In the weeks after the release of The Dark Knight Rises, which was dominating the American box office 10 years ago this month, director Christopher Nolan steadfastly denied that he'd embedded a political perspective in the final film of his massively successful Batman trilogy.
"What we're really trying to do is show the cracks of society, show the conflicts that somebody would try to wedge open," he told Rolling Stone in a response to a question about whether the film's villain, Bane, leading an uprising against Gotham City's 1 percent was explicitly mirroring (and criticizing) the then-relevant Occupy Wall Street movement. "We're going to get wildly different interpretations of what the film is supporting and not supporting, but it's not doing any of those things. It's just telling a story."
