I’d been hearing good things about this film for some time and only finally watched it on my brother’s laptop at the beach last week. I understood why the Straussians like this film—Batman and the Joker are both outside of society—one is a god and the other a beast. Batman is clearly somewhat uncomfortable with his role as a god: he gives power to his trusted colleague at one point in order to make sure that he doesn’t have too much power himself; additionally, he tries to run himself out of business by encouraging politics—he teaches Harvey Dent, the DA, to be just, both in the public eye and outside of it and aids the growth of his career. Batman, although not limited by the political morals that govern the society as a whole (he goes to Hong Kong, brings one of the bad guys back, and hands him over to the law), does have a code that he follows: he does not kill unless his life is threatened.
The Joker, on the other hand, is not governed by any code: he wreaks havoc simply in order to have chaos. He sees himself as the yin to Batman’s yang—they need each other in order to engage in play with the society. For this reason, he does not want to kill Batman, and trusts Batman not to kill him.
The Joker takes Harvey Dent and encourages him toward evil. Suddenly Dent, half of whose face was burnt off, is flipping coins to decide if his victim would die or not (okay, so actually, if the coin didn’t flip the way that he liked, he sometimes thought of other ways to kill them; also, this reminds me of No Country for Old Men—I can’t think exactly of the particular horribleness that happens when violence is attached to chance, but it seems to be there). We realize at the end of the film that Batman must continue to fulfill his role—political justice is not sufficient.
Moreover, Batman argues for the necessity of the noble lie: the people must not find out that Harvey Dent turned evil; rather, they must continue to see him as good in order to have faith in the existence of goodness. This is parallel to Plato’s noble lie in the Republic—it teaches us some truth about man (in this case that man is capable of being just and good), although not strictly true. In order to perpetuate this noble lie, Batman takes the fall and appears to be evil, suffering the consequent ostracization. Batman realizes that his position outside of society, as one who is not strictly subject to it (although he recognizes that he is still subject to some standard of good and evil), brings with it the fact of being misunderstood by society itself.
2 comments:
"He sees himself as the yin to Batman’s yang—they need each other in order to engage in play with the society. For this reason, he does not want to kill Batman, and trusts Batman not to kill him."
This is my problem with the DARK KNIGHT (and, by extention, straussians?).
In the original BATMAN, with Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson, Batman is "made" by the Joker. That is, Batman is making up (always) for the murder of his parents, and it turns out the man who became the Joker (jack) was their murderer. Batman also "made" the Joker--in a fight with Jack, drops him (accidentally?) into a vat of chemicals, that then cause his mutation. And make him go over the edge.
So they made each other; they are yin-yang. But niether is a god of a beast: Batman is an everyman who does good, and is therefore a hero. The joker is an everyman who is a bit crazy, and is therefore to be pitied, no matter how evil his actions are.
Perhaps THE DARK KNIGHT says more about politics. But BATMAN is a better story, I think. And perhaps says more about humanity.
Which is to say: you should watch it.
(On the other hand, nothing beats Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon. Love him.)
Agreed with Hopkins: the point of Batman is that he's not Superman. If he exists outside society, he has placed himself there--which raises the question of his own culpability for his actions, especially the ones he feels he "has to" do.
Politics comes back in, then, not through Aristotle, but through the image of the Ship in Republic VI: the philosopher may be the true man that understands, but he's on the ship with everyone all the same, whether he likes it or not.
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