Christopher Nolan thinks Tom Hardy's "Brando-esque" Bane brow has yet to be "fully appreciated"
Aux Features Film
Say what you will about Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises as a whole, but Tom Hardy’s Bane is one of the most enjoyable supervillains put to screen. A combination of legitimate menace and high camp, Hardy plays the character with the kind of violent unpredictability and hammy glee that makes comic book movies fun in the first place.
Nolan, too, thinks Hardy ought to get a bit more credit for the performance, saying on the most recent episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast that people haven’t yet “fully appreciated” Rises’ version of Bane.
Aside from the fact that Hardy drew one of the best “funny character voices” yet from his seemingly infinite well of them for the character, Nolan says he was particularly impressed by some of the subtler choices the actor made in the role. Nolan describes how he and Hardy “had all these discussions about [Bane’s] mask and what it would reveal and what it wouldn’t reveal,” with Hardy asking if he could leave his eyebrows and temples exposed for what he had in mind.
“Sure enough, you see there in the film this kind of Brando-esque brow, expressing all kinds of just monstrous things,” Nolan says. “It’s really quite a performance.”
Nolan praises Hardy’s “voice, the relationship between just seeing the eyes and the brow” and says he thinks what the actor “did with the character has yet to be fully appreciated.” Thinking of just how much joy we’ve received over years of mumbling theatrically about shadow betrayals and spirit-breaking, we’d argue that we’ve definitely had a lot of appreciation out of the character—maybe just not in the studious sense that Nolan means here.
Listen to the rest of the episode for more from Nolan, including some commentary on Bond movies, Tenet’s home release, and his opinion of Alien 3.
[via IndieWire]
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129 Comments
I get that unintelligible mumbling is “Brando-esque”, but that doesn’t make it good.
Maybe clean the shit out of your ears and listen.
He wasn’t intimidating to me with that funny voice and that jockstrap looking thing he wears over his mouth. I couldn’t stop laughing when he would have dialog scenes with the equally stupid sounding Batman.
Nolan deserves credit for making a dark DC universe watchable and cerebral, instead of looking like a cartoon (the Avengers) or like a neckbeard’s vinyl figure fantasy (most DC movies).
Hardy’s Bane was better than Jeep Swenson’s, so there’s that.
Might have something to do with it not being a very good movie
I think Nolan is right about what he says about Hardy. Having recently rewatched TDKR, there’s a lot there.But, it is let down by the just terrible ADR job making it completely unnatural and Hardy deciding that Topol as Tevye from “Fiddler On The Roof” was a good choice for voice inspiration for Bane.
I like how the Bane voice is so garbled that it’s kind of a Rorschach accent. You hear Tevye, I hear German mad scientist, a lot of people hear Sean Connery, etc.
Yeah, Sean Connery is what I hear.
Make Sean Connery sound like he’s trapped down a well, bam. Bane voice.
I haven’t watched it recently, but you’ve reminded me of one of the most distracting things about TDKR: Bane’s voice never sounds like it’s coming from Bane. It doesn’t have the sense of place or direction that any other character’s voice has on screen. Having that be so distracting is sort of a major accomplishment in this movie considering the plot holes, the multitude of bizarre story choices that weren’t actual plot holes, the pleasant surprise of Hathaway’s Catwoman performance, the laughter I had to stifle every time I heard Bale’s Batman speak and the laughter I had to stifle every time I heard Hardy’s Bane speak.
The ADR gets extra noticeable when Bane’s talking to someone else, because the other person’s voice matches the audio of the room. But Bane is always super clean and clear, like he’s talking right next to your ear.
Wow, another traveler from Dec. 2020. Have you seen Tenet yet? Anothjer Nolan movie with garbelled dialogue. He sure likes to put his actors in masks that obscure the dialogue.
