You remember when Selina was in the airport and she was trying to get away unnoticed but she was wearing the most NOTICEABLE OUTFIT EVER
SELINA I THOUGHT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO KNOW HOW TO BE STEALTHY
AND BLEND IN
THAT’S LIKE YOUR THING ISN’T IT
GOD SELINA
What’s more important, stealth or STYLE?
Article! Read this thing!
I just find it weird how TDKR is deconstructing the entire idea of Batman going out in a blaze of glory because the only way his war on crime can end is with his death, and yet instead of praising this reversal of expectations and broadening view of the character, a lot of fans are attacking it. And this after people attacked The Dark Knight for having a small (but significant) character arc for Bruce.
What exactly would Bruce’s arc be if the movie were to end in his death? That he has to be willing to sacrifice his life for the greater good? Doesn’t Bruce already know that? Does anyone believe he wouldn’t have given his life to stop Ra’s al Ghul in the first movie? That if it weren’t for two and a half hours of character-building in TDKR, he’d run like a craven coward instead of dying?
“Batman, the only way to save the city is for you to defuse the nuke. You’ll be exposed to lethal radiation, but millions of lives will be saved.” “Fuck that, I’m outta here!”
| — | My sister’s response to Bruce Wayne’s companionship at the end of TDKR, if she were Catwoman. |
ITA with this except for one thing (which is not even a contradiction, just a note):
I think that Bruce Wayne does intend to give the pearls to Selina Kyle at the end, whether he is alive or not. He bequeaths the pearls to her in his will. So for sure, he intends to “gift” her with the necklace, he wants her to have the pearls.
BUT it’s implied that Selina actually steals the pearls before she can properly “inherit” them from the executors of the will.
So the pearls become a symbol of something else entirely from death and loss and mourning. They become, not only a symbol of Bruce Wayne’s willingness to let go of the past, and to allow the pearls to become again a representative of love and affection, and also a symbol of his feeling of connectedness to Selina. They also become a symbol of Selina’s way of taking whatever she wants from Bruce — whether he is expecting it or allowing it or wants it or not!
I just think it’s clever that even though he’s willing to give her the pearls, which mean so much to him and which he is allowing to take on a new meaning by allowing her to have them, she won’t allow him (dead or alive) to just hand them to her. She’s going to take them on her own terms, through her own means and methods.
Just like she doesn’t just win his heart, she steals it.
So as every Batfan knows, pearls are the symbol of the murder of Bruce Wayne’s parents. They’re a repeated image in two Batman classics, The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One, where Martha Wayne’s shooting results in her pearl necklace breaking and scattering across the ground. They show up in Batman Begins, given an especial emphasis by having Bruce remembering his father actually giving them to Martha.
So far, so good, right? Then we come to The Dark Knight Rises and Nolan actually does something new with the most famous iconography in comics. Selina Kyle, breaking into Wayne Manor and incidentally kickstarting Bruce Wayne back towards the suit, swipes the pearls while she’s getting his fingerprints. Bruce confronts her about it and says he can’t let her take them. As you might expect, he doesn’t really mind that someone’s stealing from him—it’s more that they’re his mothers’ pearls. But still, he’s not outraged either. He’s frosty. Cordial. The pearls don’t mean anything to him, not anymore, they’re something he’s irrationally holding onto. Deadweight.
The rest of the movie, we have characters telling Bruce about his deathwish, how he doesn’t have to keep being Batman, how he can have a happy life, but it isn’t until the finale that he truly accepts this. And the pearls are a perfect visual metaphor of that. While faking his death, Bruce takes the time to grab them—not for himself, but as a gift for Selina.
I’ve noticed some people asking what the point was of Catwoman in TDKR, since most of what her character did could’ve been accomplished by other characters in an admittedly overfull movie. But even though she was an engaging, entertaining character in her own right, her real importance to the story is in symbolism. If Bruce just faked his death and ran off to Italy, we’d have no way of knowing he wouldn’t become a hermit again or even be drawn into becoming Batman once more.
