The Dark Knight Rises, A Tale of Two Cities, and Fritz Lang?

[BatmAngelus]

Another influence on the film seems to be David Lean's Doctor Zhivago:

Nolan wanted The Dark Knight Rises, which will be released in theaters July 20, to feel like a historical epic. As he tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz, he looked to films like Fritz Lang's Metropolis, David Lean's Dr. Zhivago, and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.

http://www.npr.org/2012/07/15/156625745/dark-knight-rises-but-saga-ends-for-director-nolan

I've been reading Tale of Two Cities and recently watched Metropolis and Doctor Zhivago.  I was surprised to find some fascinating similarities among that may or may not apply to Dark Knight Rises:
- wealthy protagonists (Darnay in Two Cities, Freder in Metropolis, Zhivago in Doctor Zhivago) who end up leaving luxury behind and settling for a more modest life.  Darnay and Zhivago end up being imprisoned or held captive against their will.
- Love stories at the core of each (though ironically, I found all of the romantic relationship developments in each to be rather rushed)
- class warfare that erupts in a revolution against a cruel upper class.  The revolution grows uglier and uglier and the revolutionaries become worse than the people they were revolting against.
- Family secrets- Darnay is secretly the nephew to the Marquis, Rotwang was in love with Frederson's late wife in Metropolis, Zhivago has a long lost half brother and Lara had an affair with Komarovsky
- Secret identities- Darnay's relation to the Marquis again, Hel the Machine taking on the role of Maria in Metropolis, Pasha becoming "Strelnikov" in Doctor Zhivago
- The idea of doubles- Darnay and Carton are lookalikes, there are two Marias in Metropolis

[Silver Nemesis]

There's some great analysis going on here. I think we'll have to make a TDKR Cultural Allusions thread once the movie comes out on DVD.

I wrote an essay on A Tale of Two Cities while I was at university, but it's been a few years since I read it so my memory's a bit hazy. One parallel I remember between Dickens' novel and Metropolis is the disillusioned playboy (Carton/Freder) who whiles away their time in apathy, but ultimately finds meaningful purpose in the service of others. I can definitely see how that might carry over into TDKR, particularly regarding the depiction of Bruce Wayne as a washed up ex-Batman who gets drawn back into the action by the hand of fate.

[BatmAngelus]

Well, now that the movie's out, the most obvious connections to Tale of Two Cities are:
- the ending of the movie with Batman's sacrifice tying into Sydney Carton's and Gordon reading quotes from the novel
- two of the character names.  Mr. Stryver is a lawyer and Carton's boss in the Dickens novel, while he is Daggett's associate in the movie. 

Also, apparently, Josh Stewart's henchman character was named Barsad.  He was the one who gave the exposition to the CIA Agent about Bane in the beginning, was shooting at the cops in the alley after Stryver attempted to kill Selina, gave the warning on the bridge that the city would blow up if anyone passed through, and ended up getting shot when escorting Talia to the Tumbler. 
Barsad is also the name of a spy in A Tale of Two Cities, who plays a big role towards the end in helping Sydney Carton replace Charles Darnay.

Let's go through my checklist of connections with the Dickens novel, Metropolis, and Zhivago:

- wealthy protagonists (Darnay in Two Cities, Freder in Metropolis, Zhivago in Doctor Zhivago) who end up leaving luxury behind and settling for a more modest life.  Darnay and Zhivago end up being imprisoned or held captive against their will.

Pretty much happened.  Bruce got stripped of his money and imprisoned by Bane.

- Love stories at the core of each (though ironically, I found all of the romantic relationship developments in each to be rather rushed)

Alright, there wasn't really a huge romance at the core of this one.  But it is funny to me how the relationships with Bruce and Miranda and Bruce and Selina were rushed as well.

- class warfare that erupts in a revolution against a cruel upper class.  The revolution grows uglier and uglier and the revolutionaries become worse than the people they were revolting against.

Eh, a little bit, but with all the talk about possible connections to the Occupy movement, there was little class warfare going on in comparison.

- Family secrets- Darnay is secretly the nephew to the Marquis, Rotwang was in love with Frederson's late wife in Metropolis, Zhivago has a long lost half brother and Lara had an affair with Komarovsky

This one's easy.  Look at the al Ghul family.  Ra's having a daughter.  Miranda secretly being Talia al Ghul.

- Secret identities- Darnay's relation to the Marquis again, Hel the Machine taking on the role of Maria in Metropolis, Pasha becoming "Strelnikov" in Doctor Zhivago

Also easy and also coincidental since secret identities are part of the comics anyway.  Bruce/Batman.  Miranda/Talia.  And to a lesser extent, Selina/Catwoman and John Blake's real name being Robin.

- The idea of doubles- Darnay and Carton are lookalikes, there are two Marias in Metropolis

Not much in here, other than the previously mentioned double identity.  Possibly the idea of there being a second Batman when John Blake finds the cave at the end.