I agree that Hardy’s performance and voice were very very entertaining, and are one solitary great thing in a truly thoroughly embarrassingly bad movie. But I don’t think that “the people” didn’t appreciate it, did they ? Who are they already ?
My S.O. doesn’t appreciate it, as now every Tom Hardy Movie gets a bane voice over for his characters dialog.
Yeah, I guess Fury Road just isn’t the same anymore.
The main legacy of Hardy’s Bane is that it directly inspired/is lampooned by James Adomian’s Bane on Harley Quinn, which might be the character’s best portrayal so far.
Just about to say something like this. Bane on Harley Quinn is great.
Absolutely.
And that Tom Hardy afterwards decided to use that exact same voice for at least 3 other performances.
Thank you! I just finished binging Peaky Blinders, and I rewound (well not rewound exactly…cuz technology) a scene because there was no way I just heard Alfie Solomons morph into Bane…but I did.
“I’m going to blow up this Bar Mitzvah!”
Was Bane’s dialog captured in-scene or was it ADR?
At the time there were rumors that it was switched to ADR after the IMAX teaser (the plane heist) and there were lots of complaints of him being unintelligible. In the film his voice sounds loud AF and out of place. This is a complete 180 from what is going on in Tenet. I guess there is no in-between for Nolan when it comes to dialogue.
I wonder if this somehow implies Nolan is not too interested in listening to anyone ever.
that rumor is true. although he was a lot harder to understand originally, he also sounded pretty normal, so the full on ham came w the adr. bane’s voice is basically the comic sans of movies.
Dang next time I watch that I’ll try to pay attention to his brow instead of how weird it is that the movie requires every cop in Gotham to get tricked into being locked in the sewers for several months, then at a certain point they all emerge well fed and clean shaven.
SO much of that movie can be summed up with “BW-HA-HA-haaaaaaaat!?”
Like when they fix his broken back by kicking it?
Or when Batman detonates a neutron bomb off the coast of Gotham Bay?
This is a minor one compared to the other listed. But the reveal that he survived that always bothered me. Not because he should have died but because when Alfred see’s him it’s an exact recreation of Alfred’s earlier fantasy, only with Selina there.
Bane literally says in his speech that he is sending them supplies (and we see the supplies being given to the cops underground) so that the cops will be alive to watch what happens.
Did he mention sending them dry-cleaning?
This doesn’t really change how dumb it is. I mean, it more like adds a different flavor of dumb, creating a symphony of well-harmonized dumb.
Not saying it isn’t an odd choice.Just pointing out it’s an explained odd choice.
This contrived plot point is infinitely less weird than a billionare dressing up like Dracula to “fight crime”
…what do you think Dracula looks like? Or maybe you’re thinking of Tuxedo Mask?
Tuxedo Mask is in the car business these days.
We’re worried about the cleanliness of cops in a movie where Batman is restored from a broken back (and a general state of physical disability, that previously required a fancy robo-leg brace) by the work of an unlicensed prison chiropractor?
Not only that, but he was in China and found his way back to Gotham City somehow despite being in a foreign country with no resources whatsoever and all of his allies otherwise occupied.
Yeah, the idea behind that prison wasn’t just that it was a hole, but that it was a hole in the middle of a desert, like the old Soviet gulags. But then again, I kind of like the idea that if you’re Batman, you can make your way home from lost in a desert with no resources, no problem. Just give him a toothbrush and a towel and he’ll be fine.But don’t get me started on the timeline of things, with all these trips to Asia built in. Problem is, if your movie is well-paced and more fun, these are things I’m perfectly happy to handwave away. Slow it down to the point that I have time to think about every detail, and the waving hand doesn’t work so good anymore.
That’s the thing. The stuff in Gotham felt like it could have happened in a week, but Bruce’s timeline felt like it took 6 months.
first movie shows you how he got to china under the same circumstances, without having already been Batman for a decade, not sure if retreading that ground would serve a film that is already pushing 3 hours
That part doesn’t bother me. A guy like Bruce Wayne definitely had stashes of money & supplies around the globe for situations just like that (if he had gotten stranded in Hong Kong in The Dark Knight he definitely had a contingency in place).
