Christopher Nolan Will Not Significantly Alter The Dark Knight Rises Sound Mix

Posted by on December 21st, 2011   Filed under: Action, Books/Comics, Drama, Fandom
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Batman fans had a pretty good look at The Dark Knight Rises this past week between the 7-minute prologue attached to Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and new trailer for the film that debuted with Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. While most reactions were positive towards the footage, there was one element that everyone keeps mentioning as a flaw: Bane’s muffled voice. The lack of distinction has led to some unintended humor among some viewers and has caused Warner Bros. studio executives some concern. There are reportedly some people involved in the production who want director Christopher Nolan to change the sound mix, but the auteur has other ideas. To the dismay of many, he only plans to “alter the sound slightly, not to rework it completely.”

One high-level executive explained Nolan’s choice concerning Bane: “Chris wants the audience to catch up and participate rather than push everything at them. He doesn’t dumb things down. You’ve got to pedal faster to keep up.” Nolan himself has said that it was okay not to understand the dialog at times, so long as the overall idea was conveyed. Personally, I don’t think that a sound issue will keep fans away from this movie, even though they may complain about it. Nolan has proven himself by now, so I’m willing to trust his judgement regarding Bane’s voice. What are your thoughts on the whole Bane issue? Do you think Nolan will somehow be overpowered by the studio to make more changes than he wants?



  • That makes him sound so pretentious and arrogant. How the hell does the audibility of a character’s voice create a layer of intelligence for the film? I guess King of The Hill is one of the most clever animated series out there. Keeps people thinking because it has a character who mumbles.

  • By altering the sound slightly, he means that there’s a scene where Bane was originally saying nothing where he’s now going to yell “Nooooooooooo!”. It will still be difficult to understand.

  • Anthony

    I watched the last trailer with headphones, and I had no problem understanding him. I haven’t seen the prologue trailer though, so maybe in a theatre where the sound isn’t directly in my ear It may be more of an issue. Then again I miss a good chunk of dialogue in a lot of films in theaters anyways, so whatever.

  • kyri

    Do we want people to have a say on the script as well?

    How about nipples in the badman Costume. I happen to like them

    Chris, add some nipples please.

    To be honest personally I would prefer Bane to speak Arabic without subtitles.

    To be honest the first Time I saw District 9 was without the alien Subtitles and I liked the film better.

    BACK OFF people.

    Let the man do his job.

  • rob

    its his film! and with the amount of money he has made for Warner he deserves to keep it his film.

  • LEAVE CHRISTOPHER NOLAN ALONE!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc

  • Gil

    This is a slight concern, BUT I was able to understand Bane from my shitty little laptop speakers.

  • Brendan

    I haven’t seen any of the footage, but “alter the sound slightly, not to rework it completely” could mean simply mean tweaking the EQ of Bane’s dialog a bit. That can do a lot to make dialog clearer. I would think the fact that Nolan won’t “rework it completely” just means he won’t re-record or radically alter the effect of Bane’s voice.

  • Al

    Well I just came back from watching Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and I had a hard time understanding sme of the dialog in that too. Do I hear anyone complaining about that? No. I love Bane.s voice and accent. Tom Hardy is going to kill it in that performance.

  • I already know I will be buying this movie when it’s released on DVD, so anything I don’t understand in theaters I can turn on the subtitles for. Not concerned.

  • Captain N

    I think the only thing that needs to be done is raising the sound level of Bane’s voice. His voice was slightly drowned out by all the other noise around him. Other than that it’s fine.

  • Steve

    I didn’t see the 7-minute preview but I had not trouble understanding Bane in the trailer. I suppose it’s a good thing that Bane’s voice is the only thing anyone is complaining about.