Serious spoilers involved
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0 The Mystery of Bruce Wayne's Chivalrous Shadow
1 Childhood Manor
2 Fall into a deep well
3 one bullet
4 Gotham City
5 Bat Nest
6 Asceticism
7 Stumble
8 Xia Ying to be continued
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0 The Mystery of Bruce Wayne's Chivalrous Shadow
What does being Batman mean to Bruce Wayne? I tried to give my own understanding based on the plot of "Batman Begins".
1 Childhood Manor
Bruce Wayne was from a wealthy family, and he played with his childhood sweetheart in his large estate since he was a child. If Bruce is just a rich and young man, then this Wayne Manor may be just a rich manor on the outskirts of Gotham City; but he was also a child at the same time, so this manor may also be a childhood manor outside the world.
2 Fall into a deep well
During a play at the beginning of the story, the young Bruce accidentally fell into his own deep well-due to the theme of "falling", the image of "well" appeared repeatedly in the story of Christopher Nolan's "Batman Trilogy" , So I think, this is no longer ordinary, but may be a metaphorical high-level generalization of Bruce's life dilemma. Although the audiovisual language has already expressed it, the protagonists in Nolan’s films seem to not use words to talk about their feelings, so we might as well borrow the similar experience described by the protagonist in "The Desire of Life" directed by Akira Kurosawa. Let’s use the angle as a reference, and experience it again—“I was drowned when I was a child...it was dark before my eyes, and I couldn’t catch anything no matter how struggling...
3 one bullet
The scene in which Bruce hid the pistol and prepared to find his enemies to avenge after the trial is full of "dramatic". A protagonist who has suffered a huge childhood trauma is about to raise a gun and fire, and another bullet is about to come out of the chamber. I have guessed before that this kind of behavior throughout Christopher Nolan’s early works is a potentially positive and aggressive expression; in "The Mystery of Xia Ying", this kind of speculation still seems to make sense, but because of the feeling This film deserves another discussion, so I didn't include it in the previous article.
4 Gotham City
Bruce in "The Mystery of the Shadow" picked up his anger and was ready to pour it out; however, unexpectedly, Bruce had lost this close opportunity forever; later, the childhood sweetheart Rachel carried it. Bruce passed through the poor people in the streets and sent him outside the shop of the Gotham City boss. Bruce, who stepped out of his childhood manor, witnessed the operation of the outside world for the first time; both Rachel and Faconi depended on it. He criticized Bruce mercilessly based on his own life experience and social insights; Bruce has experienced a series of cruel shocks, and these pointers are beating to teach him that you are still too young and simple, too naive and ignorant, and your tragedy is nothing more than that. , Your experience is nothing special. Bruce probably realized for the first time that his personal experience actually has a profound social background.
5 Bat Nest
Bruce eagerly wanted to learn more about these backgrounds, so he in the story almost immediately began to wander asceticism; however, he was actually reminded of another way of thinking, that is, exploring inward (now you must journey inwards); and Bruce, who has traveled all over the world and stepped through iron shoes, finally found the bat nest in his own estate. I found the image of fear in my heart, and "turned enemies into friends" through facing, recognizing, and understanding. Therefore, "Batman" was born in the future.
6 Asceticism
Although Bruce threw the pistol into the water, I suspect that the "aggressiveness" that failed to escape is unlikely to disappear out of thin air. Even if "water" is not regarded as a symbol of "subconsciousness" here, the behavior of "the protagonist abandons the pistol" may still have the meaning of "self-exclusion and repression of aggression", so it can be said that the "aggressiveness" is still submerged. "Subconscious." According to experience, this "aggressiveness" will definitely resurface in other ways, so what is it? I guess its important manifestation is actually the "ascetic" that Bruce began immediately after, and this "ascetic" actually means that his "aggressiveness" still points to himself.
Why is this aggressiveness always directed at Nolan's protagonist himself? Putting it in "The Mystery of Chivalrous Shadow", we can see that whether Bruce lost his parents in a violent incident when he was a child, or was repeatedly taught that he was too young, these external aggressions have always been directed at Bruce. ; Just as his personal tragedies and family tragedies have their social backgrounds, his "internal aggression" is always directed at himself, I am afraid it is also because those ruthless and even destructive "external aggressions" are always directed at him—— He "internalized" the feelings that this hurting world brought to him, so this became his worldview; "asceticism" means that he still carries this legacy, and the hurting world is still in the shadows and stays with him. This "internalized" "following the shadow" is reflected in the structure of the two-line narrative at the beginning of the story: one line is the past experience of Bruce in dreams and memories, and the other line is his current asceticism, and the two interact with each other. Interweave.
7 Stumble
"Why do we fall, Bruce? (And why do we fall, bruce?) Because then we can learn to pick ourselves up. (So we can learn to pick ourselves up.)"
Judging from the few fragments in the film, Bruce's father can accommodate emotions and give meaning to experiences, so he is not only rich in life’s wisdom, but also a source of warmth. Unfortunately, the death of both parents made Bruce lose this important support, so he learned that the process of standing up on his own was not easy at all, but on the contrary-we see that even if Bruce has become Batman, he still Always fall repeatedly and suffer from scars.
The distressing scene happened when Batman was immediately defeated when he faced the villain "Scarecrow" for the first time. Fortunately, he escaped the fire, but was still poisoned. Batman persisted with only his spare energy until he could open the communication to call the old housekeeper for help; he was lying on the roof weakly and helplessly, with Gotham rain slapped on his face; Although the shirt is added, what he carries and flashes back is still Bruce Wayne's past...
"...Alfred, help me... (Alfred, help me...)"
The fragments of memories in the coma finally came to the imagery scene of falling to the bottom of the well again-the father descended down the rope, and he took his son's little hand and asked softly, "Bruce, why did we fall?"
8 Xia Ying to be continued
What does being Batman mean to Bruce Wayne? Maybe Bruce's miserable life needs a superhero to appear to save him, but the hero hasn't appeared for a long time, so he became that hero himself-as long as Batman exists, Bruce is no longer afraid.
This sounds very inspirational, but because of this, I now suspect that this "short-term emergency solution" also determines the "long-term issues" that Bruce needs to solve; the contradictions in the trilogy have gradually intensified, how to solve them It became the core of the last film.
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