Good point.
Look, there are plenty of ridiculous TDKR contrivances to go around, okay?
And how a city Gotham’s size only has 5000 officers.
I’m more impressed with Bane’s plan to bankrupt Bruce Wayne by invading the stock exchange in broad daylight and, from there, proceeding to place thousands of very obviously fraudulent trades without the exchange itself immediately closing and/or subsequently canceling all of said trades within a day.
Wasn’t there a Clancy novel where the bad guys pulled this idea off, and the Stock exchange essentially said “We’re going back to the day before.”Stupid idea with an easy solution.
Tom Hardy’s Bane voice is the only stupid, ridiculous fun thing about a movie that is otherwise stupid, ridiculous and not at all fun.
My favorite plot-(point? Hole?) in TDKR is Bane’s plan to win Gotham’s proletariats to his side by blowing up their football team. ‘Join me! They lied to you about Harvey Dent!’‘Who’s Harvey Dent? Is he part of the deep state? AND AREN’T YOU THE GUY WHO BLEW UP THE STEELERS??’
TDKR’s Bane was a “The Monkey’s Paw” version of someone’s extremely horny wish to see Tom Hardy with a jockstrap on his face.
4U
I love hearing about film minutiae. But for some reason, hearing Christopher Nolan’s thoughts on anything makes me angry.
Like blow up a stadium angry?
Different dude.
Bane and Batman facing off with their silly voices is the highlight of the film though! I definitely appreciate it!
Hardy was the perfect casting choice for Bane.But I maintain that Batman should have been played by Matt Berry.
Matt Berry would be perfect for the role of Bruce Wayne: Regular Billionaire CrimefighterAn actor I’ve always thought could pull off an intimidating, gritty Batman voice is Keith Szarabajka, who was in The Dark Knight and played Harvey Bullock in the telltale game.
Matt Berry as Batman with Harry Peacock as The Riddler is now something I want to see.
WHISK-HEYYYY!
This summer: Mumbly vs. Growley!
I remember the first time I heard Batman’s voice. I literally laughed out loud because I thought it was a joke. But, nope.
I think the greatest twist Nolan pulled was making us think he was redeeming Bane, taking him from a villain’s lackey and giving him the spotlight… and then it turned out he was just a villain’s lackey. Brilliant.
Bane’s voice just didn’t fit the trilogy. It’s this ‘grounded, gritty’ Batman and suddenly you have a campy happy voice that would fit in pretty well in Adam West’s Batman.
The problem as I see it with Hardy’s Bane is that an actor’s face and voice are two of their most important tools and Bane’s are, by necessity, both obscured. You can still create a compelling character with one of those tools removed (Sally Hawkins in the fish fucking movie or Hugo Weaving in V for example) but it’s very hard to do when you can rely on neither.
That’s something that I’ve always found impressive about the pro wrestler Kane (real name Glen Jacobs). For the early part of the character’s career, Kane wore a full face mask and didn’t speak (for those of you unfamiliar, he was essentially an antagonist from a slasher movie). So, no face, no voice. And he managed to make that mask emote. To be fair, the emotional range of the character stretch from “barely restrained menace” to “psychotic violence”.
Same reason why Kane Hodder (heh, didn’t make any connection there until now) was such an amazing Jason. Dude could do more with a head tilt than some seasoned actors can do with an entire monologue.
I’ve heard the same argument for Hayden Christensen. You have him try to make sense of George Lucas’ dialogue, it all falls apart. Meanwhile, Hayden actually conveys the intensity but also the conflict of Darth Vader very well when he acts with his eyes and doesn’t say anything.
