Apology of Batman, a positive hero – by Andrea Vovola

 

Another evening spent watching The Dark Knight Rises. While the last chapter of the saga shows the end credits, I rewind the tape on Batman Begins. An era ago, we watched the series inaugurated by Tim Burton in 1989 (Batman).  It started with the couple Micheal Keaton and Jack Nicholson, then Danny DeVito and Michelle Pfeiffer (Batman Returns, 1992), Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones and Nicole Kidman (Batman Forever, 1995, directed by Joel Schumacher) until the unwatchable episode played by George Clooney and Chris O’Donnell. It was Batman&Robin and the only bright spot was Uma Thurman‘s performance in Poison Ivy. The movie was made with an exceptional cast that gave us Alicia Silverstone in the Batgirl and Schwarznegger who lent himself to the figure of the antihero Mr Freeze, too weak to trigger among the audience even the slightest intolerance. But…it was 1997: Bill Clinton accepted the second term at the helm of U.S., Dolly the sheep shook the world of ethics, Tony Blair installed himself in Downing Street after 18 years of a Conservative government. Gianni Versace died in Miami under the bullets of Andrew Cunanan. A few weeks later and the world would start crying for Princess Diana, passed away in a tragic car crash. Mother Teresa of Calcutta died. In Italy, Umbria and Marche trembled: I was returning from a trip there, we had stopped in a small restaurant in Gualdo Tadino and still today I cannot remove from my mind the picture of this place in rubble. The failing Protocol of Kyoto was voted. Titanic came out and totaled more than 600 million of dollars…Clooney & co. did not do better than 107 millions. It was the end of the first Batman era, until Christopher Nolan donated us The Dark Knight.

The world is still thankful to the production team for having opted for Christian Bale avoiding the miserable temptation of giving the role to Ashton Kutcher (Ashton Kutcher??? Justin Bieber would have been better). Here is the new Batman, this time a real Dark Knight. A problematic character, anxious, always torn between the reason of state and the personal needs of a life always fought without a personal happiness.

Across the movies Christian Bale has grown up: from the arrogant blind bachelor of Batman Begins, in the early scenes a bit  Tom Cruise in All the Tight Moves (1983), to the Dark Knight.

–       Crowd: «Deshi basara! Deshi basara!»
–       Bruce: «What does it means?»
–       Prisoner: «Rise!»

 

And he has risen in three movies in an epic crescendo that teaches us many things. Everyone can be Batman, it is enough to be Bruce Wayne, not small detail. Batman Begins laid the foundations in 2006, then…the apotheosis with The Dark Knight with an unforgettable and unfortunately damned Heath Ledger, magically disguised as Joker:

«Come here. Hey! Look at me. So I had a wife. She was beautiful, like you. Who tells me I worry too much. Who tells me I ought to smile more. Who gambles and gets in deep with the sharks. One day, they carve her face. And we have no money for surgeries. She can’t take it. I just want to see her smile again. I just want her to know that I don’t care about the scars. So… I stick a razor in my mouth and do this… ..to myself. And you know what? She can’t stand the sight of me! She leaves. Now I see the funny side. Now I’m always smiling!»

A real Joker, this time…let’s forget Jack Nicholson, pure incarnation of absolute evil that feeds himself with the monster hidden in each one of us. Joker’s universe turns around the idea that everyone can be a potential criminal. He tempts  Gotham city, he lets Gotham taste his end for self-destruction, and, finally, he kills Batman’s human side. Bruce chooses to save Harvey: «Because you were the best of us! He wanted to prove that even someone as good as you could fall.»

Harvey falls in Joker’s plot, he who was supposed to be the good hero plunges in the abyss. Joker has created his fetish. Batman stays alone. He is not like Spiderman or Iron Man: he is a lonely hero, as his alter ego, the eccentric billionaire collector of apparent vanity.

– James Gordon jr.: «Batman? Batman! Why’s he running dad?»
– Lt. James Gordon: «Because we have to chase him. Because he’s the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we’ll hunt him. Because he can take it. Because he’s not our hero. He’s a silent guardian. A watchful protector. A Dark Knight.»

In that instant, fueled by the excellent soundtrack branded Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard – yes, Hans Zimmer, the composer that has made us jump on our couches yelling: «My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the TRUE emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next!»- at this point we would stand up, try a few moves of a martial art unknown in the world, some rash somersault and everyone, even for a second, believes to be Batman. It is hard to return into reality.

