Tonight, I did what so many Americans did and went to see the Dark Knight. I was thoroughly pleased, although on the ride home, my friends and I were thankful that we didn’t get bowled over by a renegade semi that made us have to swerve. I don’t mean this lightly. We’re all thankful that we made it home in one piece. Amazing that we saw a movie about a psychopath and then seemed to have our own brush with death.
On to the movie though.
This was a very enjoyable movie. I can’t say I enjoyed it as much as Iron Man, but this one did have a lot more depth to it. These new Batman movies are much darker than the other ones were as they get at the heart of humanity and often, we don’t like what we see, or what we think we’ll see. I have to agree with what I heard on the radio this afternoon about it. Don’t take your 7 year-old to see this movie.
Batman is typically a darker superhero than most. He is an impassible hero hiding himself behind a mask which makes the psychology of the movies much more interesting. One doesn’t only see Batman engage the criminals in fistfights, but sees him engage them in mind games. The criminals do the same with the police force.
btw, I’m going to do my best to avoid giving spoilers, but I will have to tell some things about the movie. If you plan on seeing it soon, you might want to wait until you see it before you finish reading this blog.
The main topic of discussion in this one is human nature. What is humanity at its core? Are we really good or not? Joker wants to see and does it by throwing the city into paranoia. Of course, this is natural for him as he’s a paranoid schizophreniac. Revealing of his character also is when he repeatedly describes how he was abandoned by loved ones. Now these stories contradict, but there is that sense in villains in comics. They are missing something and taking that out on others.
If the world is in chaos, the Joker is happy. As a Christian, I naturally see opposition here with our natural proclivity which I believe is put into us by our creator. We naturally want order. We naturally want things to make sense and our whole selves cry out saying that we want to make some sense of it all. In many ways, this is how the Problem of Evil even points to this truth. Whatever evil is brought forth, there’s a voice that says “There ought to be some sense to this!”
In this one, the Joker also participates in game theory. What if the lives of others are in your hands and at the same time, your lives are in their hands? What if none of you makes the final move, someone will make it for you so that neither of you comes out alive? I can’t explain this for those who haven’t seen it, but it is a fascinating scene.
The sad truth shown is that while there is some good, that even the best of us can fall, and those who see the movie will understand how. The sad reality is that that is the case. I’m quite sure each of us can look back at points in our lives where we can say “Dang. I really blew it there.” Each of us probably has a King David type experience.
But what if there is no morality? Then all is nonsense. There’s no such thing as should do or should not do. There is just doing. There are simply actions. It is simply matter going on a pre-determined course that it has no control over. You don’t do the right thing or the wrong thing. You just do something. You don’t control it. It just happens.
Batman is a reminder though that there must be some morality. Even the criminals in Batman’s world often realize this. Why participate in game theory unless you think there is some morality? Even a sense of honor exists. There is some honor among thieves. All the criminals want something even if it’s just they all want justice for wrongs that they’ve suffered.
Batman is a voice of good bringing order to a dark city.
Who’s the voice of good where you live?
Are you a contributor to order or to chaos?
Are you bringing justice to the world or justice to yourself?
Overall, the Dark Knight is an excellent movie to see. I recommend it and I will be pondering the ramifications of morality seen in this one for awhile. This would be a good movie to go to see with even your non-Christian friends and discuss the morality aspect afterwards with.
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