The Dark Knight

Holy mistakes, Batman! The Dark Knight is, above all else, sloppy in its presentation and disturbing in its moral. The numerous mistakes aren’t just plot holes, but simple editing problems. For example, there are a number of close-up shots of one character talking, followed by a close-up shot of another character listening to the first character. Those second close-up shots, however, show the talking character as silent, even though the character continues to talk. We rarely notice these things on a first viewing, but they were painfully obvious in this movie because they happened blatantly and repeatedly.

Those kinds of mistakes augment the plotholes, which are annoyingly absurd. Consider the scene where the Joker breaks into Bruce Wayne’s skyline apartment during a big party. The scene ends with Batman falling umpteen stories to save Rachel Dawes, while the Joker and his gang remain at the party, where they are hunting for Harvey Dent. But the scene ends here and the next scene cuts to the next day. We are left to assume that the Joker simply left the apartment, which makes no sense, because Dent was still there and Batman had just fallen umpteen stories.

Or the scene where the Joker is left inside a jail cell with one guard watching him, who is standing inside the cell. But you get the point.

The incoherence in presentation matches the nonsense of this movie’s moral. As in its predecessor, Batman Begins, Batman has no problem with lying, torture, or illegal spying — this time, he uses a government contract to build a device that can spy on every cell phone in Gotham City. But, of course, Batman and The Patriot Act supposedly protect us all from nihilistic creeps like the Joker, who in this movie is a Satan figure. With the Joker, the movie does its one fine job, which to present evil as evil. He is almost supernatural — there is no origin story for him and he can seemingly appear anywhere at any time — but he has a number of flaws, including his overconfidence in his own abilities. Unfortunately, the Joker is also the star of the show. Movies always reward interesting faces and great performances; it would not surprise us if much of the audience for this movie actually missed the point and took a liking to Heath Ledger’s character.

The movie tries to make Batman out as a savior figure, but he is far from that. The final scene shows Batman taking the blame for all the death and mayhem we have just witnessed. The point is not that Batman is a savior atoning for Gotham City’s problems, but that he is simply trying to make everybody politically happy. He thinks that the citizens of Gotham need to believe a lie. This lie is that Batman is the bad guy, while Harvey Dent is the face of justice in Gotham. By lying, Batman is trying to maintain the social order.

However, Batman undermines the movie’s point about humanism and democracy. During the course of the movie, Harvey Dent becomes a deranged maniac named Two-Face. The fact that Batman wants us all to continue to trust Dent’s campaign slogan, “I Believe in Harvey Dent,” is hilarious. We are supposed to believe that people are inherently good, even though the Joker can corrupt anyone he pleases and the “good guy,” Harvey Dent, has become a maniac. And we are supposed to continue to trust in the goodness of a two-faced maniac for the sake of democracy and the social order!

If The Dark Knight is a morality tale about humanism and democracy, it is very bleak indeed. The hero is a torturer and liar, the villain is the star, Harvey Dent’s sinews are the prettiest images in the movie, and the political morals fall flat. Batman’s version of vigilante justice is the dark underbelly of Gotham’s democratic order. If lies are what prop up Gotham’s government, it will not be long before the dark underbelly is all that is left of Gotham.

Entertainment:4

Intelligence: 2

Morality: 0

Postscript:If anybody wants to read nonsense, you may look at the following reviews by well-known Christian publications:

Christianity Today

Crosswalk

World Magazine

These reviewers can’t see the forest for the trees. Calling The Dark Knight a “morality tale” is mostly meaningless unless we define what morality we are talking about. In a Christian context, we fail to see how this movie reflects a Biblical morality. There is no resolution — not in the musical score, not in Nolan’s typical forward-moving establishment shots, and certainly not in Batman’s decision to become the bad guy. There are no character arcs except for Harvey Dent’s, which is unbelievable due to bad acting and an incoherent script. Also, Batman has firm faith in humanity’s goodness, which is depicted in the ferry boat experiment that the Joker conducts. In that scene we are led to believe that, finally, the Joker has failed to corrupt people. People, even hard criminals, are good at heart. So Batman decides to distrust these good people by lying to them about himself and Harvey Dent. And he mourns for about two seconds over the death of a lifelong friend before getting back to his extreme version of vigilante justice. Whatta guy!

These publications don’t help anybody out by talking about style, about the performances of well-paid minstrels, and about the Philosophy 101 discussions the movie generates. The movie is ultra-violent and a complete waste of time for those who see it to be entertained, dazzled, or enlightened.

James Howard Kunstler makes excellent observations about the movie here.