It would have been hard, after two movies, to keep the attention high: but… The dark knight rises marked the triumph of the trilogy with 632 million dollars and some coins, it entered the top ten of the highest-earning movies of all time. It was worth it waiting four years to see the rebirth of Bruce and the Bat. Now there is more on the plate: the apocalypse of Gotham through the recovery and reintegration of the League of Shadows. What Ra’s al Ghul had begun, Talia al Ghul tries to finish. Destroy Gotham that had been cleaned up through the Dent decree. Gotham is a city that, even when it tries to do justice for the common good, it fails, because  everything is based on the lie of an immaculate Harvey, seen like a champion in the fight against crime.

The movie is a real resurrection of Batman. After he looses Rachel, he is free of any human bias. He is a victim of the double game of a great Marion Cotillard, alias Miranda Tate, and of the bitter truth of the eternal Micheal Caine, or Alfred. Bruce throws himself into a suicidal despair which shows the weakness of the Knight, and of Bruce. It is the fragility of who has no fear, because he has already lost everything.

In the well-prison Bruce rises thanks to the doctor and to an inscrutable character: the blind prisoner source of immense truths, as only an Oriental can and knows how to be.

-Blind Prisoner: « You do not fear death. You think this makes you strong. It makes you weak ».
– Bruce: « Why? »
– Blind Prisoner: « How can you move faster than possible, fight longer than possible without the most powerful impulse of the spirit: the fear of death. »
– Bruce: « I do fear death. I fear dying in here, while my city burns, and there’s no one there to save it. »
– Blind Prisoner: « Then make the climb. »
– Bruce: « How? »
–  Blind prisoner: « As the child did. Without the rope. Then fear will find you again.»

The Dark Knight may be a renovated hero only through the fear. During all films Christ-Catholics quotes hide behind the mouth of good and bad. How not to notice the similarity between Bane’s speech at the stadium and the famous speech of the pope Giovanni XXIII?

– Bane:  «Return to your homes, hold your families close, and wait. Tomorrow you claim what is rightfully yours ».

Batman can, once again, save Gotham from the ashes, only if he encompasses the death’s fear; only if he begins to believe in life as a gift, not only for others, but also for himself. So, when he understands, the film touches the apogee. In Evil there is good, look at Bane’s transformation, from a masked and redubbed brute, to a male doll in the hands of Miranda. Look at Selina Kyle, finally the perfect incarnation of Catwoman after all previous failures from  Michelle Pfeiffer to Halle Berry’s role. Selyna  surrenders to Batman « There’s more to you than that ».

I could go on, but maybe my Batman’s apology would end up as a simple copy paste of the scripts. This article comes from the desire to share what Batman is for me. I could be accused of living in a comic book, in a fantasy world, but, perhaps, this is the key. There is too much reality in our lives, too many stories gone bad, too few heroics. Let’s save ourselves through evasion, for real life we will always find a room. That is why, and I step to another movie-book Life of Pi, if you ask me which of the two stories of Piscine Patel sounds to be truer, I do not hesitate to believe in the story of the tiger. Yes, Richard Parker, with that wonderful Anglo-Indian pronunciation, was the tiger and eventually left his Robinson Crusoe without any glance. There is too much brutality in our lives, let us, at least for an hour or two, be persuaded that Gotham might be saved thanks to Batman and that he does not die; that each of us can be the Dark Knight and that Piscine Patel has truly shared his raft with a fierce tiger.

Per un’apologia di Batman, un eroe positivo- di Andrea Vovola

Ennesima serata passata a riguardare The dark knight rises e mentre l’ultimo capitolo mostra i suoi titoli di coda, inizio la nottata riavvolgendo il nastro su Batman Begins. Sembra passata un’era dalla serie inaugurata da  Tim Burton nel 1989 (“Batman”). Era la coppia Micheal Keaton e Jack Nicholson, poi via via si sono avvicendati Danny DeVito e Michelle Pfeiffer (Batman Returns, 1992),  Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones e Nicole Kidman (Batman Forever, 1995, regia Joel Schumacher) fino alla più indecente delle puntate, quella interpretata da George Clooney e Chris O’Donnell: era Batman&Robin e l’unica nota positiva era l’interpretazione di Uma Thurman in Poison Ivy. Cast d’eccezione che ci regalava Alicia Silverstone nella Batgirl e lo Schwarznegger di Terminator si prestava alla figura dell’antieroe Mr Freeze mosso da una nobile causa. Cattivo troppo molle per destare anche la più minima insopportazione.

