This weekend marks the one year anniversary of the opening of
The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan's final film in his grand Caped Crusader trilogy. It also marks the one year anniversary of one of the most wrenching acts of violence in recent American history. Everyone who went to the first midnight screenings of
The Dark Knight Rises at 12:01 AM on July 20, 2012, was unearthed by the news of the horrific acts that took place in Aurora, Colorado, at the Cinemark Century 16 multiplex. I remember specifically-- walking out of my sold out auditorium, still shook from the events that transpired over the course of the intense nearly three-hour
Dark Knight conclusion, and turning on my phone and pulling up Facebook (a force of habit) and being instantly shaken by the events. As a lifetime lover of the film, and a purist to the point that I still prefer viewing films in theaters alongside others, it felt surreal, but also like a severe violation, as if my own home had been terrorized. Where are we and where has the cinematic culture and the landscape of the theater experience one year removed from the tragedy in Aurora?
