Christopher Nolan worked hard for his creative autonomy. After making two critically and commercially successful Batman movies, he rolled the dice on a "big idea" action movie, "Inception." The result was $ 800 million for Warner Bros. and, more importantly, creative freedom for Nolan.
But now, Nolan is flexing his muscles. After fans returned from screenings of the six-minute prologue for "The Dark Knight Rises" claiming that they couldn't understand Bane, Warner Bros. began to panic. According to the Hollywood Reporter, one rep reportedly working on the film said he was "scared to death" about the "Bane problem."
As a result, the studio reportedly reached out to Nolan, hoping he would alter the film's sound mix, thus making Bane easier to understand. An exec told the Hollywood Reporter that Nolan does plan on changing the mix, but only slightly. The idea is to keep the audience involved and engaged by struggling to understand Bane.
"Chris wants the audience to catch up and participate rather than push everything at them. He doesn't dumb things down," THR quotes their source. "You've got to pedal faster to keep up."
Even as someone who mostly agreed with complaints about Bane's voice, I respect this immensely. Mainstream directors too often hand over every secret of a film to the audience in order to appeal to the lowest common denominator. When the industry is crippled by safe movie making, resistance to studio wishes is the only way to create big ambitious pictures.
Nolan earned his right to say "no," and if he insists on keeping Bane's voice as it is, we owe him our trust.
What do you think of Bane's voice? Let us know in the comments below and on Twitter!
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