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Volume 372
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Wednseday, August 1, 2012
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Page 1 of 4
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This is from screenrant.com
The Themes
Superhero movies are often seen as popcorn flicks. Viewers enter the theater to be entertained and a great superhero film can do that. But Nolan's Batman films were
deeper and more thoughtful than that. Each of them was entertaining, but the movies spoke to something deeper about the human spirit. They struggled with profound
themes such as heroism, honor and integrity.
District Attorney Harvey Dent was a prime example of this. A public icon who stood for clean streets and ethical superiority became a vengeful monster when his loved
one was murdered. But even after his death, Dent's legacy was maintained by those who thought to serve a greater good.
The idea of hiding the truth about a political icon in order to maintain public morale, while undermining a true hero's innocence, was a fine example of how the Nolan's
films took on deep concepts and made them a core part of the franchise.
The Tone
Many of the previous Batman films were dark
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affairs. Tim Burton's films presented Gotham as a cold and dark town with seedy characters and an ugly underbelly. But Nolan's films took the darkness even deeper.
Never descending into silliness or caricature, these movies maintained a serious tone even as other superhero movies offered more light-hearted fare. Nolan understood the
solemnity associated with the story of a man who witnessed his parents get murdered and sought vengeance against his city's criminal masterminds.
These Batman movies were a far cry from movies like The Fantastic Four and the Spider-Man films - and yet, they succeeded despite offering up stories and issues that were
far more serious in nature.
The Boldness
The death of Rachel Dawes in The Dark Knight was shocking. Dawes, an important supporting player in the first two films, was Bruce Wayne's on-again, off-again love interest.
Few writers would dare to kill off such a character, and even fewer would dare to do it in the middle of a movie.
But TDK showed that the filmmakers were willing to do anything to tell a good story. It was hard not to be surprised when Dawes was killed, but it
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