I bawled my eyes out when I saw
The Dark Knight Rises this summer.
Not a few tears or a sniffle, but full-on, open sobbing.
To this day, I don't really know what hit me so hard.
Yes, the final installment of Christopher Nolan's
Dark Knight Trilogy was grim beyond grim.
The film ends with an hourlong gut punch filled with apocalyptic bombast. Armies of men 1,000 strong rumbled in the streets amid pounding music.
And my favorite hero roared off into nuclear oblivion to complete a cycle of triumph, fall, loss and redemption.
But that can't really explain why I lost it like I did.
This isn't the only film I've ever seen in which people sacrifice everything to protect what they hold dear. This isn't the only film I've seen in which characters are devastated in emotionally complex ways.
Perhaps it was the day I saw it.
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