10 @ a Time - Batman v Superman, Part 9

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Part Nine: The Sound of Silence

Welcome to the ninth installment of “10 @ a Time: Batman v Superman.” Last week we discussed whether angels bleed and why we need mothers. Today, more stuff blows up.

[For those playing the home game, we’re looking at the “Ultimate Edition” home video release; for today’s 10@T installment, we’re looking from 1:24:53 to 1:35:00.]

At least Superman didn't have to live through Election 2016.

What’s immediately apparent is that this chunk of the movie plays so much better in the Ultimate Edition than the theatrical release, which shortchanged just about every character except for Lex Luthor. In the Ultimate Edition, Senator Finch gets a moment of clarity before her death, Superman finds himself hampered yet again from saving people, Lois pushes further forward with her story, and Bruce fractures his relationship with Alfred ever more painfully. What’s remarkable, too, is how much is communicated silently, without the benefit of long monologues. In fact, the people that speak the most in this installment are the ones with the least to say. In the theatrical cut, recall, Lex blows up the Capitol, Superman disappears, and Bruce scowls at the television before stealing the Kryptonite; let’s break down, then, what the Ultimate Edition expands and how it deepens the film.


First, let’s touch base with Senator Finch at the moment of her explosive demise. June, we hardly knew ye, in large part because the theatrical cut obscured the fact that you were wise to Lex Luthor long before the jar of “Granny’s Peach Tea” manifested itself at your committee hearing. (And okay, yes, there’s a jar of piss that features prominently in Batman v Superman. It’s a bizarre creative decision, and it’s probably not where I would have gone. I think the point of it is that Lex Luthor can’t help but thumb his nose at Senator Finch to try to throw her off her game, but I also think that the shot of Luthor’s empty chair accomplishes that well enough without involving bodily fluids.) But her line “I know how to wrestle a pig” carries new weight once we know that she’s aware of Lex’s machinations; is this her subtle way of cluing Lex into the fact that she’s onto him? In the theatrical cut, “wrestle a pig” just sounded like an effective metaphor for American politics (and it still does), but now it makes one wonder how formidable a foe she could have been for Lex had she not died at the Capitol.

"Give it a shot, son. Your country's counting on you."

Lex’s true enemy appears at the Capitol in this segment, and I have to say that Superman really strikes an impressive mark. His stride through the Capitol hallway echoes his handcuffed walk into custody in Man of Steel, both representing moments of voluntary surrender to mankind, and it’s telling that Superman doesn’t say a word during this scene. It’s a different kind of strength on display, a quiet strength that reminds us that his greatest power isn’t that he could destroy everything – it’s that he exercises continual restraint. Note the way he gently opens the swinging door in the Senate Chambers; it’s a small poetic touch that tells us something of the grace that goes into being Superman. Indeed, Superman is subjected to a host of accusations in Senator Finch’s opening remarks, her condescending “Sir” stinging while she treats him like an overpowered child. We see confusion and pain in his face turn to genuine sorrow when he finds himself the only survivor of the explosion.

Outside, though, Superman had been greeted by cacophony, a throng of onlookers shouting slogans at him because of their suppositions about him. I was reminded of Perry White’s line from Man of Steel when he told Lois, “Can you imagine how people on this planet would react if they knew there was someone like this out there?” The Capitol scene is the answer to Perry’s question – you get a Superman who can’t be Superman because his very identity is being torn apart by everyone who wants a say in it. You get a man like Lex Luthor who’s willing to bomb the seat of governmental power to prove a point. And the point isn’t to frame Superman for murder as in Nairomi. No, it’s a subtler point, an effort to make the average man vaguely unsettled by Superman, uncomfortable to be around him for fear of what might happen. The Ultimate Edition restores a sequence that underscores this beautifully, in which we see Superman saving people from inside the bombed Capitol and delivering them to safety on the building’s steps. (Chalk up another one against the “Superman doesn’t save anyone” crowd.) Despite Superman’s best efforts, though, the paramedic he greets is grateful but apprehensive, quietly asking Superman to give him some space to work. Superman flies away because he feels he’s learned the day’s lesson – mankind does not want him.

"Just me and the world."

