange is that of a motorcycle courier which confirms his status as a ‘messenger’. When asked by an officer in the Exchange to take off a motorcycle helmet obscuring his face, he does so without hesitation (before using it to mortally bludgeon her) and continues to the central core of the building where he will engage in destroying Wayne’s (and therefore, Gotham City’s) financial future and stays the course of his master plan. Upon Alfred revealing the truth of Bruce’s first love, Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes and Maggie Gyllenhaal, respectively) choosing Dent over Wayne in a letter given to him and burning said correspondence to protect Wayne’s feelings, Alfred continues, “it’s time we all stopped trying to outsmart the truth and let it have its day”. Alfred tells Bruce that there is nothing in Gotham for Wayne. So does Selina, the only other character that truly cares about Bruce’s well-being confirmed in the closing moments of the film. That Bane does not need to hide behind his mask, however; that he literally requires its breathing apparatus to survive, it could be surmised that Bane is the truth that Batman/Bruce needs to outsmart. Gotham City had its day in the sun and is not only embraced by a wintry cold, but is on the verge of Bane’s imposed nuclear winter that would forever seal out the sunlight and envelop it in dusty darkness.

Heaven help us if such monumental truths were to be revealed about the economic, political and social state of affairs on this side of the movie screen and the potential repercussions that were to be had. Who would be our protector(s) upon being thrown into a state of darkness and turmoil? If it weren’t for the dynamic duo of Batman and Catwoman with the support of the restored police force led by their “war hero”, Jim Gordon, the vanquished Bane would’ve had a fair, fighting chance at destroying Gotham City. Bane was literally creating a league of shadows underneath the city. But for shadows to thrive, they need to do so in darkness and by going top-side which is bathed by sunlight, risks being defeated and their fate of either death or imprisonment is sealed.

Like a subject under a detective’s magnifying glass, Christopher Nolan’s cinematic suppositions and inspection of Gotham City, with its obscured edges and looming socioeconomic climate, may likely be a reflection of our current times. It is also a far cry from the days when Batman tangled with evil-doers in the security of a studio backlot evolving through moody, yet playful reproductions care of Tim Burton and Nolan’s over-the-top predecessor, Joel Schumacher, with the series’ most prevalent steroidal injections of color and (laughable) anatomically-(in)correct Batsuits.

The Evolution of Batman on the big and small screen

However, at the present time, in a film brimming with so much darkness, it is ironic that the brightest landscape in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is in Florence, Italy where both Alfred has been vacationing and to where Bruce and Selina Kyle escape at the film’s climax where exists a similarly decadent lap of luxury like in Gotham’s most magnificent glory days. Back in Gotham City, an American flag, the symbol of its (and our) Independence, Americanism and peace, is left in tatters, but nevertheless, as the young vocalist singing lyrics to Francis Scott Key’s Star Spangled Banner at a Gotham City Rogues football game reminds, “Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight … the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there”.

As a ring of fire encircling Gotham City likening it to a metropolitan ‘pit’ burns out and its denizens rise from the abyssal ashes of chaos and crumbled cement just as its police force had done before facing off against Bane’s mercenaries, the mythology of Gotham’s Batman legend is resurrected and its faith in its savior is indelibly re-adopted as a statue in the likeness of its Caped Crusader is erected on Gotham’s once unstable ground. Throughout The Dark Knight trilogy, a mantra has been repeated after first being uttered by Bruce’s father: “And why do we fall, Bruce?”, followed by a reassuring, “So we can learn to pick ourselves up.” One thing is for certain: Batman / Bruce Wayne, the man who has been falling ever since childhood, will no longer fall again.