So, before I begin, let me just say, I love "The Dark Knight". I never get tired of watching that movie. I think it's a masterpiece at every level.
But there are two moments that always get this nagging little voice in the back of my brain squawking.
The first is where Morgan Freeman's character puts the conniving Wayne Enterprises lawyer who uncovers Batman's identity in his place:
"Let me get this straight: you think that your client, one of the richest, most powerful men in the world, is secretly a vigilante who spends his spare time beating criminals to a pump with his bare hands. And your plan is to BLACKMAIL this person? Good luck."
Good writing & performances. But stick with me for a moment.
The second scene is when The Joker crashes the crime boss meeting. And as great a scene as that is, I couldn't help but notice something.
Sal Maroni - Italian American.
The Chechen.
Gambol - African American.
Lau - Asian.
This one room had more ethnic diversity than any other scene in the entire movie. But these were the criminals.
Who were the heroes? With the exception of Lucius Fox and, some may say, The Mayor, they're all non-ethnic whites. In the case of Bruce Wayne & Harvey Dent, fairly upper class non-ethnic white men at that.
Dent constantly refers to the criminals as "scum".
I don't know. Am I crazy?
But I felt like I never saw what was actually so bad about Gotham City. Did it have criminals? Of course. Every city does.
But if John D. Rockefeller's great, great, great grandson & his wife had been gunned down after sneaking their scared son out of an opera at Lincoln Center, and that son grew up to decide that he would devote all of his considerable resources to allow him to run around New York City in a costume to shoot up the Gambino crime family and the Brooklyn drug cartels with military grade firepower, would we really consider that kid a hero?
There's a really understated element of direct class warfare in the Batman mythos. In many ways, Bruce Wayne starts reminding me more and more of Bill the Butcher in "Gangs of New York". And class warfare almost always has a racial undertone to it.
I mean, I know it's just a movie based on a comic book, but, as a writer, I always try to think about the fantastic in the most real terms possible.
Like the irony that Captain America, who makes his debut punching Hitler in the face, is, in fact, the living embodiment of the Nazi ideal of a so-called master race. I guess that's why The Red Skull is constantly trying to steal Cap's body.
And let's not even get into the homoerotic undertones of THAT superhero conflict!
But I digress.
I love The Dark Knight. It's one of my favorite movies.
But still....
2 comments:
No. No you shouldn't like Bruce Wayne for the very reasons you stated.
I had the same conclusion some years back that Batman is not a hero. He's a rich guy who thinks that he alone knows what justice is. He operates outside of the law to keep the status quo. He never seems to address the causes of crime (never mind the fact that he seems to draw crazed killers to Gotham). One would think that with all his money Bruce Wayne could come up with a better plan to fight crime. He doesn't because fighting crime isn't about preventing the harm to those that crime feeds upon or helping those left with no other recourse in society but to turn to crime to survive. Batman fights crime because he gets off on beating folks up. Batman is the problem, not the solution.
You wound me sir. You wound me to the core. As I still plan on being buried in a batman costume, I suppose I will respect your feelings on the matter and remove the last request in my will that demands you show up as robin.
I suppose I should address the matter at hand: crazy guy who is murdering all over the city in the Dark Knight was played a blond white guy. Harvey Dent embodies the stereotype that a white guy in america is just a hard shove away from going postal. Most of the characters you mention are either directly or analogously drawn from the comics. But the climax of the movie is embodied by generic ones who are not. Two boats full of people have a choice, save themselves by murdering the other group. And you tell me, who is the hero of the climax? And who shows the greatest weakness? And their respective ethnicities and class?
I know you are making a larger point about the mythos of the character in terms of class warfare, but do not forget the context of the genre. If anything, the Rockefellers and the Kennedys of the past are far superior than the disaffected elites of today in that they did feel at least some small responsibility to try to do some public good, warts and all. But when was the last time you saw a successful comic book about a billionaire whose parents are tragically gunned down who then decides to hire diego rivera to paint a mural celebrating the working class?
As for Captain America's appearance, I totally agree and as a kid his aryan idealization did kind of turn me off on the character. I didn't take offense, mind you, just never really connected to the character until Millar's Ultimates. As for conflicted homoerotic undertones expressed through acts of violence and hatred, what's wrong with that? Without it, we wouldn't have Hooded Justice OR the republican party.
See what you did?...now you've made me into a reactionary. I'm gonna go sulk in my batman underoos.
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