With Nolans new Oppenheimer set for a 2023 release, let’s look at one of his crowning pieces of work, The Dark Knight Rises
Nolan’s career has grown extensively into bigger budget films from the days of Memento, Following, and Insomnia. He began work in the superhero genre with Batman Begins in 2005, taking the approach of an independent filmmaker to blockbuster acclaim.
The Dark Knight followed in 2008 with his highest box office revenue to date, but The Dark Knight Rises may still be his biggest cinematic release in terms of fan anticipation, the film’s climax, narrative, and the overall marketing campaign. Here’s why and let’s discuss.
By the time the third film was released in 2012, Nolan had gathered quite a loyal and large fanbase for his Batman flicks, dating back to 2005 and probably further back, making Batman one of the most sought out characters for filmmaking, yet Christian Bales performance felt the truest and most down to earth, breaking away the mold of some of the more tame representations of the character. Batman Begins got the character representation spot on with a heartfelt and powerful backstory, developing the character enough to make the sequels matter.
The Dark Knight completely changed the game for Nolan. Batman Begins had an independent look and feel to it, The Dark Knight was a blockbuster with thrilling action scenes shot on IMAX. The film was made for the big screen and of course, it featured a wild and oscar worthy performance from Heath Ledger. The film pretty much dominated the year 2008.
2 years later, Nolan would again establish himself as a director of mega-budget blockbuster entertainment, this time with the magnificent ensemble piece Inception. The marketing and release for the film were huge. Despite critical and audience acclaim, the film may not have been for everyone, mainly due to the complex nature of the plot and the fact that you really needed to pay close attention to every scene in the film.
This leads me to my next point, 2012 saw the release of Nolan’s most epic film to date, a film that would end Hollywood’s most successful superhero trilogies of all time and the anticipation was huge with Tom Hardy being cast as Bane, coming off his big performance in Warrior and his understated role in Inception.
Sam Raimi’s Spiderman trilogy could’nt quite land a satisfying finale, some of the X-men films flopped, Robocop sequels got worse, Superman 3 failed, the pressure was on The Dark Knight Rises but most of us knew the film would deliver with its action and emotion at its core, with Hans Zimmer returning to compose the soundtrack.
The film would attract non-superhero fans and even non-Nolan fans, because of the accessible and mainstream quality of the film, but more importantly, the film screams an event, a big cinematic event, and it creates this conversation from trailers, tv spots, talent on screen, and more to drive people to the big screen, with many not knowing who the writer and director of the films are. The trailers and TV spots were superb, giving us a glimpse of the situation between Batman and Bane but not giving away too much.
Back in 2012, I enjoyed Nolan’s Batman films but I wasn’t a die-hard fan, yet when the third film came out, I felt obliged to see it and get in with the conversation with fans about how and why the film was epic. This doesn’t happen often, the only times these events happen are with Tarrantino and I am guessing James Cameron’s Avatar sequels once they land after a decade of silence.
Back to The Dark Knight Rises, the film completely grew with scope and scale. The Dark Knight was still big, but a lot of the scenes were contained and close-quartered. The Dark Knight Rises has these scenes for sure, but its finale is beyond any climax in the last decade in superhero genre filmmaking, even beating the latest Avengers films.
The fight scenes are fierce, gritty and bold and the cinematography is relishing, with Wally Pfister returning, creating an environment made for heroes and villains. In all its madness in the final act, you feel completely focused on the fight between Batman and Bane, two opposing forces of physical and ideological strengths, surely beating the Batman vs Superman rivalry.
The question to ask is will Nolan ever reclaim the success and thrown of The Dark Knight Rises? will his films ever gather more wider fan anticipation? To do this outside the work of superhero genre filmmaking will be beyond impressive as both Tenet and Interstellar haven’t quite done as well, but both are exceptionally entertaining.
What you have with The Dark Knight Rises is a more complete picture for the audience and Batman fans, it really gives you everything that a blockbuster film can deliver but also as a third parter.
It builds on everything we have come to love about Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, with some backstory and nods of nostalgia, whilst giving us a new villain and a new threat, but the story and its representation of Batman is perfect. A man of such power and wealth, has threads of weakness more so than any other superhero.
Superhero films don’t usually get bigger or better than this, A list performances, groundbreaking action, epic score and climax. The Dark Knight Rises is Christopher Nolan’s crowning jewel, in the field of mainstream appeal and success. Its a film that balances the use of spectacle and emotion so brilliantly, I never once thought that Nolan’s love for action took away from the story and what he was really trying to say about the politics of Gotham and the arc of Batman.
You can purchase The Dark Knight trilogy here.
Author Bio
Sam is a content writer. He loves all elements connected with film and writes with passion, always. You can find him on Linkedin, where you will be able to read more articles. When he is not writing, you can find him practicing football
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