Dark Knight

With the 10th Anniversary of Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight’ this year, it is not that surprising to see the man look back at the Batman trilogy that he created and reminisce about the days when HE was the DC cinematic universe, and give us some insight into how he saw those films that helped define the superhero genre and the tone of the current DCEU. During the Cannes Film Festival this past week, Nolan spoke specifically about his Batman films and how, in his mind, each one was part of a different genre, and how that genre was basically defined by the villain faced by Bruce Wayne in the movie.

You can read it in his own words in the Tweet below:

It does make sense when you stop and think about it, ‘Batman Begins’ was always touted as more of an origin story and to say that it follows Joseph’s Campbell’s ‘The Hero’s Journey’ is not that far of a stretch, especially when you throw in the fact that he even has a mentor in both Ras Al Ghul and Alfred. And calling ‘The Dark Knight’ as crime movie is also a no-brainer, even in broad strokes the movie is all about bringing down the organized crime in Gotham, with the Joker rising to power because of the desperation of the gangs to fight back against a foe like Batman who they saw as unstoppable. The only problem I have with all this is calling ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ a “war movie,” but a lot of that has to do with the fact that I think ‘Rises’ had a lot of problems, though the fact that Nolan was trying for this whole “war” angle does help explain a few things. The entire plot about Gotham being under siege and cut off from the outside world makes a bit more sense now, as does a lot of the big open fights between the gangsters and the police at the end. But to me, that whole idea felt very forced and was one of the bigger issues with the film.

Did you pick up on the different genres of each film when you first watched the ‘Dark Knight’ films? Do you think Nolan tried a bit too hard with the whole “war” angle in the last one? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Source: Total Film