The Dark Knight, a conservative movie, breaks records
Purple Hawk
Posts: 1,300
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB121694247343482821.html
What Bush and Batman Have in Common
By ANDREW KLAVAN
July 25, 2008; Page A15
A cry for help goes out from a city beleaguered by violence and fear: A beam of light flashed into the night sky, the dark symbol of a bat projected onto the surface of the racing clouds . . .
Oh, wait a minute. That's not a bat, actually. In fact, when you trace the outline with your finger, it looks kind of like . . . a "W."
There seems to me no question that the Batman film "The Dark Knight," currently breaking every box office record in history, is at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war. Like W, Batman is vilified and despised for confronting terrorists in the only terms they understand. Like W, Batman sometimes has to push the boundaries of civil rights to deal with an emergency, certain that he will re-establish those boundaries when the emergency is past.
And like W, Batman understands that there is no moral equivalence between a free society -- in which people sometimes make the wrong choices -- and a criminal sect bent on destruction. The former must be cherished even in its moments of folly; the latter must be hounded to the gates of Hell.
"The Dark Knight," then, is a conservative movie about the war on terror. And like another such film, last year's "300," "The Dark Knight" is making a fortune depicting the values and necessities that the Bush administration cannot seem to articulate for beans.
Conversely, time after time, left-wing films about the war on terror -- films like "In The Valley of Elah," "Rendition" and "Redacted" -- which preach moral equivalence and advocate surrender, that disrespect the military and their mission, that seem unable to distinguish the difference between America and Islamo-fascism, have bombed more spectacularly than Operation Shock and Awe.
Why is it then that left-wingers feel free to make their films direct and realistic, whereas Hollywood conservatives have to put on a mask in order to speak what they know to be the truth? Why is it, indeed, that the conservative values that power our defense -- values like morality, faith, self-sacrifice and the nobility of fighting for the right -- only appear in fantasy or comic-inspired films like "300," "Lord of the Rings," "Narnia," "Spiderman 3" and now "The Dark Knight"?
The moment filmmakers take on the problem of Islamic terrorism in realistic films, suddenly those values vanish. The good guys become indistinguishable from the bad guys, and we end up denigrating the very heroes who defend us. Why should this be?
The answers to these questions seem to me to be embedded in the story of "The Dark Knight" itself: Doing what's right is hard, and speaking the truth is dangerous. Many have been abhorred for it, some killed, one crucified.
Leftists frequently complain that right-wing morality is simplistic. Morality is relative, they say; nuanced, complex. They're wrong, of course, even on their own terms.
Left and right, all Americans know that freedom is better than slavery, that love is better than hate, kindness better than cruelty, tolerance better than bigotry. We don't always know how we know these things, and yet mysteriously we know them nonetheless.
The true complexity arises when we must defend these values in a world that does not universally embrace them -- when we reach the place where we must be intolerant in order to defend tolerance, or unkind in order to defend kindness, or hateful in order to defend what we love.
When heroes arise who take those difficult duties on themselves, it is tempting for the rest of us to turn our backs on them, to vilify them in order to protect our own appearance of righteousness. We prosecute and execrate the violent soldier or the cruel interrogator in order to parade ourselves as paragons of the peaceful values they preserve. As Gary Oldman's Commissioner Gordon says of the hated and hunted Batman, "He has to run away -- because we have to chase him."
That's real moral complexity. And when our artistic community is ready to show that sometimes men must kill in order to preserve life; that sometimes they must violate their values in order to maintain those values; and that while movie stars may strut in the bright light of our adulation for pretending to be heroes, true heroes often must slink in the shadows, slump-shouldered and despised -- then and only then will we be able to pay President Bush his due and make good and true films about the war on terror.
Perhaps that's when Hollywood conservatives will be able to take off their masks and speak plainly in the light of day.
What Bush and Batman Have in Common
By ANDREW KLAVAN
July 25, 2008; Page A15
A cry for help goes out from a city beleaguered by violence and fear: A beam of light flashed into the night sky, the dark symbol of a bat projected onto the surface of the racing clouds . . .
Oh, wait a minute. That's not a bat, actually. In fact, when you trace the outline with your finger, it looks kind of like . . . a "W."
There seems to me no question that the Batman film "The Dark Knight," currently breaking every box office record in history, is at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war. Like W, Batman is vilified and despised for confronting terrorists in the only terms they understand. Like W, Batman sometimes has to push the boundaries of civil rights to deal with an emergency, certain that he will re-establish those boundaries when the emergency is past.
And like W, Batman understands that there is no moral equivalence between a free society -- in which people sometimes make the wrong choices -- and a criminal sect bent on destruction. The former must be cherished even in its moments of folly; the latter must be hounded to the gates of Hell.
