THE DARK KNIGHT RISES film has got to be my favorite of the acclaimed Nolan Trilogy, blemishes and all.
In his interview series with French director Francois Truffaut, legendary British director Alfred Hitchcock stated that critics are far too concerned with concepts like plausibility and realism. It does not matter if the series of events is plausible, he argues, or that the authorities might not act in a realistic way. What is of utmost importance in crafting a narrative is not filling in plot holes, but entertaining the audience. If you can thrill the people enough, they won't worry about plausibility or plot holes, all they will remember is the experience.
Many great films are built on foundations of implausibility, from THE THIN MAN to INDIANA JONES. The discourse revolving around this drive for films to always make sense or not have plot holes has surged exponentially since Hitchcock's time, and really started to come to a head when THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS came out in the early 2000's.
Many have derided THE DARK KNIGHT RISES since its release in 2012, lamenting that it's not as good as 2008's THE DARK KNIGHT, that the writing falls short, that Batman acts out of character.
Perhaps its worst offense, according to Bat-fans, is the fact that Batman does not appear until about the 50-minute mark (in a nearly three-hour-long movie), and that after that re-emergence, he spends another 30 minutes or so entrapped by Bane in an underground prison.
As is so often the case, the very thing that critics see as the film's weakness, is the thing I see as it's greatest strength.
This goes along with my love for IRON MAN 3 as the greatest Marvel film: Both narratives represent the perfect culmination of a trilogy, one where the main character who has been having an identity crisis throughout the preceding films finally attains a balance, a synthesis between the dueling personas, where they realize that the raiment they wear is meaningless without the man inside.
Throughout the first two films, there is an ongoing discussion between Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth, his steadfast butler and father-figure, that The Batman is a symbol. A man can be corrupted but a symbol, an icon, remains regardless of the man inside. There is the idea brought up that others may take on the mantle with the proper training and ideological drive.
And although at the end of RISES, Batman does pass the torch in a sense, it comes only after Wayne's realization that no one can do it quite like him, that he is the only one who could save a city in crisis.
The threat level in this film is also off the charts compared to just about any other Batman film before it (and indeed 2022's THE BATMAN, which is essentially a year-two tale where the character experiences growing pains and wrestles with his shortcomings and inner demons, is one of the few films in this cycle that even comes close).
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES has some of the best action sequences out of the Nolan trilogy, and although there is a messier narrative with myriad disparate elements, it is edited and presented in almost a constant montage, cross-cutting between about four or five different threads which culminate in a blowout finale.
It's often said that one should not have more than three separate storylines or events occurring in a film narrative, because most audiences lose track of what is going on. But this one is made in the editing. Nolan cross-cuts and time-jumps the narrative with ease and grace, making the entire story (even with some disjointed aspects) thrive and build in momentum, sustaining the rising tension throughout the entire film.
Like Bruce Wayne as The Batman, no other director could have done it quite this way.
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