Ma era il 1997: Bill Clinton accettava il secondo mandato alla guida degli USA, la pecora Dolly scuoteva il mondo dell’etica,  Blair si insediava a Downing Street dopo 18 anni di governo conservatore, Gianni Versace moriva a Miami sotto i colpi del folle Andrew Cunanan, poche settimane dopo e il mondo avrebbe scoperto le lacrime per Lady Diana, spentasi in un tragico incidente automobilistico. Moriva Madre Teresa di Calcutta, in Italia l’Umbria e le Marche tremarono: rientravamo da un viaggio in quelle terre e l’idea che quella piadineria a Gualdo Tadino fosse ormai un insieme di calcinacci non mi ha mai abbandonato. Veniva votato il poi fallimentare protocollo di Kyoto. Al cinema usciva Titanic che totalizzava l’incasso record di più di 600 milioni di dollari…Clooney & co. non sorpassarono i 107 milioni.  Era la  fine della prima era Batman, finché Christopher Nolan no ci regalò “The Dark Knight”. 

Il mondo ancora ringrazia la produzione per aver optato per Christian Bale evitando di cadere nella miserrima tentazione Ashton Kutcher (Ashton Kutcher??? Sarebbe stato meglio Justin Bieber). Ecco il nuovo Batman questa volta vero e proprio Cavaliere Oscuro. Personaggio problematico: ansioso, sempre combattuto fra la ragion di stato e i bisogni personali di una vita combattuta senza mai lasciar spazio alla felicità personale.

Quel Christian Bale nel corso delle pellicole è cresciuto: dal giovanotto strafottente e cieco di Batman Begins, nelle prime scene un po’ Tom Cruise in All the

Right Moves – in italiano Il Ribelle- del 1983, è diventato il Cavaliere Oscuro.

 – Crowd: «Deshi basara! Deshi basara!»
–  Bruce: «What does it means?»
–  Prisoner: «Rise!»

E lui è risorto nel giro di tre film in un epico crescendo che ci insegna molte cose: ognuno può essere Batman, basta essere Bruce Wayne, dettaglio di non poco conto. Alle fondamenta gettate da Batman Begins del 2006 è succeduta l’apoteosi di The Dark Knight con un indimenticabile e purtroppo maledetto Heath Ledger magicamente travestito da Joker:

«Come here. Hey! Look at me. So I had a wife. She was beautiful, like you. Who tells me I worry too much. Who tells me I ought to smile more. Who gambles and gets in deep with the sharks. One day, they carve her face. And we have no money for surgeries. She can’t take it. I just want to see hersmile again. I just want her to know that I don’t care about the scars. So… I stick a razor in my mouth and do this… ..to myself. And you know what? She can’t stand the sight of me! She leaves. Now I see the funny side. Now I’m always smiling!»

Un Joker, questa volta…scordiamoci Jack Nicholson, pura incarnazione del male assoluto che si nutre del mostro presente in ognuno di noi per renderci tutti possibilmente colpevoli. Tenta Gotham city, le fa assaporare la fine per autodistruzione, infine uccide la parte umana di Batman. Nella  scelta Bruce corre a salvare Harvey:

«Because you were the best of us! He wanted to prove that even someone as good as you could fall.»

Harvey cade nella trama di Joker, lasciato solo dai galeotti di Gotham incapaci di commettere un altro omicidio, quello che doveva essere l’eroe buono precipita nel baratro. Joker ha creato il suo feticcio, ma Batman non è come Spiderman o Iron Man: Batman è un eroe solo, come lo è il suo alter ego, quel miliardario eccentrico collettore di apparente vanità.

– James Gordon jr.: «Batman? Batman! Why’s he running dad?»
– Lt. James Gordon: «Because we have to chase him. Because he’s the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we’ll hunt him. Because he can take it. Because he’s not our hero. He’s a silent guardian. A watchful protector. A Dark Knight.»

Ed in quel momento, fomentati dall’ottima colonna sonora targata Hans Zimmer e James Newton Howard – sì, Hans Zimmer, quello che ci aveva fatto saltare sui divani gridando «My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the TRUE emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next!»- ci si alza in piedi, si prova qualche mossa di un’arte marziale ignota al mondo, qualche capriola azzardata e si crede di essere Batman. Duro ritornare alla realtà.

