Must say I haven't yet seen Dark Knight Rises. Perhaps I'll find a free version somewhere, so as not to support it financially.
What I've seen of the story disturbs me: the blatant exploitation of current political realities to rake in bucks. The people's protest is yet another tick on a list of items to twist into a plot point. The rule by billionaires is included -- but in what context, and with what message? That only a weirdo billionaire can save us poor dumb rabble who are so easily manipulated into being evil?
ROLLING STONE has a new interview with Nolan, and asks him some of these questions. His answers are to be expected (all big Hollywood types resort to these stock answers about politics), and feel quite disingenuous. By the way, this is the cliche Hollywood response throughout history to all such questions of propaganda and political messages:
NOLAN: We put a lot of interesting questions in the air, but that's simply a backdrop for the story.
Nothing to worry about here; just buy the damn ticket.
NOLAN: What we're really trying to do is show the cracks of society, show the conflicts that somebody would try to wedge open. We're going to get wildly different interpretations of what the film is supporting and not supporting, but it's not doing any of those things. It's just telling a story.
Repetition is key. Go back to sleep.
NOLAN: If you're saying, "Have you made a film that's supposed to be criticizing the Occupy Wall Street movement?" -- well, obviously, that's not true.
Really? The people's uprising in the film is easily hijacked by a demagogue warlord. Perhaps as could, and has happened in real life. To say that this plot development is meaningless? The man is lying.
NOLAN: If the populist movement is manipulated by somebody who is evil, that surely is a criticism of the evil person.
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