I think the thing that is really not yet fully appreciated is the extent to which the Nolan brothers, while impeccable technicians of visual spectacle, are completely incapable of writing a narrative that doesn’t fall apart under even half a second of scrutiny.@SystemMastery, below, correctly notes that the plot of TDKR requires the entire gotham police force to spend months trapped in the sewers and not die of starvation. I’ll go one further and dare anyone to explain in a way that makes even a tiny bit of sense why the plot of TDK required Gordon to fake his death.
Person of Interest. I’d argue that Christopher Nolan (and Lisa Joy) can craft some excellent narratives, but they need constraints. Like, say, a low-budget.
Counterpoint: the second and third seasons of Westworld (oh, okay, not low-budget— you’re right; maybe that would help).
Yikes. Jonathan.*
And then there was the shitshow of Westworld’s second season.
I’ll go one further and dare anyone to explain in a way that makes even a tiny bit of sense why the plot of TDK required Gordon to fake his death.“Required?” No, of course not, but it was pretty cool. Which is why Gordon’s divorce was perhaps the most deserved in Gotham history. I’d like to believe whatever state Gotham’s in doesn’t have no-fault divorce and it had to come before a judge:“Am I reading this right? You let your wife and children think you were dead so that you pull some kind of ruse on a super-criminal?”“Yes, your Honor. We had to trick the Jo—”“Don’t. It doesn’t matter what you’re commissioner of, we’re settling this divorce right now. And you’re giving her whatever she wants.”
“It had to be believable! I mean, what if the Joker captured and tortured my wife and kids and they revealed that—”“You were planning on the Joker capturing and torturing your wife and kids?!”“Well I wasn’t planning on it, but you can never be too careful!”“Couldn’t you have just sent them out of the city?”“And risk making the Joker suspicious? Now who’s the ‘dangerous sociopath,’ huh, judge?”
The thing is… what ruse? Literally all Gordon did was drive. Nothing about the scene hinged on his presence being a surprise to anyone but the audience.Sorry, I’m probably irritated about this all out of proportion to its actual importance. 🙂
No, it’s an elaborate deception for no other reason than it looked cool under the extremely unlikely set of circumstances that transpired afterward (I don’t think there’s even a convoy for Gordon to drive in at the time he fakes his death). If the Joker controlling cops in Gordon’s unit had been a thing at that point in the story you could awkwardly spackle the whole thing over—Gordon needs to fake his death so he can secretly keep an eye on the cops, or something?—but it doesn’t do much in the story other than give his wife ample grounds for divorce.I’ll admit, though, TDK moves along briskly enough, and is fun enough, that I never really mind.
Naw, it’s another example of Nolan failing to follow through on the consequences of what he has presented. The movie absolutely, 100% builds to the boats exploding. But Nolan doesn’t do it, which means the ending makes no sense. He did kill Maggie Gyllenhaal though so I guess that’s something.
While Kang has long maintained that Christopher Nolan is not nearly as intelligent a storyteller as people seem to think he is, I will defend Gordon’s fake death. The Joker is systematically murdering the top law enforcement and judicial authorities in Gotham, and in fact poisoned the previous police commissioner. By faking his death and going underground, Gordon takes himself out of the crosshairs.
True, but if the Joker is systematically murdering cops and commissioner’s then he immediately puts the next acting commissioner in the Joker’s crosshairs to save himself. Not really a good look!
…yeah, and also, arguably, his death makes the assassination attempt on Mayor BatManuel not a failure, which might keep the Joker from escalating. Not sure any of that actually justifies not letting Gordon’s wife in on the ruse.
As mentioned above, the police officers were given rations to be kept alive to see the city crumble. Gordon ‘stayed dead’ for the time being to keep the Joker away from his family. Why he suddenly turned into a stunt racer in that time, though .. Also, I get it’s still a silly movie, but in TDK, I’ll go with Roger Ebert’s analysis of plot holes. If you wait until after the movie to question it, the movie has won.