Difficile che dopo due pellicole ci si continui ad emozionare di fronte a Batman: detto, fatto. The Dark Knight Rises segna il trionfo della trilogia: con 632 milioni di dollari e qualche spicciolo entra nella top ten dei film con maggiore incasso di sempre. Quattro anni di attesa, meritata…se l’effetto finale è quello della rinascita di Bruce e del pipistrello. Perché questa volta la posta in gioco è più alta: l’apocalisse di Gotham attraverso il recupero e il reintegro nella storia della Setta delle Ombre. Ciò che Ra’s al Ghul aveva cominciato, Talia al Ghul tenta di finire. Distruggere la Gotham ripulita dal decreto Dent, una Gotham che pure quando cerca di far giustizia per il bene comune, fallisce, perché tutto era basato sulla menzogna dell’immacolato Harvey, campione nella lotta al crimine.

Il film è una vera e propria resurrezione di Batman, ormai libero da ogni condizionamento terrestre, vittima del doppio gioco della grandissima Marion Cotillard, alias Miranda Tate, e della verità amara dell’intramontabile Micheal Caine, ovvero Alfred, si getta in una spirale autolesionistica che mostra la debolezza del Cavaliere, di Bruce: quella di non aver paura, perché in fondo si è già perso tutto.

Nel pozzo-prigione Bruce risorge grazie al medico e a quel personaggio imperscrutabile: il prigioniero cieco cassaforte di immense verità, come solo un orientale può e sa essere.

-Blind Prisoner: « You do not fear death. You think this makes you strong. It makes you weak ».
– Bruce: « Why? »
– Blind Prisoner: « How can you move faster than possible, fight longer than possible without the most powerful impulse of the spirit: the fear of death.»
– Bruce: « I do fear death. I fear dying in here, while my city burns, and there’s no one there to save it. »
– Blind Prisoner: « Then make the climb. »
– Bruce: « How? »
–  Blind prisoner: « As the child did. Without the rope. Then fear will find you again.»

Il Cavaliere oscuro può essere l’eroe ritrovato solo attraverso la paura: per tutto il film citazioni Cristo-cattoliche si nascondono dietro la bocca dei buoni e dei cattivi: come non notare la somiglianza fra il discorso di Bane allo stadio e quello famosissimo di Giovanni XXIII:  «Return to your homes, hold your families close, and wait. Tomorrow you claim what is rightfully yours ».

Batman può di nuovo salvare Gotham dalle ceneri solo se abbraccia la paura della morte, solo se riinizia a credere nella vita come dono, non solo per il prossimo, ma anche per sé stesso. Allora si tocca l’apogeo: nel male c’è del bene, si guardi a Bane, che da energumeno mascherato e ridoppiato, diventa bambolotto nelle mani di Miranda; si guardi a Selina Kyle, finalmente perfetta incarnazione di una catwoman priva di tutti gli elementi mal riusciti sia nel personaggio di Michelle Pfeiffer che in quello di Halle Berry, che cede a Batman: « There’s more to you than that ».

Potrei continuare all’infinito, e forse la mia apologia di Batman si risolverebbe in un copia ed incolla della sceneggiatura dei tre film. Un intervento che  nasce dalla voglia di condividere cosa Batman è per me. Mi si potrebbe accusare di vivere in un fumetto, nella fantasia, ma forse è proprio questa la chiave. C’è troppa realtà nella nostra vita, troppe storie andate a male, troppi pochi eroismi. Salviamoci con l’evasione, per la vita vera c’è sempre spazio. Ecco perché, e passo ad un altro film-libro Life of Pi, se mi si chiede quale delle due storie di Piscine Patel è vera, io non esito a credere nella storia della tigre. Sì, Richard Parker, in quella splendida pronuncia angloindiana,  era la tigre e alla fine lasciò il suo Robinson Crusoe senza nemmeno uno sguardo. C’è troppa brutalità nella nostra vita, lasciamoci, almeno per un’ora o due, persuadere che Gotham si salvi grazie a Batman e che lui non muoia, che ognuno di noi possa essere il Cavaliere oscuro e che Piscine Patel abbia veramente condiviso la sua zattera con una tigre feroce.