[ The Dark Knight is a deeply anti-communist film. We meant to work some more on this review and analyze the script more thoroughly. However, we felt this overview can help understand some recent events better. ]The big studio treatment of comic book adaptations seldom have anything to offer beyond stylized special effects. M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable was an attempt to break out the mould, but it wasn't a big success. The movies based on the Superman, Spiderman and Batman comics stayed well within the formula. The huge budget of these movies (often exceeding $200 million, half of it marketing costs), explains part of the problem. The movies must appeal to the widest segment possible. The Spiderman III movie took this to the extreme, with different targeted ad spots for men, women and children. The spots for men showed the action, the spot for women mostly showed the tender moments.
A comparison of the two comparable series (Spiderman and Batman) offers some more insight into how The Dark Knight came into being:
Company: Warner Brothers Pictures
Batman (1989) User Rating: 7.6/10 Director:Tim Burton
Batman Returns (1992) User Rating: 6.9/10 Director:Tim Burton
Batman Forever (1995) User Rating: 5.4/10 Director:Joel Schumacher
Batman Begins (2005) User Rating: 8.4/10 Director:Christopher Nolan
The Dark Knight (2008) User Rating: 9.0/10 Director:Christopher Nolan
Company: Columbia Pictures
Spider-Man (2002) User Rating: 7.4/10 Director:Sam Raimi
Spider-Man 2 (2004) User Rating: 7.7/10 Director:Sam Raimi
Spider-Man 3 (2007) User Rating:6.5/10 Director:Sam Raimi
Spider-Man 4 (2011) (*** announced *** ) Director:Sam Raimi
The above can explain the unusual choice of Christopher Nolan as the director. Prior to Batman Begins, Nolan had directed a few low budget films, including The Following and Memento, the latter being a cult success. This was followed by Nolan taking up Insomnia, a remake of a brilliant Norwegian film.
None of these prior works could predict Nolan would take up something like a Batman picture. This simply isn't his genre. Perhaps the dwindling fortunes of the Batman franchise forced the studio to make a bold decision. Batman Begins was a wild success and in retrospect one can clearly see Nolan was holding back. Then came The Dark Knight.
When people went to see the movie, they had a clear expectation. They wanted to see a spectacle - CGI, explosions, pop culture etc. The Dark Knight didn't disappoint, yet there was something shocking lurking underneath, something sinister and evil, something they could not quite put their fingers on.
They were most fascinated yet repulsed by the villain:
THE JOKER: [...] Nobody panics when things go according to plan, even if the plan is horrifying. If I tell the press that tomorrow a gangbanger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics. Because it's all part of the plan. But when I say that one little old mayor will die, everybody loses their minds!
Introduce a little anarchy, you upset the established order and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos. And you know the thing about chaos, Harvey?(Dent looks into the Joker's eyes. Finding meaning.)THE JOKER: It's fair.
Chaos is a recurring theme in the movie, a moral alternative to the unjust society. The Joker has a far reaching agenda. He does not believe in wealth (sets fire to a mini hill of currency notes), he does not make friends. He wants to transform the entire society. He is a violently unpredictable anarchist, yet his approach highly systematic.
What the audience was experiencing was essentially a communist "revolution" condensed into two hours of Hollywood format. Introducing a little bit of chaos can do wonders to society, permanently damaging the moral compass of the citizens.
Chaos later beccomes chance, the way intellectuals usually rationalize the movement. This was demonstrated via the Harvey Dent character.
Harvey Dent was a straight as an arrow character in the beginning, who believed in himself:
DENT: My father's lucky coin. As I recall, it got me my first date with you.
RACHEL: I'm serious, Harvey, you don't leave things like this to chance.
DENT: I don't. (sincere) I make my own luck.
.. and this is what became of him:
DENT: It's not about what I want. It's about what's fair. (to Gordon and Batman) You thought we could be decent men in an indecent world. You thought we could lead by example. You thought the rules could be bent but not break... you were wrong. The world is cruel.
(shows his coin)
And the only morality in a cruel world is chance. Unbiased. Unprejudiced. Fair.