Wait, didn’t he just fake his death so he would not be killed by the joker? It’s been a while but I just assumed it was a “pretend to be dead until the Joker is dead/captured” for his own safety thing.
I think the thing that is really not yet fully appreciated is the extent to which the Nolan brothers, while impeccable technicians of visual spectacle, are completely incapable of writing a narrative that doesn’t fall apart under even half a second of scrutiny. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again:Christopher Nolan is a cinematic engineer, not an artist. He’s a good cinematic engineer, but is about as an engaging on an artist or cultural level as a quadratic equation. He does stuff. It’s clearly shown on screen. You can see it. There’s no need for interpretation, there’s no metaphor or symbolism. It’s all literal.Importantly, there’s a lot of technical stuff on screen. Oh, look, he flipped an actual semi. Oh, look at all these people on the beach. Oh, look, there’s Michael Caine. Which makes it easy for the left-brained denizens of his fandom to understand. For Christ’s sake, he made the Dunkirk Evacuation look boring. He’s certainly not an audio engineer.
I have never yet heard a convincing explanation for Nolan’s implacable hostility toward the idea of comprehensible vocal tracks. People claimed that he was mixing for IMAX/Atmos but I’ve seen some of his films in IMAX and nope.I think he just got personally offended that people complained about Bane’s voice in the first TDKR trailer and swore a blood oath that he would never make a film with comprehensible audio ever again.
Bane’s voice is mixed in terribly even in the final film. Listen to it on a pair halfway-decent headphones or speakers, and you can tell it was all done in a booth. He sounds louder than any other character, even when those characters are shouting, and there’s no room reverb on it that the other characters have:Instead, it’s clearly done in a recording booth, with the volume boosted compared to everyone else. I’m sure Nolan thought it would sound impressive or scary or badass, but it just sounds fake. It’s basically a boosted whisper.The plane hijacking (Imax, heh) is even worse.Everyone else is straining their voices; Bane is basically whispering yet coming in several dB louder.
I WILL BROW YOU!
If Christopher Nolan gives me a Bane-style breathing apparatus that effectively filters out viral particles, I will gladly wear it to a movie theater.
I WOULD like to re-watch this film and performance. But, this one never seems to be on any of the streaming services. The first two, sure. But, this one is always left out. (And, I refuse to pay to rent or buy a film when I have access to thousands of films via the various streaming services I have accounts with)
Aren’t all 3 currently on HBO Max? I know the first 2 are.
Just Batman Begins and Dark Knight.
Yes they are.
There’s been a lot of talk of what the voice sounds like. For me, it’s a weird vocal soup of Kenneth Mars as Inspector Kemp from Young Frankenstein and Sean Connery, with drop or two of Yoda tossed in there.
….and a sprinkling of Goldfinger
“No, Mr Wayne. I permit you to die.”
https://youtu.be/eICyqjtsizo
You mean he follows in his grandfather’s vootshteps?!
Oh dang, Inspector Kemp is right on! That hadn’t occurred to me, but it might actually be genius, especially (but not only) if that was part of Hardy’s reason for developing the voice the way he did—since both Young Frankenstein and TDKR are thinking about disability to a degree, and the campiness of the former might, in fact, help us more fully recognize the submerged campiness of the latter.
I remember Hardy saying he was going for an Irish Traveler kind of thing, I assume that combined with the anesthesia mask is what he came up with
Love The Dark Knight Rises. Bane is great, Catwoman is great, Daggett is great, Talia al Ghul is great.
I contend Joseph Gordon Leavitt’s Robin is the brother of Heath Ledger’s Joker
W/a few minor tweaks, it could have been as good as The Dark Knight, but as it stands, it’s Nolan’s 2nd best Batman flick
What’s your theory about Robin and the Joker? I’d love to hear it!
Well, JGL & Heath Ledger look a lot alike. The film is full of characters that are each others doubles & opposites.
