Friday, April 27, 2018

The Dark Knight: A Microscopic Examination



As I've mentioned before, my fandom extends in a few directions, and one of them is Batman. I like a lot of things Batman, especially movies and TV shows, oh, and Batmobile toys. Seriously, if you guys got some of them lying around that you don't want let me know. No price is too absurd! Back on track though, one of the things that I enjoy about the Batman 'verse is the dichotomy between Batman and his infamous arch nemesis, Joker. Batman is nauseatingly wealthy, and that's pretty much the extent of his super power, except that he is also extremely disciplined in most ways. On the flip side of that, the Joker is all about rampant chaos, unpredictability, and inconsistency. He's pretty much the opposite of Batman, which is what makes him such a great character, and why we can have these wonderfully thick philosophical conversations about things.

Today, specifically, I want to take a look at Chris Nolan's comic film masterpiece, The Dark Knight. It's still regarded by many as one of the best comic genre films of all time, and at the very least, it's still considered to be one of the best DC comic films ever, but barring that, it's definitely considered the best Batman film. It breaks the mold of diminishing returns on a sequel, and paired with Batman Begins sets the tone for over a decade of film to come so let's not mess around, here's The Dark Knight.

First, let's take a look at the synopsis via Wikipedia: "A gang of criminals rob a Gotham City mob bank, murdering each other until only the mastermind remains: the Joker, who escapes with the money. Batman, District Attorney Harvey Dent and Lieutenant Jim Gordon form an alliance to rid Gotham of organized crime. Bruce Wayne is impressed with Dent's idealism and offers to support his career; he believes that, with Dent as Gotham's protector, he can give up being Batman and lead a normal life with Rachel Dawes—even though she and Dent are dating."

"Mob bosses Sal Maroni, Gambol, and the Chechen hold a video conference with their corrupt accountant, Lau, who has taken their funds for safekeeping and fled to Hong Kong. The Joker interrupts, warns them that Batman has no jurisdiction and is thus unhindered by the law, and offers to kill him in exchange for half of their money. After Gambol puts a bounty on his head, the Joker kills Gambol and takes over his gang. The mob ultimately decides to take the Joker up on his offer."

"Batman finds Lau in Hong Kong and brings him back to Gotham to testify, allowing Dent to apprehend the entire mob. The Joker threatens to keep killing people unless Batman reveals his identity, and starts by murdering Police Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb and the judge presiding over the mob trial. The Joker also tries to kill Mayor Anthony Garcia, but Gordon sacrifices himself to stop the assassination. Dent learns that Rachel is the next target."

"Bruce decides to reveal his secret identity. Before he can, however, Dent announces that he is Batman. Dent is taken into protective custody, but the Joker appears and attacks the convoy. Batman comes to Dent's rescue and Gordon, who faked his death, apprehends the Joker, securing a promotion to Commissioner. Rachel and Dent are escorted away by detectives on Maroni's payroll; Gordon later learns that they never arrived home. Batman interrogates the Joker, who reveals that they have been trapped in separate locations rigged with explosives. Batman races to save Rachel, while Gordon attempts to rescue Dent. Batman arrives at the building, but realizes that the Joker sent him to Dent's location instead. Both buildings explode, killing Rachel and disfiguring half of Dent's face. The Joker escapes with Lau, whom he later kills along with the Chechen."

"Coleman Reese, an accountant at Wayne Enterprises, deduces that Bruce is Batman and tries to go public with the information. Not wanting Reese's revelation to interfere with his plans, the Joker threatens to destroy a hospital unless someone kills Reese. Gordon orders the evacuation of all the hospitals in Gotham and goes to secure Reese. The Joker gives Dent a gun and convinces him to seek revenge for Rachel's death, then destroys the hospital and escapes with a busload of hostages. Dent goes on a killing spree, deciding the fates of people he holds responsible for Rachel's death by flipping his lucky coin."

"After announcing Gotham will be subject to his rule come nightfall, the Joker rigs two evacuating ferries with explosives; one containing civilians and the other containing prisoners. He says that he will blow them both up by midnight, but will let one live if its passengers (who have been supplied the trigger to the other boat's explosives) blow up the other. Batman finds the Joker by using a sonar device that spies on the entire city, with the reluctant help of Lucius Fox. Both the civilians and the prisoners refuse to kill each other, while Batman apprehends the Joker after a brief fight. Before the police arrive to take the Joker into custody, he gloats that Gotham's citizens will lose hope once Dent's rampage becomes public knowledge."

"Gordon and Batman arrive at the building where Rachel perished. Dent shoots Batman, spares himself, and threatens to kill Gordon's son, claiming that Gordon's negligence is responsible for Rachel’s death. Before he can flip for the boy, Batman, who was wearing body armor, tackles Dent off the building to his death. Knowing the Joker would win if people found out the truth, Batman persuades Gordon to hold him responsible for the killing spree to preserve Dent's heroic image. As the police launch a manhunt for Batman, Gordon destroys the Bat-signal, Fox watches as the sonar device self-destructs, and Alfred Pennyworth burns a letter from Rachel saying she planned to marry Dent," and roll credits.

