Dark Knight
The Dark Knight Trilogy brought forth a darker set of superhero movies. It brings up questions about justice, about morality, about truth, about society and about ourselves. Christopher Nolan is an amazing director that does a few things to Batman that are truly worth noting.
The first is the moral ambiguity. In series such as The Lord of the Rings, you know who’s good and who’s evil: everything is in black and white. But Batman shows the shades of grey. You don’t know who’s in the right. And that is what makes the villains so…seductive. They have seemingly plausible solutions to the problems of corruption, poverty, injustice and hierarchy. Though, as seen in The Dark Knight Rises, anarchy, when achieved, doesn’t work. Societies need structures. Which leads to the second point.
In the Batman series, there are three prominent groups: the government and its police force, the antagonist with the anti-structural solutions to solve problems, and the vigilante who defies the structure to protect it.
The antagonist and Batman are the two sides of the same coin — they both recognize that the system doesn’t work. However, Batman chooses the government because society needs it. In anarchy, there is only chaos. Yes, the system is flawed, a point that is repeated throughout the movies, however, it is worth protecting because it can be improved. That’s why Batman is the hero in the movie, because he knows the balance between order and disobedience.
The reason why Batman is favored more than other superheroes is because he lacks superpowers. It allows for him to be the common man, the person turned into a symbol, in actuality, an ideology. While in other movies, superheroes are shunned because of their powers, Batman is cast away because of his unknowable nature. People fear him because they know they could be him, or worse, that they aren’t him. People pushed away the Batman in Gotham City because they didn’t want to deal with their own ability to be great. They don’t want to realize that they have their own power that can be used. That there’s potential to do great good or great evil.
And that leads to the most important thing The Dark Knight Trilogy brings up: the civilians. People are not the innocent bystanders that run and hide while the supernatural heroes and villains fight. No, they are involved and they are decisive. In The Dark Knight, the Joker lets the people to choose whether to blow up the other boat or not. The movies allow the citizens to fight for their lives, to decide for themselves what their future holds. They end up showing that they’re worth protecting, that freedom and choice are ideals worth protecting. Because in order to justify fighting for structure and society, people have to prove that they deserve it.
After coming out of the theater a few hours ago, plot-wise, I was emotionally everywhere. But as I was walking down the street, I realized that my city could be Gotham. That everything in the trilogy is not only possible but could be probable. We’re moving to ideological extremes and to moral ambiguity. And if my hometown could be Gotham City, then I could be Batman. But I’m not. Because the Dark Knight isn’t a person, he’s an idea. He’s a symbol of sacrifice and heroism. Batman is an idea worth believing in, an idea worth rising.
And as we say goodbye to a complex and epic trilogy, all I have to say is:
I believe in the Batman.