When Robin John Blake gives his earnest origin soliloquy (doesn’t remember dead mother, father shot for gambling debt), i find it eerily similar to the Joker’s bullshit origin monologues, almost as if Joker is borrowing elements from that story.
Robin and Joker are bastard sons of a heartless city, chewed up and spit out by the system, separated by foster care & then both inspired by Batman/Bruce Wayne in totally opposite ways to rise up and change the status quo.
I believe this is very intentional story telling by the NolansI do not believe Blake consciously knows that Joker was his brother
I dig it!
It has been a minute since ive seen TDKR, so i searched the interwebs for any validation of my theory, found this on Reddit from 8 years ago:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/11k3aq/the_joker_and_john_blake_are_brothers/So I’m totally convinced, but i still don’t think Blake consciously knew Joker was his bro, just that his brother went down a dark path after they were separated following their father’s murder
This is so wrong. Batman Begins is phenomenal while TDKR is full of nonsensical plot devices, as well as obvious errors. When flying through the city near the end I think they pass the same Jos A Bank about 6 times.
guess he never learned to mind his surroundings
I enjoyed the performance and all, silly as it was, but, damn it, I prefer my Bane with a smooth Latin accent.
Just gonna say I’m glad that Tom Hardy didn’t try to do one
Bane should sound like Javier Bardem.
Nolan is officially at the pat-him-on-the-head stage of his career.
He’s definitely the most MEMORABLE version of Bane, that’s for sure. And just about everybody can do an impression of him.
I miss Scrawler.
Sure it’s appreciated: look at how the Harley Quinn TV show has made the Hardy Bane voice the definitive one to mock.
I do think it’s remarkable how much Hardy is able to do with his eyes alone in that role
I was wondering what would break first; Nolan’s spirit or his body.
My office has been full of various Bane impressions with their COVID masks for the past few months. If nothing else, it’s an incredibly memorable performance.
Nolan looks like frowny biscuits. The Auralnauts FULLY appreciate Bane.
Then they appreciated him a second time with a COVID-centric remix.
Being compared to Marlon Brando is not considered much of a compliment these days. Brando had already started going down hill all the way back in 1962 during filming of ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’. 7/8th of his acting career he was considered erratic at best.
There’s no doubt Hardy’s Bane has been culturally influential.
I would probably have appreciated Hardy’s performance more if I’d been able to understand a single thing Bane said.
Yeah, sure, it’s us that couldn’t appreciate the performance, and not, you know, you that made an incredibly dumb and crappy movie follow up to one of the greatest one.
Bitch nevermind his eyebrows, I couldn’t understand jack shit he said.
Agreed, Tom Hardy’s Bane is good. Rewatched the Dark Knight trilogy recently and loved his portrayal.But the real reason I’m commenting here is that this is the fourth article I intended to read but the bloody pop up ads blocking the entire screen with no way to close them prevented me from reading the other three. Please get this fixed, it’s annoying as hell.
Meh. It wasn’t a good movie. Another ridiculously omnipotent villain. Batman still a lousy fighter. The cops could have perforated Bane with bullets at many points in the story. Bruce has his broken back cured with a single knee-shove. Somehow he gets back to America from some distant Asiatic hell-hole in minutes. Hardy’s strange performance was the least of the movie’s problems.
I had been meaning to rewatch this – I saw it in the IMAX and it was such an overwhelming experience I’d no idea if what I just watched was good or not. I enjoyed it more the second time, being in control of the volume and on a screen where I don’t have to turn my head. The opening is stupendous, the sillier parts (e.g. the police doing exactly what Bane wanted them to at exactly the right time) are no sillier than in the Dark Knight (quick put everyone on ferries!). Hathaway is wonderful – the moment when she drops her servant act is perfect. And Hardy is great: hulking and intelligent at the same time, a soulful brute.
They should let Zack Snyder re-edit this movie into an 8 hour version. Maybe then audiences will appreciate it!