This film delivers on pretty much every level. The story is deep, it's tightly presented, and interesting to watch. The characters are well developed and interesting. There's enough ambiguity to all of them to keep them interesting along the way, too. The shot composition is extremely appealing, as one would expect from a Nolan film. The setting is a bit cleaner than the previous film to reflect all of the progress that Batman has made in cleaning up the city, but there are still areas where you wouldn't want to wander around alone at night. The action and fight sequences are thrilling, and you find yourself rooting for Bats all the way through. Of course, the music is throbbing, powerful, and visceral. All in all, it's a really entertaining experience, but lately, it has left me with a burning question: Have we been rooting for the wrong guy this whole time?

I'm sure this isn't a new theory, and perhaps it's a topic of discussion that's already been done to death, and I'm just not aware of it, but it's a compelling new perspective on a classic film and I think it warrants further examination. First, we see Batman, an unsanctioned vigilante working in cooperation with the police department. Next, we see Batman impersonators trying to literally be Batman with hockey pads and shotguns, demonstrating that Batman has basically incited a rash of vigilantism in Gotham that has officially reached dangerous proportions. Finally, in a sequence that I have seen some commentary on, Batman illegally infiltrates a sovereign nation to kidnap a citizen of that nation. Now we've moved well beyond local vigilantism and into violations of international treaty and due process.

Now take a look at who the Joker targets as he runs amok. There's a judge that made a questionable and unprecedented ruling from the bench in a high profile criminal case against a mob organization, the district attorney who led the prosecution, the assistant district attorney who aided in the case, the police commissioner who constantly turns a blind eye to the activities of a masked crusader who also technically breaks the law on a nightly basis, a police captain who pseudo-sanctions and enables the actions of said crusader, and to send a more poignant message, one of the copy cat Batman guys who represents the spread of an unjust attitude towards the system of due process and the legal system on the whole. Don't get me wrong, I love Batman, but the Joker's motivations, when looked at from such a stark point of view actually make a good bit of sense in a twisted sort of way.

There is some potential for collateral damage along the way, but paying pretty close attention, you might notice that civilians actually get hurt very little in the Joker's vendetta. They get threatened a lot, but never put in any mortal danger that Batman can't diffuse. I also think that it's interesting that Joker looks to hit the mobs where it hurts as well, taking a huge sum of their money to rid Gotham of Batman, and then simply burning it up. That's fairly irrelevant, but it speaks volumes to the Joker's real motivations. It seems he actually dislikes law breakers who skate by without punishment, and is willing to go to some heinous lengths to call them out on their BS.

When you look at things this way, certain elements of the story's symbolism start to gain more meaning and make better sense. Batman represents a pseudo-militant arm of the local constabulary, albeit unsanctioned, that works on the fringes of legality and even constitutionality. He's surrounded himself with like minded people in positions of social power that can buffer him against reprisal from the commonplace civilian, and he's got funding in the same realm of a small nation to fund his actions night after night. The movie doesn't really put much effort into hiding this bit of commentary either. We see Lucius Fox straight up threaten a guy who wants to expose a technical criminal for doing technically criminal things, an act that would have save lives by the way. All the while, Batman is out there blackmailing, assaulting, and basically arresting 'criminals' who, to be fair are usually doing criminal things, without proper authority to be doing any of that in the first place. When we see Batman interrogate the Joker, excessive force is used as Batman tries to beat answers out of Joker. Good thing that GCPD wasn't looking to actually prosecute Joker because I'm sure once Joker's lawyer learned of the treatment, the sociopath would have walked on a laundry list of technicalities. The courts probably would have awarded Joker a key to the city!

Meanwhile, the Joker probably sees himself as the hero in this story, and scary though it might be, it's actually not hard to see him as such as a viewer sometimes either. Yes, his methods are heinous and unconscionable, but he nearly brings down the backdoor arrangement that GCPD has created with Batman, and all GCPD appears to care about the entire time is saving face in front of the public to cover up their actions. The Joker's story arc is not dissimilar to Ed Snowden and his actions to expose unsanctioned, illegal and unconstitutional surveillance of American citizens at the hands of the NSA. He probably also saw himself as a hero, and some people agreed with him. It's uncanny that even though the film predates these events by five years, it accurately predicts the illegal and unconstitutional use of technology to essentially spy on legal citizens. Lucius Fox is against the idea, and the film does go out of its way to comment on how this is a terrible idea, but the fact that the idea even comes up, is pretty telling of the times that we were headed for in real life.

I give major kudos to Chris Nolan and the production team for exploring such alarming and potentially controversial themes with such grace and clarity. Whether they did so intentionally or not, it makes for a thought provoking film experience that can leave the viewer asking relevant questions about the nature of their own existence and the world in which they exist. These are questions that as the battle rages over our personal electronic information, we should be asking. There are obviously ways to try to avoid the type of prying that could potentially be happening in our lives everyday, but it's on us to take stock and decide for ourselves where we want that line drawn, and we have to restrict or permit access to our lives via the electronic frontier accordingly. This is a fantastic film to act as a segue into this critical line of thinking and it's a thoroughly entertaining film to boot so give it a watch when you've got some time, and stick around for next week to see we're going to examine next!

No comments:

Post a Comment