Last night Scott and I went to see The Dark Knight. Whew. That’s a brutal movie. A very good movie, but it is brutal. Heath Ledger gave a remarkable performance, obviously taking himself to some very dark place in order to reach the depths of Sick and Psychotic that personified his Joker.
Now, here’s the thing. I’ve heard the trite-wing pundits all rush to claim this movie as their own, declaring that The Dark Knight is just like George W. Bush.
Did they even see the same movie I saw? Did they just watch the trailer and assume that it brazenly supported the Administration’s “feed a crony, starve a constitution” strategy in the GWOT?
Let’s look at the two incidents which in this movie that seem to echo Bush Administration tactics: torture and unlawful surveillance.
[NOTE: For those who are interested in the film but are waiting for the condensed version to come out on a Burger King collectible cup, Spoiler Alerts are in effect.]
Torture: During questioning, the Joker manipulates the Batman into breaking his own rules, when Batman realizes the Joker has put two people Bruce Wayne cares about in imminent danger. He bars the door to the interrogation room (to keep out Gordon, who wants to stop Batman) and begins to beat the Clown White crap out of the Joker. Eventually, the Joker gives up the information. And guess what? The only info Batman got was the info that the Joker wanted him to have.
The movie’s conclusion: torture doesn’t work.
Illegal Surveillance: Batman has the technology to turn every cellphone in the city into a “camera” of sorts, allowing him to see all the activities of all people, good and bad, alike. Does he give himself control of this awesome technology? No.
Does he give it to his loyal butler Alfred, or to Gordon (who would presumably love to see who is taking drugs, having sex with a prostitute, etc.)? No. He doesn’t.
He gives it to Fox (Morgan Freeman), the one man who says to him, “This is awful. This is wrong. You cannot do this.” Fox agrees to help “just this once,” meaning he will allow the technology to look for one man, the Joker, who has already, shall we say, given the good guys Probable Cause. The Batman trusts that Fox (much like the original FISA court) would not allow him to abuse this power, but would give him only enough information to help him find only The Joker, and you know what? It still worked!
The movie’s conclusion: The old FISA rules for court ordered surveillance worked just fine, even in a world of ever-advancing technology, thank you very much.
So, Dark Knight = Bush? Ehhhh, not so much. At least not in Christopher Nolan’s film. Wonder what Dark Knight the wingers saw?
Maybe it was the “Mexican Batwoman“, or the “Filipino Batman and Robin“! Wait! I’ve got it! It was “Bedmen – yarasa adam”, the Turkish Batman! (Google them, watch the vids and weep, whether with laughter or pain, I leave to you).
I’ve always found this fRighty obsession with claiming Super Hero/fantasy movies as “conservative” to be pretty silly. Even if it’s true (and they usually have to reach pretty hard to make that case) what, exactly does it prove? Are conservative talking points more convincing when they’re being advanced by Ironman?
Left by Gundamhead on August 17th, 2008