I like to tell the story of "choice". I always believe that many things in human life are predestined, but we can at least choose what kind of person we become. After twelve years of wandering, Bruce chose to return to the city that gave him everything and lost everything. Back then, he made an oath at the grave of his parents, and now he has the ability and conditions to keep his promise.
As for Gordon, I think he just wanted to choose to be a good man, a good policeman, a good husband, and a good father. But such a normal choice, in a place like Gotham City, left him struggling. But he never questioned his choice, although there were times when he really felt hopeless.
This is how it all started. They don't know what's waiting ahead, just like the young man in Batman Begins who just returned, smug and eager to hit his first punch. Just like the young man in Dark Knight who was confused but still determined that he could retire and let Gotham's white knight take over. In this way, although the plot is very different, Nolan's bat is actually the same as Year One's bat.
They had setbacks at that time. Attacked by gangsters, surrounded by police, plagiarized by inexplicable girls (yes, I said Catwoman), and regarded as boring talk by the masses. But every little success brings hope to them. Saving a person, overthrowing a corrupt policeman, or taking down a gangster can make them feel that it is their own efforts that are slowly making the city they love better. Or at least, for the path they chose, it seemed to go on forever, and soon it would be a clear road.
But life never seems to be like this. Kangzhuang Avenue is always a mirage. What life really looks like is one cup after another. His dead girlfriend, dead base friend, dead comrade-in-arms, the white knight became mentally ill, the one who smiled was not an angel but a clown. The criminals in Gotham City are all mentally ill, there is no normal person, and it is impossible to even kill one to give some psychological comfort. The door of the mental hospital is often opened, and everyone goes out for a walk and kills a few more people.
Later, he died of his son (although not his own), broke his spine, suffered a major earthquake, and went to prison. His life was as lonely as snow. His son still played tricks on corpses. Falling out of the black hole, soaking in the pool, playing time travel... (I hope I got the order right, there are actually many things in between, there is no hardest, only more hardships)
So, I like Year One. At that time, he had just made a choice, and he was overjoyed. He encounters difficulties and setbacks from time to time, and although he is occasionally frustrated, he still feels that he is in control of everything. At that time, he didn't know what he would experience in the future, nor did he know that there was no lower limit to life. He is like a department manager who has just moved to a new unit. The boss blows his salary to N high during the interview, patted him on the shoulder and said that the future of the company is all up to you! Strive for three years to be promoted to director! He was elated, despite all the troubles in his new job, he could still hold on! So let's just freeze the shot here, this is the Year One. Don't look at his face when he receives the year-end award at the end of the year, when Year One has passed.
The experience that life has taught me is that I'm never afraid to speculate with the worst malice...whatever. In Nolan's The Dark Knight, my favorite scenes and lines are not the clown, not the white knight, not the car chase after the explosion, not the Lamborghini, nor the last Uncle Fox looking at the big screen with all kinds of explosions and turning around gorgeously, I am the most Lovingly, when Bruce asked Alfred "what should I do", Alfred looked at him silently and said "Endure it". Faulkner said that life is a process of Endure. When you learn Endure, not fight, you will change from a child who knows nothing to a wise old man like Alfred.
But I think, someone like Bruce will never learn Endure, he is a fighter by nature. Whether it's immortality in the fire, or like Miller's DKR, or in the final episode of JLU Season 4, his teeth are about to fall out, and he shivering to pick up pills, he always chooses to be a strong man, he refuses Accept all the suffering and injustice that fate has imposed on him and never give up to fight to the end. Perhaps this is the greatest thing about him being an ordinary person who has always stood proudly above all kinds of super bodysuit heroes - he told us who are also ordinary people: never give up, find out from the dark Hope and fight for it, no matter how slim that hope may be.
That's why I love him so much.
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