We’ve all had 2 months to sit around and digest what Christopher Nolan delivered with his bookending entry into his massively-acclaimed Batman saga; The Dark Knight Rises. We’ve all thought about the various political meanings and the symbolism behind the climactic scenes; we’ve debated whether Bruce Wayne is, in fact, dead, and we’ve brought up countless plot holes, but what about the villainy of the piece? Watching the film again recently, it becomes apparent that while, of course, Bane is the antagonist of the film, he is a far more misunderstood, tragic foe than any of the villains that have come before him. Perhaps this was the most surprising element of all in Nolan’s film; it has far greater emotional depth than the previous films, and this even transpires through to its villain.
Agree or disagree, here’s 7 reasons why Bane wasn’t really all that bad.
1. He Exposed the Truth
One of the few things that Bane can be applauded for – despite the way he went around it – was shattering Gordon and Batman’s illusion of peace and order. Though the Dent Act of course put many criminals in prison and moreover, denied them parole, it was built upon a lie, for of course, Batman did not commit the murders at the climax of The Dark Knight, and it was Dent/Two-Face who in fact did. This isn’t to say the Dent Act is inherently a bad idea, but when it’s built upon false pretences – not to mention an inherent hypocrisy, named after a violent criminal, even if spurred on by tragedy – it creates a false veil of justice that needs to be repealed. Bane, capitalising on this to another end, at least does what the authorities didn’t do, and tells them how it is, reading Gordon’s resignation letter aloud, which of course is broadcast all over the news.
It’s so salient that we even see John Blake tacitly agreeing with Bane, or in the very least, decrying Gordon’s deception.
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6 Comments
Nice article, fun to have this counter-perspective, but – with all due respect – Bane is actively planning to destroy Gotham and with it milions of people including the smallest of childs: in my opinion he’s even more inhumane than the Joker is in sofar that is he is willing to go to greater lengths of evil, calling himself (and thus his actions) necessary evil – a reckoning. The Joker was a mad dog, a terrible fiend, yes, but he was not the destructive tyrant Bane is. Joker wanted to have fun and if that meant killing people he’d do it – terrible enough you’d say. Well Bane actively, consciously sets out to kill milions of people! One could say the Joker is humane in giving everyone plenty of time to evacuate the hospital in TDK. But those small points don’t really count with the Joker, nor Bane because their actions didn’t seem bent on having that “humane” outcome.
The outcome the Joker wants is to terrorize a city. Bane wants to fully obliterate one. You tell me who’s the worst villain out of those two…
(Actually, Ra’s is the worst, as he wouldn’t even grant Gotham a quick death and wanted to torment every man, woman and child by traumatically destroying them through fear.)
Still, thanks for a nice read!
I actually spelled my name wrong, I’m an idiot. My apologies.
Actually in the comics Bane isn’t all that bad either. Yes he does terrorize Gotham in the beginning, but he eventually recovers from his venom addiction and returns to Gotham to fight crime alongside Batman. That is until the Infinite Crisis storyline after being saved by Batman from being shot by his own father King Snake. And then almost being killed by Batman again (this time by Bruce Wayne Batman with Superman-like powers). This is why I don’t read comics a lot. Its complicated and I only love the parts of Batman that doesn’t mesh with the expanded DC universe.
Obviously this seems to be written to incite a discussion because you left out the part where he 1) killed the people on the airplane, including one of his followers, 2) killed another one of his followers in the sewer as James Gordon was escaping. 3) Killed the ONLY person who could disarm the bomb, 4) knowing let other people go out and murder innocent people during his occupation in which he himself stated “blood will be shed” and 5) and mercilessly killed Daggett, who was helping him (although maybe that was a good thing…at least Bruce Wayne might secretly think so.
On another note… if you have the opportunity, could you list how many gadgets Batman used throughout the trilogy? SURPRISINGLY! I came up with almost 20 different ones…including the numerous vehicles and that gadget he used to locate the fingerprints on the bullet fired into the wall. Some are very subtle like when in the Dark Knight he used some thing attached to his hand to bend a gun barrel and attempted to slice through the side of a van.
Ok, I’m sick of all the people who still cling to this idea that Bruce Wayne is dead in TDKR. Pay attention to the end scene…Alfred sees Bruce Wayne in the cafe with the same scars that Bane had inflicted on him during their first fight. The only people who know about the scars are the people that saw him in the prison pit. There’s is absolutely no way and I repeat NO WAY that Alfred could know about those battle scars. That was not a dream sequence. Bruce Wayne is alive and well with Selina Kyle. Also read the official TDKR script which is out online….it says in it, that Bruce Wayne is alive and sitting in a cafe with Selina Kyle. BRUCE WAYNE IS ALIVE! Oh btw Christopher Nolan is a cinematic genius!!!
I happened to think also, that bane was actually a good guy, a misunderstood hero, who always thought he was doing good, but was seen from “our side” ie batmans side as the villain. It was clearly obiously shown atleast between the lines in movie that bane is really a good guy, more deep person than villains generally are. Luckily I googled this idea and found out that i’m not the only one who shares this conclusion. Tricked by love he ended up doing bad things. oh god those women, what they make us men do. we should praise bane as he was the true hero in the movie, he even saved batman while sacrifising himself. R.I.P Bane