By showing him with Selina, we can see he’s taken the film’s lesson to heart. It’s not just that he lets go of the pearls, it’s that he gives them to Selina. He’s moving on. He’s releasing both the stigma of his parents’ murder and the fantasy of a romance with Rachel, something that never would’ve worked, something that was proven to be impossible; and proven again with Miranda Tate, a seemingly-similar character to Rachel, idealistic and comforting, but now twisted into a deathly apparition.
Selina is someone who can understand what he’s been through, because she’s been there herself. The idea of a lover as saintly redeemer is gone. Selina is Bruce’s partner and equal, as reiterated throughout the movie in both action and dialogue. And in the end, the pearls that were originally intended by Thomas Wayne as a gift for his wife come full circle. They’re not a symbol of death anymore. They’re not deadweight anymore. In giving them to Selina, Bruce once more gives them meaning. They are, again, a token of affection.
So as every Batfan knows, pearls are the symbol of the murder of Bruce Wayne’s parents. They’re a repeated image in two Batman classics, The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One, where Martha Wayne’s shooting results in her pearl necklace breaking and scattering across the ground. They show up in Batman Begins, given an especial emphasis by having Bruce remembering his father actually giving them to Martha.
So far, so good, right? Then we come to The Dark Knight Rises and Nolan actually does something new with the most famous iconography in comics. Selina Kyle, breaking into Wayne Manor and incidentally kickstarting Bruce Wayne back towards the suit, swipes the pearls while she’s getting his fingerprints. Bruce confronts her about it and says he can’t let her take them. As you might expect, he doesn’t really mind that someone’s stealing from him—it’s more that they’re his mothers’ pearls. But still, he’s not outraged either. He’s frosty. Cordial. The pearls don’t mean anything to him, not anymore, they’re something he’s irrationally holding onto. Deadweight.
The rest of the movie, we have characters telling Bruce about his deathwish, how he doesn’t have to keep being Batman, how he can have a happy life, but it isn’t until the finale that he truly accepts this. And the pearls are a perfect visual metaphor of that. While faking his death, Bruce takes the time to grab them—not for himself, but as a gift for Selina.
I’ve noticed some people asking what the point was of Catwoman in TDKR, since most of what her character did could’ve been accomplished by other characters in an admittedly overfull movie. But even though she was an engaging, entertaining character in her own right, her real importance to the story is in symbolism. If Bruce just faked his death and ran off to Italy, we’d have no way of knowing he wouldn’t become a hermit again or even be drawn into becoming Batman once more.
By showing him with Selina, we can see he’s taken the film’s lesson to heart. It’s not just that he lets go of the pearls, it’s that he gives them to Selina. He’s moving on. He’s releasing both the stigma of his parents’ murder and the fantasy of a romance with Rachel, something that never would’ve worked, something that was proven to be impossible; and proven again with Miranda Tate, a seemingly-similar character to Rachel, idealistic and comforting, but now twisted into a deathly apparition.
Selina is someone who can understand what he’s been through, because she’s been there herself. The idea of a lover as saintly redeemer is gone. Selina is Bruce’s partner and equal, as reiterated throughout the movie in both action and dialogue. And in the end, the pearls that were originally intended by Thomas Wayne as a gift for his wife come full circle. They’re not a symbol of death anymore. They’re not deadweight anymore. In giving them to Selina, Bruce once more gives them meaning. They are, again, a token of affection.
Can I just say that while I know Christopher Nolan and feminism have had their differences over the years*, I find it a little admirable how, despite the many internet speculations over The New Adventures of Batman, him and the Dark Knight team’s only musing is on a solo Catwoman movie. With that in mind, and knowing that DC can’t make a new Batman movie until they have their JLA ducks in order if they ever want their own adventures… why not? Call it The Dark Knight: Catwoman Begins or Gotham City: Catwoman or Christopher Nolan Presents The Catwoman (or “Catwoman: Not starring Halle Berry and with no Sharon Stone and having nothing to do with mystical Egyptian cat gods” if you want to be really clear). Keep Nolan on as producer and find a director who can handle the more sassy-stylish-seductive-fun aspects of Catwoman (John “Leverage” Rogers springs to mind, though by all means, suggest a female director).