Harvey Dent is easily brainwashed by a simple trick of the Joker. The Joker pretends to put himself to the test. Funny thing is, by the time the socialists put themselves to the test, their words start being taken for granted. In one poignant moment in the movie, the Joker appears to stake his life to the outcome of a coin toss. The coin toss is not shown - it is implied that merely by suggesting that the Joker himself is not afraid of the outcome of chaos, he waives the need for an actual test. This is also what we see in practice - socialists constantly talk about sacrifice, but we have to take their word for it.
The movie is replete with imagery and verbiage of socialist regimes, at one point the Joker conducts a "social experiment".
The Joker in this movie uses techniques that appear uncomfortably familiar - IEDs, bomb laden suicide vests, rigged vehicles and boats, hijacking, gasoline ....
There is a parallel theme running in the movie about terrorism, statecraft and leadership in times of challenges.
NATASCHA: But this is a democracy, Harvey.
DENT: When their enemies were at the gate, the Romans would suspend democracy and appoint one man to protect the city. It wasn't considered an honor. It was considered public service.
RACHEL: And the last man they asked to protect the republic was named Caesar. He never gave up that power.
This is a clear allusion to the War on Terror, which as we know was called off recently.
Few critics and reviewers really examined the movie in depth. Many simply called it "dark" (duh!). Some were fascinated by scenes in line with their ideological (conscious or otherwise) belief, for instance Tehelka report Shoma Choudhury liked the boat scene (social experiment). Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN found the movie to be "spectacularly inellectual", without quite explaining why.
It is no wonder the Academy Awards gave the movie a pass, as it ran counter to the current political ideals. The award went to the other highly revered movie, in which chance is not only celebrated, it plays a starring role. Redemption comes from chance, not from ones actions.
Resources:
Screenplay (Warner Brothers) [PDF]
10 comments:
Superlative critique.
Best yet on the movie, well juxtaposed with the current political milieu.
A similarly exceptional movie was a few good men. The courtroom exchange is seared in my mind. Nicholson's articulation "we live in a world with walls that need to be defended by men with guns" still gives me the goosebumps.
I would love to read your views on this!
Brilliant review. Never saw the movie in this sense. There are so many movies with this socialistic undercurrents. Add a slice of secular overtone to this and you have a perfect recipe for a winner. Bollywood has mastered it if u ask me! Robinhood has a mass appeal because he is the saviour of poor. Now, even if he robs, he is good man. Thus on the same count, John Dillinger is glorified as a man of principles. Very rarely we see a movie speaking of really what is Right!
One such movie which really talks about the right in the right sense is The Insider. Jeffoery Wigand portrayed by Russel Crowe at one points talks about James Burke, CEO of J&J and how he developed safety caps for Tylenol. This is what one should really glorify in the movies. Instead most of them predict cash redistribution through robbery!
wow!!
Not many reviews make me go and watch a movie again. This one does.
Neither Shoma nor Masand have the intellect or originality you have, so lets leave them out of this. Just read the last paragraph from Shomas article, pedestrian at best.
Fascinating review. Now I'm going to have to re-watch the movie.
It is a very fabulous review. Some great insights I never dreamed of.
My famous line from the movie by Joker character which applies very well to Congress Politics in India is 'Introduce a little anarchy".
That famous line is Indira Gandhi's mantra to handle dissent and opposition.
When Indira Gandhi was facing a lot of dissent from UP and Bihar, mainly led by Jaya Prakash Narayana - her way of dealing with any such dissent is to "introduce a little anarchy" in her rivals' constituents. Let the govt machinery of courts and police be weakened and let the rowdies and goondas rule the raj for a while. This technique of Indira Gandhi worked most of the times to suppress any dissent, but tragically UP and Bihar were thrown decades back in their development.
Also the introductory scene in the movie where Joker robs a bank and makes the accomplices kill one another to increase the ultimate share, and finally kills the last one himself. It is so typically of any communist and socialist system, where the leader wants all the cake for himself and does not want him/herself to be surrounded by strong and intelligent people.