Bruce learns a different lesson, observing the day’s proceedings from watching CNN in his boardroom (a fine indictment of the 24-hour news cycle if ever I heard one). Glaring down at the cancelled checks from Wallace Keefe – returned, we will learn, not by the disabled Wayne Enterprises employee but by Lex Luthor in yet another step in his scheme – Bruce feels that powerlessness about which Alfred had warned him. And as Alfred predicted, that feeling provokes him to rage. I’d wondered briefly about the Ultimate Edition scene in which Alfred is seen splitting logs, a swarthier butler for a burlier Batman. What’s significant in this scene, though, is what isn’t present; Alfred is looking for Bruce Wayne, who’s nowhere to be found. He’s gone to Lexcorp to steal the Kryptonite, and it’s an intriguing choice for him not to tell Alfred where he’s gone in such a hurry. Remember, Alfred has already told Bruce in no uncertain terms that he does not approve of the strategy to do battle with Superman, and here Bruce indirectly tells his guardian that he does not need his permission to act on his plan.

Our ten-minute installment concludes with Batman’s visit to Lexcorp, and I think it’s particularly inspired to show only the aftermath of this encounter. The guard station on fire (mirroring, I think, the burning Capitol), the hail of bullets and broken glass on the floor, the terrifying surveillance footage – it’s all very consistent with Zack Snyder’s introduction of Batman as a horror movie icon, a terrifying creature of the night. Batman has been described as a one-man war on crime, and seeing that force turned against something other than a militarized convoy of henchmen is awe-inspiring in the biblical sense. And as much as Eisenberg’s Luthor has gotten critical flak, he does an impressive amount of characterization in this sequence; without saying a word, he breezes past his injured employees, showing that he’s not actually interested in them. But while everyone around him is focused on the property damage and the project of medical recovery, Lex gives a soft little smile when he sees the Batarang in place of the Kryptonite. Whether he knew Batman would try to steal the Kryptonite is almost immaterial, because in the end it works out toward his master plan.

"I want the means to stop me to be in the hands of a man I can trust with my life."

Next time, Superman has an existential crisis, and Batman does a bit of heavy lifting.

Observations and Annotations

• At the subway station, Lois spots Nairomi witness Kahina Ziri, but she misses Anatoly Knyazev. She’ll recognize him later in the film, but one wonders if Kahina might have been spared had Lois seen Knyazev – because if we’ve learned anything, it’s that Lois catches on pretty quickly.
• Bruce is told that Wallace Keefe receives a check from “The Victims Fund.” I’ve always loved the interpretation that Bruce Wayne does in the daylight what Batman can’t accomplish in the shadows, so I appreciate this nod toward Bruce’s philanthropic efforts. The idea that Bruce Wayne is a do-nothing playboy is a cute concept, but it’s more compelling to know that Bruce makes sure his family name stands for something.
• Throughout the scene at the Capitol, we’re treated to the same musical cue as during the “Must there be a Superman?” montage, doubtless because Superman too is asking himself the same question.
• At Senator Finch’s right hand, we’ve got a cameo appearance by real-life Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont). Leahy also appeared as himself in Batman and Robin and as a Wayne board member in the latter two films of Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight Trilogy”; you might remember him telling The Joker at Bruce’s penthouse party, “We’re not intimidated by thugs.”
• All eyes are on the Capitol, from Wayne Enterprises to Smallville. We see that Martha Kent is working at a diner in Smallville; recall that her previous employer, Sears, was destroyed in Man of Steel by Zod’s army.
• I’ve lost track of the number of horses Synder includes in the film, all of them reminiscent of the shot in The Dark Knight Returns where Batman retakes his city on horseback; there are also shades of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse in there, I’m sure.
• Batman can be seen on the Lexcorp surveillance swooping out of the shadows and scooping up a guard. As someone who’s spent an inordinate number of hours playing the Arkham videogames, I can say there are few greater pleasures than the “Inverted Takedown.”
• Amid the bullets on the ground at Lexcorp, we see a deflated basketball, a reminder of the charade in which we were introduced to Lex Luthor.
• And speaking of Lex, recall that he had described himself as “the Lex in front of the Corp.” On the neon sign, the L and X are flickering, casting an eerie glow on Lex’s face. It’s a neat touch, especially considering that Lex was correcting his father’s claim that the company was named after a young Lex.