Having been a fan of Christopher Nolan's work for years, and a huge fan of his Batman re-imagining, I had been waiting for The Dark Knight Rises to come out for well over a year. I had been counting down months, days, hours. I knew I would see it several times and be enthralled as I analyzed it and marveled at Nolan's work of art.
I work in Aurora, Colorado, at the Anschutz Medical Campus, as a matter of fact. So on the sad morning of July 20, 2012, when I was inundated with calls and texts from people, I thought it was because they wanted to know what I thought of the movie (which I had rambled on about incessantly). To my horror, they were checking to see if I was alive. It was my own fortune that I was not in that midnight showing.
A week later I am still swimming in the tide of that event, with the news media and police all around my work, and with some of the victims still in the hospital just a few 100 hundred yards from where I sit. Christian Bale's visit to the victims here would normally make me jealous, as I am a big fan of his. But I do not envy the victims experience, and I hope that Mr. Bale's visit was something of a temporary balm for the victims. It seems every colleague or connection here is being sucked dry by the demands of the media, public and their own conflicting emotions. I can't escape it really, and my small ribbon of support is but one way I can try to help. We are now looking at retooling the ethics course for the campus, as this tragedy cannot help but be brought up in my students' discussions.
What makes me sad as well, (and I feel bad about this), is that this monstrous act has forever tainted my experience of the movie. That is but a small cross to bear considering what the victims of this are going through, but my experience of this movie is a huge part of my life. Nolan's movies have always affected me deeply, but the Batman movies resonated with me in particular because of their themes of justice, hope, and truth. The movies showcase peoples struggles in a real way, all the while being wildly entertaining. I expected this movie to cap the trilogy in a fantastic way and provide hours of discussion dissecting it's themes. I have seen The Dark Knight Rises three times. It is a great movie that has gotten richer with each viewing. But I am torn in my enjoyment of it. Something about loving and speaking to the movie's greatness seems wrong. Though I know it is not the case, it feels like I can't enjoy Nolan's work without somehow trivializing the horror of the movie theatre shooting.
I have tried to go back and watch Inception, and the Prestige, to better acquaint my experience with Nolan's movies in a positive light. But I keep coming back to DKR. It is probably too fresh, having happened so recently. The wound is likely to stay fresh and be reopened for much longer than folks who don't work or live in Aurora, who aren't as proximal, or who don't work where the shooter studied. Though I will probably see DKR many more times, my viewings in the near future will not just be to enjoy the movie, but to escape the reality that is currently Aurora, CO.
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