I saw The Dark Knight Rises for the umpteenth time today. I was struck by the movie's fascination with masks. Both the hero and the villain wear masks. But the reasons behind wearing them are the chief themes of the movie. Bruce Wayne wears a mask to hide his pain, to sign a symbol, and as a voluntary choice to fight crime; while Bane wears a mask to subdue his pain, and as a compulsion in order to survive. While Bruce wears a mask to protect his loved ones, Bane wears it because he tried to protect Talia once. So the mask is an enduring symbol of what Bane had been and what Bruce is now. It signifies what Bane could have been. In a symbolic move, he shatters Bruce's backbone, letting him fall, and then picks up his broken mask, useless now. Later on the Batman rises out of his hole, dons on his mask, and shatters Bane's mask. It is the mask that somehow underpins the whole narrative. Bane's mask looks animalistic in front of the more serene mask of the Batman. The...