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shadowkat1. This video of Amanda Palmer's speech on TED, via her husband, Neil Gaiman's blog, is moving and interesting. It made me rethink a few things.
2. Saw Dark Knight Rises - the latest film by Christopher Nolan. A film that got mixed reviews. I passed on seeing it in the movie theater, and sort of wished I hadn't, thinking it was too violent. Which is odd, because many films I saw that summer were more so.
It's tempting to compare this film to other comic book films that came out this year and in previous years, but I'm not sure it's fair to? Sort of like comparing Busby Berkley to well Andrew Lloyd Webber or Stephen Sondheim. Or eating Prime Rib to well eating a Turkey Burger.
Not quite the same thing.
To say I enjoyed this film is an understatement. I loved it. It is in my humble opinion the best superhero film made to date. I agree with the professional film critics on this bit - this was a good film and amongst the best in its genre. The social commentary alone blew me away - it's so nuanced and does not provide answers, and can be interpreted in more than one manner.
I saw it as a deft critique and discussion of violence and how we use violence in our society - of how violence is used as a means of enjoyment, acquiring power, wealth, and how something like clean sustainable energy can be twisted by violence into a destructive weapon. How we send contradictory messages regarding it - on the one hand we hate guns, yet on the other we see them as cool and necessary to protect ourselves. And how the latter is in reality - a lie.
The criminalization of the poor, of people who can't get by. Incarcerating people - as a means of weilding power is discussed - is this a sign of an increasingly fascist society that only provides for the wealthy? The villains seek to turn this flawed society back to the people - and at least two of the main characters can't help but wonder if they aren't right, yet their means of doing so - through violence is so twisted and horrific that it does the opposite, and merely creates a far more fascist society to take the originals place. All we are doing is exchanging one power for another. And not necessarily a better one. Violence merely creates more violence and death.
There's a rather fascinating metaphor in the middle of the film - which was shown in previews but works far better in context. The villain, Bane, who looks a bit like a football player complete with grid-like facial protector, and muscles, triggers a series of bombs to explode beneath a football field during a game - taking out everyone on the field - all the people fighting one another for the ball or territory, except for the quarter-back who outruns the bomb and is not fighting at all. The football stadium is at the center of this city, which is based on Manhattan, and the series of bombs also takes out a bridge, several city streets and traps the police underground. But the center of the action is the stadium - which hosts a violent sport - a sport that promotes aggression.
Later, Selina Kyle, Catwoman, states to Bruce Wayne - I don't share your distaste for guns. He prefers fists, less likely to kill. He would prefer not to become the violence, yet he can't quite escape it.
Also unlike other superhero films that I'd seen to date including the others in Nolan's Batman series, this one developed and built its characters. There really are no true villains here. Even Bane - at the end of the film - is shown to be somewhat heroic, a heroic anti-hero. It is in this way, true noir - where the villain and hero aren't really that far apart, both are seeking to protect their world and their vision and their loved-ones and their cause. It is how they choose to go about it - that is problematic. Even the two women, Marian Cottord's character and Anne Hathaway's Catwoman, are complicated, both making a series of decisions that are based on their own violent backgrounds. Wayne/Bane and Talia/Selina are in a way mirrors of each other, all created by violence and all struggling to deal with it.
And Nolan handles the supporting characters quite adeptly here - Alfred, John Blake (Joseph Levit-Brown - who in some respects is far better here than he was in Looper or more interesting), Commissioner Gordon, and even Floyd (Matthew Modine's hapless deputy Commissioner).
The story also acts as a perfect closing act of Nolan's triology. Referencing both the events of Dark Knight and Batman Begins, resolving those plot-lines in a satisfactory and realistic manner, few films do this. Wayne and Alfred confront Alfred's lie about Rachel Dawson to spare Wayne's feelings, it did not work the way Alfred had hoped -- if anything his lie about Rachel choosing Wayne over Harvey Dent, trapped Wayne in a circle of guilt and self-loathing, incapable of moving on. It's oddly Selina Kyle who pushes Wayne into action but not how one might think - their relationship is deftly built layer by layer. And Hathaway is brilliant in this role, as is her chemistry with Bale.
This film played with my head long after it was over. It's the sort of film you want to discuss, pull apart, re-watch, and re-think. Analyze. It's not a popcorn film like the Avengers, Transformers, Spiderman, X-men, Wolverine, Iron Man or Captain America - which disappears from your head the moment you leave the theater, or rather it left mine. Mileage clearly varies on this point, if my flist is any indication. The online obsession with The Avengers film this summer continues to bewilder me. We see the world differently...don't we.
Anyhow, if you like noir, enjoy Chris Nolan films and liked the previous two films in this series - you'll most likely love this one.
Overall rating? A
2. Saw Dark Knight Rises - the latest film by Christopher Nolan. A film that got mixed reviews. I passed on seeing it in the movie theater, and sort of wished I hadn't, thinking it was too violent. Which is odd, because many films I saw that summer were more so.
It's tempting to compare this film to other comic book films that came out this year and in previous years, but I'm not sure it's fair to? Sort of like comparing Busby Berkley to well Andrew Lloyd Webber or Stephen Sondheim. Or eating Prime Rib to well eating a Turkey Burger.
Not quite the same thing.
To say I enjoyed this film is an understatement. I loved it. It is in my humble opinion the best superhero film made to date. I agree with the professional film critics on this bit - this was a good film and amongst the best in its genre. The social commentary alone blew me away - it's so nuanced and does not provide answers, and can be interpreted in more than one manner.