Set it between The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, in which canon explicitly has Batman out fishing. And though I know the temptation is there, no prequelitis. I don’t want any “and here’s how Catwoman and Bane first met!” or “John Daggett was Catwoman’s father all along. We never said HE WASN’T, did we?” Just have Selina and Holly and maybe, if the plot demands it, characters like Commissioner Gordon or Lucius Fox who have lives far outside Batman.
Then you just make it a combo origin story/heist film, both things that Nolan’s really good at. Selina is a dominatrix** who is inspired by Batman to YOLO, becomes a badass thief, then gets recruited into a crew of thieves by the Riddler, that one Batman villain that everyone wants to see Nolanized. But please, no “he’s like the Zodiac killer with riddles!” bull. The Joker already gave “supervillain serial killer” all the work it needs. Have him be the mastermind of the robbery. We see him, Selina, and some other Leverage types (if you wish, you could throw in some minor Bat-villains like Magpie, Harley Quinn, or Scarecrow into the crew, but that kind of fanservice is by no means necessary) (Firefly the demolitions expert!) planning the robbery. We cross-cut between the legwork and Selina putting together her Catwoman costume/skills.
They pull off the heist, the Riddler double-crosses them, and the rest of the movie is Selina out for revenge. Have her track the Riddler to Rome. Have Black Mask be the big boss (there you go, Leo, now everyone in Inception is also in Batman). There’s years of Catwoman stories to cherry-pick from. The one caveat is no city-destroying plot, since that would of necessity bring Batman out of retirement (and be a little OTT for a superhero heist film anyway. Something like stealing US military secrets to give to a foreign power would be perfectly high stakes, and give Nolan something political to chew on).
Oh, and the Riddler. Just hire Michael Emerson. Have him at first play the Riddler as the wimpy little geek a lot of the fandom takes him for, then when he betrays Selina he gets an uber-cool, every-detail-accounted-for exit like something out of a Mission: Impossible movie. From then on, he’s a criminal mastermind with a snappy green suit and an epic-level superiority complex. Tell me Nolan couldn’t find something to do with “he sees his marks as an audience and he taunts them with riddles he knows they’re too dumb to figure out.” You could even work some feminism in there, with him thinking of Selina as nothing but a dumb pickpocket (albeit not because she’s a woman, but because she’s not him) and her proving him wrong.
The thing writes itself. We know from TDKR that Selina has a “dark past” that’s so bad, she’ll do anything to get clear of it. Let’s find out what’s so fucked up about her. And there’s also the “where does she get those wonderful toys?” aspect, especially since Selina has never had Bruce Wayne’s resources.
*(although I don’t get Inception-hate. That’s not a case of fridging a woman for cheap shock value, it’s a movie where the entire plot hinges on Leonardo DiCaprio’s wife being dead from frame one. It’s like complaining about Gerald Butler being dead in P.S. I Love You)
**I know the sex worker origin is controversial, but I think the other side of the argument is valid: “Why can’t a woman have been a sex worker and become a superhero?” Although yes, I do see the squicky aspects of every heroine having dubiously consensual sex in her backstory, and with Frank Miller especially, though I don’t know if people are reacting to Selina’s portrayal in Year One specifically or Miller’s larger work. If, say, Scott Snyder wrote those scenes (I don’t recall them as being that sexualized or exploitative, especially when compared to Judd Winick’s stuff), would there be so much controversy?
Anyway, I feel like the Nolanverse is grim and adult enough to support the heavy nature of such an origin story, while Catwoman’s inevitable appearance in the reboot can be more kid-friendly. If any filmmaker can resist the “she has sex for cash DUR HURR HURR” aspects of that origin and instead make it into something thematic and deep and meaningful, it’d be Nolan and his merry band.