This is also very typical of Indira Gandhi. As soon as she takes over power after death of Lal Bahadur Shastri under suspicious circumstances, first thing she does is to eliminate the syndicate. She was so insecure to the level of being paranoid that she could not tolerate any intelligent/charasmatic/mass leader around her. If anyone looks at her inner circle, most of them are so spineless that they can't even win their seats without the congress brand.
Political science even has a term for this pattern in communist and socialist regimes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_selection_%28politics%29
The mobsters in the movie The Dark Knight hand over immense power and money to The Joker so that he can kill The Batman. As Alfred would later tell Bruce, they went to a man they didn't fully understand. The Joker turns out to be a lunatic that he was feared to be. He destroys all the wealth - including that of the mobsters.
He ends up conducting social experiment that puts common people against petty criminals. He tells victims of the system that he is an agent of "chaos" and that "chaos" is fair. The social experiment would lead to realization to true "chaos" he would tell The Batman but the people can't rid themselves of the innate respect they have for others' lives.
------
Losers in 2014 election hand over immense power and money to The Joker so that he can take on Modi. They turned to man they didn't fully understand. The Joker turns out to be a lunatic that he was feared to be. He destroys all political structure including that of the Losers.
He ends up conducting social experiments that put common people against petty businessmen. He tells victims of the system that he is an agent of "anarchy" and that "anarchy" is fair. The people instead of ridding themselves of the scum, made them their king. Now they repent their mistake.
-----
Close Enough.
"No no no ... I kill the bus driver" said the Joker. He planned the bank job to such detail that it is the only possible outcome! Two thugs wearing their clown masks didn't know each other. One waited while the other successfully killed SOS lines from the bank. The other killed him as soon as the lines went dead. Then he went straight to the strong room to open the safe. Three other thugs entered the bank at that exact time - all wearing clown masks. None of them knew the other.
Two thugs were attacked in a surprising attempt by the manger. One of them died. The one from strong room joined the other thug in the lobby who was hid frantically behind a desk and said "he is out right?", to which the other thug nodded in the affirmative. Thug from the strong room suddenly stands up to fire but to his surprise the bank manager had one more bullet to fire. The bank manger shot but could shoot him only on his shoulder. The other thug quickly springs up from behind the desk to shot the bank manager. The injured thug then goes to the strong room.
As soon as the thug who was trying to open the safe succeeded, the other thug waiting patiently behind him, killed him. He was smart enough by now to realize that the Joker - the man who planned the job - told each member to kill the other one as soon as that part of the plan succeeded. He bagged all the money and dragged them out.
Now that the job is about to complete, the thug injured in the shoulder pointed the gun to the other thug and said "I am betting the joker told you to kill me as soon as we loaded the cash". Then the joker positioned himself away from the wall and said "no no no .... I kill the bus driver". "Bus driver? What bus driver?" said the other just as a school bus rammed in killing him. The bus driver came out wearing a clown mask, loaded the school bus with cash bags and asked the other thug "what happened to the rest of the guys?". The Joker killed the bus driver, drove the school bus out of the rubble to join the other school buses which were on their regular schedule.
-------
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OYBEquZ_j0
The opening scene of The Dark Knight movie resembles so much with what happened in AAP National executive yesterday!
Bhushans and Yadav issued warnings on the direction AAP was going in. Ashish Khetan tweeted extremely provocative statements almost calling Bhushans and Yadav as anti-AAP. Kejriwal reportedly wanted Bhushan's removal while Sisodia had issues with Yadav. Kejriwal distanced himself from the controversy, went to Bangalore. Ashish Khetan issued apology and deleted his tweets a day later.
Then reports emerged that Kejriwal *offered* to resign from PAC. Then reports emerged with more clarity that he *offered* to resign from PAC if Yadav and Bhushan are removed from PAC.
National Executive met. Probably expletives were exchanged. National Executive decided to remove Yadav and Bhushan for anti-party activities while rejecting Kejriwal's resignation.
Communistic regimes had their fair share of this of plots *as thick as pathology*. Kejriwal has a dictatorial attitude but no media person will tell you.
Are you on twitter? Ok to post a screenshot of your comment on twitter?
Not on twitter ... ok to post on twitter ... no issues.
Correct any grammatical errors if you please :)
Post a Comment