I saw it as a deft critique and discussion of violence and how we use violence in our society - of how violence is used as a means of enjoyment, acquiring power, wealth, and how something like clean sustainable energy can be twisted by violence into a destructive weapon. How we send contradictory messages regarding it - on the one hand we hate guns, yet on the other we see them as cool and necessary to protect ourselves. And how the latter is in reality - a lie.
The criminalization of the poor, of people who can't get by. Incarcerating people - as a means of weilding power is discussed - is this a sign of an increasingly fascist society that only provides for the wealthy? The villains seek to turn this flawed society back to the people - and at least two of the main characters can't help but wonder if they aren't right, yet their means of doing so - through violence is so twisted and horrific that it does the opposite, and merely creates a far more fascist society to take the originals place. All we are doing is exchanging one power for another. And not necessarily a better one. Violence merely creates more violence and death.
There's a rather fascinating metaphor in the middle of the film - which was shown in previews but works far better in context. The villain, Bane, who looks a bit like a football player complete with grid-like facial protector, and muscles, triggers a series of bombs to explode beneath a football field during a game - taking out everyone on the field - all the people fighting one another for the ball or territory, except for the quarter-back who outruns the bomb and is not fighting at all. The football stadium is at the center of this city, which is based on Manhattan, and the series of bombs also takes out a bridge, several city streets and traps the police underground. But the center of the action is the stadium - which hosts a violent sport - a sport that promotes aggression.
Later, Selina Kyle, Catwoman, states to Bruce Wayne - I don't share your distaste for guns. He prefers fists, less likely to kill. He would prefer not to become the violence, yet he can't quite escape it.
Also unlike other superhero films that I'd seen to date including the others in Nolan's Batman series, this one developed and built its characters. There really are no true villains here. Even Bane - at the end of the film - is shown to be somewhat heroic, a heroic anti-hero. It is in this way, true noir - where the villain and hero aren't really that far apart, both are seeking to protect their world and their vision and their loved-ones and their cause. It is how they choose to go about it - that is problematic. Even the two women, Marian Cottord's character and Anne Hathaway's Catwoman, are complicated, both making a series of decisions that are based on their own violent backgrounds. Wayne/Bane and Talia/Selina are in a way mirrors of each other, all created by violence and all struggling to deal with it.
And Nolan handles the supporting characters quite adeptly here - Alfred, John Blake (Joseph Levit-Brown - who in some respects is far better here than he was in Looper or more interesting), Commissioner Gordon, and even Floyd (Matthew Modine's hapless deputy Commissioner).
The story also acts as a perfect closing act of Nolan's triology. Referencing both the events of Dark Knight and Batman Begins, resolving those plot-lines in a satisfactory and realistic manner, few films do this. Wayne and Alfred confront Alfred's lie about Rachel Dawson to spare Wayne's feelings, it did not work the way Alfred had hoped -- if anything his lie about Rachel choosing Wayne over Harvey Dent, trapped Wayne in a circle of guilt and self-loathing, incapable of moving on. It's oddly Selina Kyle who pushes Wayne into action but not how one might think - their relationship is deftly built layer by layer. And Hathaway is brilliant in this role, as is her chemistry with Bale.
This film played with my head long after it was over. It's the sort of film you want to discuss, pull apart, re-watch, and re-think. Analyze. It's not a popcorn film like the Avengers, Transformers, Spiderman, X-men, Wolverine, Iron Man or Captain America - which disappears from your head the moment you leave the theater, or rather it left mine. Mileage clearly varies on this point, if my flist is any indication. The online obsession with The Avengers film this summer continues to bewilder me. We see the world differently...don't we.
Anyhow, if you like noir, enjoy Chris Nolan films and liked the previous two films in this series - you'll most likely love this one.
Overall rating? A
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Date: 2013-03-03 11:10 pm (UTC)I definitely agree about the importance of the football game -- which is also associated with America! (the relative pause in the movie's development for the singing of the American national anthem, itself so closely associated with violence, over images of Bane planning his attack IIRC). I hadn't thought about Bane as a football player but it's a good point.
I'm not sure if you're interested, but Todd Alcott is a screenwriter who examines the plots and themes and symbolism of various films over on his blog, and he has a long (15 post) exegesis on TDKR starting here: http://www.toddalcott.com/batman-the-dark-knight-rises-part-1.html. (He wrote a similarly detailed breakdown of The Avengers too -- showing that it is possible to be a big fan of both. :) Though it very few people I have seen loved both.)
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Date: 2013-03-04 11:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-04 02:03 pm (UTC)When you start thinking about those kind of questions, the whole plot kind of falls apart, which I found disappointing, because Batman Begins and TDK were both so meticulous in their realism. I would still watch the movie again, but I feel like I'd have to try really hard to ignore these issues while doing so, and that kind of undermines the "realistic" feel of the Nolan movies.
It's also a shame because I really liked the social commentary of Bane's takeover, as you said. I can absolutely see a situation like that playing out, although I feel like the movie could maybe have explored some more subtleties.
I was also kind of distracted visually in the movie, because TDK showed Gotham as Very Obviously Chicago, including many shots of the Chicago river and Millenium Station and a number of other landmarks, and then in TDKR it's...suddenly New York? Where did all those bridges come from? It was a little bit like how the design of Hogwarts completely shifted between movies... without Hogwarts' excuse that it's a magical castle.
So yeah. I don't think it's a bad movie, but I don't think it's as good a movie as TDK.
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