Christopher Nolan's comments about live-action Batman with The Batman, conversations around the realism of The Dark Knight trilogy have once again become commonplace, as comparisons between the two gritty and realistic takes on Gotham and the DC hero who protects it are basically predestined. These conversations also tend to come with a side of analysis about exactly how realistic both franchises can be considered.
For all that it is arguably the most grounded take on the Batman mythos to ever appear on the big screen, The Dark Knight trilogy is still about someone who decides to dress like a generally small nocturnal mammal under the pretense that this will strike fear into the hearts of crimedoers. As such, there have been jokes about the series' realism despite its impressive endeavors ever since its release, and these will likely continue to crop up forever. That said, Nolan's own words about The Dark Knight trilogy's realism shed new light on this entire situation in a wonderful way.
Christopher Nolan's Comments On The Dark Knight's Realism Perfectly Explained Something I Could Never Put My Finger On About The Batman Movies
The Dark Knight Series' Appeal Is More Focused Around Relatability Than Realism
In filmcomment's interview with Christopher Nolan, the director provided a retrospective on much of The Dark Knight trilogy. While this interview provides a lot of interesting analysis about the franchise and the intention behind specific decisions, perhaps its most continually salient segment comes when Nolan talks about the realism of the series, as he states:
The term “realism” is often confusing and used sort of arbitrarily. I suppose “relatable” is the word I would use. I wanted a world that was realistically portrayed, in that even though outlandish events may be taking place, and this extraordinary figure may be walking around these streets, the streets would have the same weight and validity of the streets in any other action movie. So they’d be relatable in that way. And so the more texturing and layering that we could get into this film, the more tactile it was, the more you would feel and be excited by the action.
So just on a technical level, I really wanted to take on this idea of what I call the tactile quality. You want to really understand what things would smell like in this world, what things would taste like, when bones start being crunched or cars start pancaking. You feel these things in a way because the world isn’t intensely artificial and created by computer graphics, which result in an anodyne, sterile quality that’s not as exciting. For me that was about making the character more special. If I can believe in that world because I recognize it and can imagine myself walking down that street, then when this extraordinary figure of Batman comes swooping down in this theatrical costume and presenting this very theatrical aspect, that’s going to be more exciting to me.
While The Dark Knight trilogy does present one of the most realistic versions of the hero and his world to date, reading Nolan's distinction that the main aim was relatability, not realism, finally helped connect the dots for me in of exactly how the series manages to be so larger-than-life while keeping its gritty and grounded atmosphere. This is both through the "texture" of the world - the focus on creating a sensory experience that allows you to feel in many ways as though you were there - and the careful delivery of Batman and Gotham throughout the trilogy's overarching story.
This aligns with other comments Nolan has made about the series, particularly in The Fire Rises: The Creation and Impact of the Dark Knight Trilogy documentary, where he states, "it's not necessarily about a direct reality, because I think the films are extremely heightened and they're extremely operatic. But it's about what I suppose you might term a cinematic reality." The protracted explanation of what this entails and how it's achieved underlines how the series is able to balance its aim to wow with keeping things tangible and logical, bringing the best of both worlds into play.
Christopher Nolan Making The Dark Knight Trilogy Relatable, Not Realistic, Is What Makes It So Special
The Dark Knight Trilogy's Efforts To Resonate With Viewers
There is a world in which The Dark Knight trilogy leaned into being realistic over being relatable and emotional, and it's arguably a much worse world for those unfortunate enough to be in it. There are core elements of both the character and the series that work better by being somewhat inherently outlandish, and what they risk in of realism they more than make up for in of making the trilogy feel significant and spectacular.
Guillermo Del Toro describes Nolan as an "emotional mathematician" when it comes to his filmmaking work, and the more you see how specific pieces of Batman's lore are molded into place by his vision for The Dark Knight trilogy, the more this statement makes sense. Choosing puzzle pieces by emotional weight - like the Batmobile, which is a surefire way to inspire awe when done right, or the more dramatic moments of the story, like Two-Face's unsurvivable looking injury, or Batman recovering from a broken spine - allows for a narrative that is resonant enough that it feels grounded even in its least grounded scenes.
Be it through having the Joker kill someone with a pencil "magic trick", or having Batman survive seemingly fatal injuries at the end of The Dark Knight Rises, The Dark Knight trilogy's most potentially eyebrow-raising moments if you were looking at the franchise solely in of cold hard plausibility are notably some of its best moments. In The Fire Rises documentary, it's also worth noting Nolan describes wanting to replicate some of the feel of the blockbusters he'd seen before, and it's these sequences that manage it best, and entirely justify focusing on relatability versus realism.
The Dark Knight Trilogy Is Even More Fun To Watch After Hearing Christopher Nolan's Comments About Its Realism
Nolan's Perspective Adds Even More Nuance To An Already Sublime Series
The Dark Knight trilogy is intentionally and unavoidably a series about duality. This comes most obviously in the Caped Crusader's literal double life, but also on several other levels, including the duality between the movies' realism and their inherent fantastical nature and moments, which are inherently at odds with one another. However, it's this exact contrast that makes the series so engrossing and so intricate feeling, and the ways in which this juxtaposition was explored behind the scenes clearly pays off big time for the world built in the series itself.
Hearing how this duality was intentionally played into enhances the overall viewing experience of each of the films, as it's clearer than ever that Christopher Nolan's intentions were seemingly always aligned with the more complicated ideas of relatability and resonance over garden variety realism. With The Dark Knight trilogy still being one of my favorite movie series of all time, this also offers the perfect excuse to give it yet more viewings in order to appreciate exactly what Nolan's comments truly mean, as its biggest scenes feel all the more special with this perspective in mind.
The Dark Knight
- Created by
- Christopher Nolan, David S. Goyer
- First Film
- Batman Begins
- Latest Film
- The Dark Knight Rises
- Cast
- Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Heath Ledger, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Liam Neeson, Aaron Eckhart
- Movie(s)
- Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises
- Character(s)
- Batman, Alfred Pennyworth, Commissioner Gordon, Lucius Fox, Bane, The Joker, Catwoman, Two-Face
The Dark Knight franchise, also known as The Dark Knight Trilogy, is a critically acclaimed and commercially successful film series directed by Christopher Nolan. It is a darker and more realistic take on the Batman character, exploring themes of justice, chaos, and redemption. The trilogy revitalized the Batman film series and is often credited with raising the bar for superhero films, particularly through its exploration of complex moral dilemmas and the iconic portrayal of villains like the Joker.
