BANE
One important rule that Christopher Nolan has taken full advantage of is that Batman needs a worthy adversary in each film, someone who reflects back some aspect of himself. In the first film, Batman barely understood who he was up against. It's not until Ra's Al Ghul reveals himself at what is very close to the end of the film that Batman understands what's happening or who is pulling the strings. As a detective, he fails in almost every way, staying behind the plan the entire time. In "The Dark Knight," he had a handle on the city, even if just temporarily, and when the Joker makes himself a threat, Batman throws himself into the hunt without any hesitation. He knows how to handle The Joker, and in the end, he catches him even if he has to compromise himself in the process.
Bane is basically a combination of both the theatrical gamesmanship of R'as Al Ghul and the destructive unpredictability of The Joker, and he's also a physical threat on a scale that Batman is simply unprepared for, a mixture that seems perfect for the concluding film in the trilogy.
Like The Joker, Bane has no identity other than "Bane." He's got that one name, that one identity. He is Bane from the moment we meet him. The Joker tells constant lies about himself and his backstory, and Nolan tells one big lie about the origin of Bane. That lie is designed to hide the film's biggest reveal, and we do eventually learn the truth about Bane. It seems fitting that in the one flashback where Nolan tells the full truth about Bane's identity, we finally catch that single glimpse of Tom Hardy's face.
Bane's big plan (which could more accurately be described as Talia's big plan) is designed to do one thing: destroy Gotham. And while it is indeed elaborate to the point of insanity, elaborate in a way you never see outside of movies, depending on all sorts of predicted behavior by Batman and also requiring a sort of supernatural degree of luck to make sure everything goes his way, there is a larger purpose here.
Talia and Bane don't just want to destroy Gotham… they also want to humble Bruce Wayne. This is a movie about revenge on a grand scale with an entire city as the battleground that is chosen. Bruce, who created Batman to protect Gotham, turns out to be the match that lights the fuse on the explosive that nearly levels the city. The grand gesture is the point of the plan, of course. As we've heard repeatedly in these films, The League Of Shadows believes in theatricality. Since they know how Bruce Wayne was trained, why he was born, they know exactly how to blow past his defenses.
The entire reconnection of Bane by Nolan and company is bold and striking, starting with that voice. I'll admit freely that it makes me laugh. I love doing my Bane voice for my kids, because it makes them laugh. I don't think that's a bad thing. It's such a deranged choice, and it makes him stand out as a character. By now, you may have seen this "gotcha" video about the way the voice was reworked between the release of the prologue and the release of the film.
I'm not really sure that video proves anything other than "films are often edited with additional sound mixing during the the six months before they're released," but it is interesting to see how Nolan's thinking on the voice evolved as they got closer to release.
Because so much of his face is covered, Hardy has to communicate much of what he's thinking physically, and it's a Lon Chaney performance. It's aggressive and often quite funny. There is such attitude in his body language. People have made jokes about the banners and the stills of Bane, and I've seen a thousand variations on "Come at me, bro!" and, honestly, that's not far off from the truth. The physical performance is what makes the voice funny, and vice-versa. He's like a gorilla wearing a monocle and a tuxedo. It's communicated so clearly, and there should be credit for finding a way to make him more than just a big guy in a mask.
I've seen complaints that Bane's first fight with Batman is too brief, but that's the point. Bruce is finished the moment that fight begins. He's treating Bane as "just another bad guy," while Bane is treating Batman as the single most important fight in the world, a pure expression of his love for Talia.
That connection, that backstory for Bane and Talia, is what I wasn't expecting, and it's one of the things I really like about the film. Bane's single-mindedness is boring to me if it's just because "he's the bad guy." But as the payoff to a chaste love story, with this blinding lifelong devotion defining all of Bane's actions, I love it. And again, like R'as Al Ghul and The Joker, he uses his henchmen as disposable game pieces, easily sacrificed and never missed. He has no loyalty to anything or anyone but Talia. If you try to make sense of the politics of the film, you'll drive yourself crazy. Sure, Bane instigates a class riot, but look closer. He exploits an uneasy lower class to destroy the ruling class and in the end, he doesn't seem remotely interested in the fate of either of them except inasmuch as it affects Bruce. That's all he really cares about, and he knows how much Gotham means to Bruce. If they just kill him, and the movie makes it clear that they easily could kill him at one point, then he's gone. It's done. It's clean. The film makes the point several times that this is all about breaking down everything that matters to Bruce and making him watch. Gotham symbolizes everything that was taken from him as a kid, and Bane knows that the more he hurts Gotham, the worse it hurts Bruce.
Bane's overall attitude also makes sense if we view him as a dark funhouse mirror version of Bruce. Bane baits the hook with something that is designed to appeal to Bruce's arrogance, his overconfidence. Bane makes himself an irresistible target, and as confident as Bruce is, Bane's at least twice as sure of himself. Any moment where Bruce gets the upper hand or surprises him at all, Bane seems shocked. He's that sure of himself. Bane is what Bruce would have been if he'd followed R'as Al Ghul's order during his initiation. He also turned his back on Al Ghul, though, for a different reason. When I see people talk about the relationship that Talia and Bruce as supposed to have, it's one of those disconnects where you just have to set aside the comics or the animated series. That's not the story that's being told. This Talia could never fall in love with Bruce Wayne. She despises him for killing her father. She may have been estranged from R'as Al Ghul, and the film certainly makes it sound like her love for Bane complicated things with her father, but she still loved him. Bane should hate R'as Al Ghul for excommunicating him, but his love for Miranda is more important to him. He's willing to extract vengeance in Al Ghul's name because it is important to her. Who knows? Maybe in a different version of this world, Bruce accepted his place with R'as and he and Talia do end up together. That's just not the story Nolan wanted to tell, and so the romantic longing that drives this horrifying, destructive plan has been rebuilt completely, reassigned.
Lily Adler#forthecontent! 📹 (she/her)
SwordOfMorningSuper Moderator
OnTheAirWakandan Ambassador
X-Men ‘97 X-Men ‘97 News and Discussion Thread (TAG SPOILERS!!!!) (4 Viewers)