"The Dark Knight," then, is a conservative movie about the war on terror. And like another such film, last year's "300," "The Dark Knight" is making a fortune depicting the values and necessities that the Bush administration cannot seem to articulate for beans.
Conversely, time after time, left-wing films about the war on terror -- films like "In The Valley of Elah," "Rendition" and "Redacted" -- which preach moral equivalence and advocate surrender, that disrespect the military and their mission, that seem unable to distinguish the difference between America and Islamo-fascism, have bombed more spectacularly than Operation Shock and Awe.
Why is it then that left-wingers feel free to make their films direct and realistic, whereas Hollywood conservatives have to put on a mask in order to speak what they know to be the truth? Why is it, indeed, that the conservative values that power our defense -- values like morality, faith, self-sacrifice and the nobility of fighting for the right -- only appear in fantasy or comic-inspired films like "300," "Lord of the Rings," "Narnia," "Spiderman 3" and now "The Dark Knight"?
The moment filmmakers take on the problem of Islamic terrorism in realistic films, suddenly those values vanish. The good guys become indistinguishable from the bad guys, and we end up denigrating the very heroes who defend us. Why should this be?
The answers to these questions seem to me to be embedded in the story of "The Dark Knight" itself: Doing what's right is hard, and speaking the truth is dangerous. Many have been abhorred for it, some killed, one crucified.
Leftists frequently complain that right-wing morality is simplistic. Morality is relative, they say; nuanced, complex. They're wrong, of course, even on their own terms.
Left and right, all Americans know that freedom is better than slavery, that love is better than hate, kindness better than cruelty, tolerance better than bigotry. We don't always know how we know these things, and yet mysteriously we know them nonetheless.
The true complexity arises when we must defend these values in a world that does not universally embrace them -- when we reach the place where we must be intolerant in order to defend tolerance, or unkind in order to defend kindness, or hateful in order to defend what we love.
When heroes arise who take those difficult duties on themselves, it is tempting for the rest of us to turn our backs on them, to vilify them in order to protect our own appearance of righteousness. We prosecute and execrate the violent soldier or the cruel interrogator in order to parade ourselves as paragons of the peaceful values they preserve. As Gary Oldman's Commissioner Gordon says of the hated and hunted Batman, "He has to run away -- because we have to chase him."
That's real moral complexity. And when our artistic community is ready to show that sometimes men must kill in order to preserve life; that sometimes they must violate their values in order to maintain those values; and that while movie stars may strut in the bright light of our adulation for pretending to be heroes, true heroes often must slink in the shadows, slump-shouldered and despised -- then and only then will we be able to pay President Bush his due and make good and true films about the war on terror.
Perhaps that's when Hollywood conservatives will be able to take off their masks and speak plainly in the light of day.
And you ask me what I want this year
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Cuz I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
And desire and love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Cuz I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
And desire and love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
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Only if W understood economics like he does foreign policy, he WOULD be batman! or Reagan
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Cuz I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
And desire and love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
damn straight yo! you got it all figured out.
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Cuz I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
And desire and love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
i'm sure you can have a more intelligent take than that.
to quote tyler durden "clever, how is that workin' out for ya?"
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Cuz I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
And desire and love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Sha la la la i'm in love with a jersey girl
I love you forever and forever
Adel 03 Melb 1 03 LA 2 06 Santa Barbara 06 Gorge 1 06 Gorge 2 06 Adel 1 06 Adel 2 06 Camden 1 08 Camden 2 08 Washington DC 08 Hartford 08
Did he honestly put Batman, Jesus, and George W. Bush in the same boat?
but then again...
Obama is half white as well....Two-face?
http://nmazca.com/blog/holyhegemony.jpg
This is the biggest misconception perpetuated by the ignorant left! Do you really think the US is just blowing up houses in Iraq? Killing innocent civilians left and right? Then why has 1 US soldier been killed? Can't we just drop bombs from hundreds of miles away? Can't we just drop one big bomb and kill them all?
The war in Iraq is coming to a close, resistance is almost non-existent. Families take their children to parks. A country is free from the evil reign of a butcher!
04/25/03 05/02/03 5/3/03 6/24/03 6/28/03 7/5/03 7/6/03 7/11/03 7/12/03 7/14/03
09/28/04 09/29/04 10/01/04 10/02/04
09/28/05 09/30/05 10/03/05
5/24/06 5/25/06 5/27/06 5/28/06 5/30/06 6/01/06 6/03/06 6/23/06 6/24/06 7/22/06 7/23/06
6/20/08 6/22/08 6/24/08 6/25/08
These Batman movies are an reinvention of him into a far darker, ambigous and sinister character (which always have fitted the batman universe in my view). He may be "conservative", but the portrayal of him isn't. Wire-tapping are shown, but not glorified. And so on (I refer to the other Dark Knight thread).
