Are Christopher Nolan's Batman films this Generation's Star Wars?

By Brian Long

In 1976 an idealistic young filmmaker released a small independent film called Star Wars and the world of cinema forever. Star Wars (with a little help from a shark named Jaws)essentially created the summer movie season. A season which seems to grow a little bit longer every year as blockbuster releases start finding their release dates fall in late March or even September. The story of Star Wars seems like an impossible Hollywood fairytale. The creation of a film series this popular seems was like catching lightning in some cliché catcher. Could there be another Star Wars? I agree that absolutely there could be. In fact, I think it already exists. And that film series is Christopher Nolan’s Batman films.

Now, many may disagree in my estimation of the cultural influence of these movies due to the fact that Batman is not a wholly original idea like the Star Wars trilogy. With Batman’s built-in audience, it seems almost impossible that these films could fail. I disagree. The silver screen life of the Caped Crusader was all but completely cut short with the release of the critical shat-upon Batman and Robin so there was no guarantee that the Batman Begins reboot (which was then a foreign term to the Hollywood landscape) would be a success. Also, one could make the argument that even Star Wars is not an original idea. Lucas’ script was heavily influenced by the idea of a monomyth. The monomyth is a pattern that was laid out by Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell explains that the monomyth is the structure that all mythology follows. It is a pattern that transcends religion and culture to create a uniform storytelling template. By following this pattern when writing the script to A New Hope, George Lucas crafted a familiar story that was presented a new fashion: a space opera. The success ofStar Wars was almost guaranteed because the monomyth was a way of telling stories that people were familiar with and had responded to for generations.

Lets take a look at how the first Nolan Batman film, Batman Begins, fits into themonomyth structure of “The Hero’s Journey.” This is also the same path Luke Skywalker goes on in A New Hope.

1. A Call to Adventure: Bruce Wayne’s call to adventure comes in the form of a bullet from Joe Chill’s gun. Bruce finds himself with the insatiable need to avenge his parent’s death, and he begins travelling the world to find the answer. The hero will typically receive “supernatural aid” during this part of his journey before crossing over into the unknown. The aid in this film comes in the form of Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson) who is in reality Ra’s Al Ghul, the leader of the League of Shadows. Wayne has now crossed over into the unknown.

2. Challenges and Temptations; Death and Rebirth: Once the hero has crossed into the unknown with his mentor he finds himself faced with challenges and temptations. Wayne takes on the rigorous training that will turn him into the Dark Knight himself and has temptation placed literally at his feet. When Wayne makes the choice to draw the line of never killing that the Batman cannot cross, he takes a stand against his mentor. This is an inversion of the typical Campbell method, but it gives Nolan and co. the chance to put a new spin on the expected. The students rebels against the master and returns home. This part of the journey is known as “revelation” and involves the hero’s rebirth. In Batman Begins, Alfred (played by Michael Caine, filling in the “helper” role of the monomyth nicely) declared Bruce Wayne presumably dead as an explanation for his absence, so the “rebirth” is fairly literally, at least in a legal sense.

3. “I’m Batman”: The hero now must make his transformation from a man to a “legend” as Ra’s al Ghul says earlier in the film. Bruce Wayne has become the Batman, but he now faces the final part of his journey: atonement. You could argue that Batman never finds true atonement; he will always carry the burden of his parent’s death every time he puts on the cape and cowl. However, he does find some solace in the reassuring words of Rachael Dawes (Katie Holmes, at least in this movie). There is a moment in the hero’s journey known as “the gift of the goddess” which is represented in Rachel returning the arrow head to Bruce that they found as kids, but also in her words that “it’s not who you are underneath, it’s what you do that defines you.” These words help Bruce to understand that if the Batman can make Gotham a better place, then Bruce can be forgiven for his parent’s death. The hero’s journey is complete, and Batman will fight another day.

The final element that makes Nolan’s Batman the new Star Wars is the way these films have transcended geek culture. There’s been an interesting argument on the internet lately (too many links to post, Google it) that just liking Star Wars doesn’t make you a “geek” in the traditional sense of the word. Everyone likes Star Wars. It’s a multi-billion dollar franchise which everyone has had some relationship with at some point in their lives across numerous generations. Hell, even the current Miss America- who’s originally from JERSEY BABY!-has admitted her love of Star Wars (although she did graduated with honors and says she’s obsessed with the “Stuart and Tudor era” so she might actually be a total nerd).

When I went to the midnight release of The Dark Knight it looked as if the entire county has showed up at the Brick AMC Theater. I had never seen so many people in one place for one film. Oh wait, yes I had, it was for the midnight release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. This was the moment where the Batman films hit a similar level of cultural saturation that Star Wars series has achieved. I would argue that “Why so Serious?” may become as iconic as “May the force be with you.” If one of the fraternities at my alma mater could take Commisoner Gordon’s speech from the last scene of The Dark Knight and put it on the back of their frat t-shirt for that year, then being a Batman fanatic can no longer be considered “geeky.”

Although Christopher Nolan’s true test will come when the final film in the trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, is released next year (what would Batman equivalent of Ewoks be?), it is undeniable that these films have left a huge impact on the superhero film genre and the pop culture landscape. Maybe now you could even say, it’s the new Star Wars.