Some people have to over-analyze a box-office hit, that is a hit because of excellent acting and a great story for a superhero movie. sour-pusses that talk about how this creates acceptance for this or that, is, frankly, talking out of their asses. How an illogical story, with an unbelievably all-knowing all-malicious super-villain leads to that I just dont see. the whole movie is more a metaphysical allegory based on the Nietszchean "as you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you" kind of thing. Much more so than being a thumbs-up for the war on terror and wire-tapping.
Peace
Dan
"Every judgment teeters on the brink of error. To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty." - Frank Herbert, Dune, 1965
Some bullet points to think about:
*Batman’s war on crime leads to weaponized hallucinogens being used recreationally.
*Batman’s position as a symbol of goodness and strength leads to blind, moronic followers taking their guns to the streets to purge the scum from the city, resulting in their own failures and, in some cases, death.
*Batman’s thuggish mob crack-downs lead to a more aggressive, violent criminal organization.
*Batman’s destructive actions are in complete disregard for the safety of Gotham’s citizens. For those who have seen the movie, remember the kids playing guns in the car? Would they even be alive if Batman didn’t need to turn immediately prior to reaching their car – or would they have been blown-up with all the rest of the vehicles Batman plowed through to get where he was going? Were there any other people we didn’t see sitting in the cars that were blown-up? Were their lives less valuable than the life of the woman Batman was attempting to save – the woman who ended up dead anyway?
*Batman’s actions inspire the creation of one of the most senseless, hateful, and vicious terrorists to ever threaten Gotham. A mad bomber who, by his own admission, created himself largely as a counterpoint to Batman’s enforced morality.
*Batman’s mere existence leads the aforementioned terrorist to hopelessly destroy the life of the only true reformer in Gotham; a man whose success at fighting crime by the book, within the boundaries of the law, was showing far greater strides in actually bringing the tormented city – tormented largely because of Batman’s actions – back to some semblance of normalcy.
*The Buck Stops Here – the only truly heroic thing Batman did, and something that the fictional “W” featured in the OP article has never done in real life, is rightfully take the blame for the fruits of his actions.
Don’t get me wrong, it was a fantastic movie – mainly for the complex and morally ambiguous points I mentioned above. But, if Batman existed in real life, I’d probably like to see him behind bars with all the rest of the dangerous criminals.
It's just good escapism entertainment. I loved everything about it and still hate everything the Bush Administration and Blairite Labour stand for.
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fucking unbelievable.
People think it's a conservative movie because there's a scene that involves wiretapping.
And because Commissioner Gordon claims the Joker has yellow cake during his "State of Gotham" address.
for the least they could possibly do
And I did not know any of that. I'm not a big comic movie guy. And maybe it is a conservative movie, for all I know. My point is that it being conservative is not why it is so successful.
this is a load of horseshit. war and violence should always be the last resort. "conservatives" behave as if it's the best one, so why not lead with it?
there's never a good reason to torture, or to be hateful, or to objectify our enemies in order to prove we're "right". the lines between "good" and "evil", "right" and "wrong" ARE blurry, captain america. life IS complex. invading sovereign nations and bombing the shit out of our so-called enemies is not winning us any points or, let's face it, any wars.
americans like yourself confuse comic book heroics with real life heroics. it's much, MUCH more heroic to try and understand our foes, and to attempt to come to some sort of compromise which leaves more people on both sides of the imaginary line alive and well.
"Obama's main opponent in this election on November 4th (was) not John McCain, it (was) ignorance."~Michael Moore
"i'm feeling kinda righteous right now. with my badass motherfuckin' ukulele!"
~ed, 8/7
Wait, sorry. I made up the yellow cake stuff. I was joking. Probably should have gone with a
There is a scene that involves wiretapping, but after they do it, Batman has them destroy all the technology used to do it, because human beings apparently can't be trusted with it.
for the least they could possibly do
Although I have to say, the costume desiger's choice to dress the Joker in a long beard and turban was a little odd.
Wait ... there I go again
for the least they could possibly do
Yes. You could have told me that the villan was Osama bin Penguin and I'd have believed it.
So you HAVE seen the movie?
Oh yeah ...
for the least they could possibly do
Yeah, Bush's term in office is just about over with
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By the disaster on both fronts, it seems like he does understand them about the same.
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
We love those movies because they are escapist and good and evil are clearly defined. Unfortunately, reality rarely is. Thus why most conservative values only appear in fantasy settings, because that is the only place they work
Nice first post!
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