SPOILERS (and you really shouldn't be reading this thread if you need to know this):
TedW wrote:But by film's end, the love interest has been murdered; the upstanding force for good has first been transformed into a psychopath and then killed; the nominal "hero," questioning his own motivations all the way, has largely failed and is now an outlaw, on the run; at least one of his compatriots has rejected further participation, finding the methods of his boss to be unethical; and the city is in ruins. This doesn't seem to be the sum of a pro-vigilante or pro-fascist agenda. I don't find anything "reassuring" about the conclusion of the movie.
The ending supports the idea that "lying" to the public and having them villianize you is fine, since they don't know what's best for them and you do. It is certainly more reassuring than the dark, complex tone the ending deserved, right down to a "stirring" voiceover and "heroic" musical score (the by-the-number score in this film, similar to pretty much every other film of this ilk, is also one of my gripes with the film), and leads me to no other conclusion than the film is squarely on the side of Batman and Gordon's decision. Sure, we can recognize the irony in the ending, but that doesn't mean the film does, and I find very little irony actually there on the celluloid.
There were all the ingredients for an open-ended, more ambiguous ending, and Nolan certainly knows they were there, which makes the way it was handled all the more disappointing (And I also felt Lucius Fox's stand to be a problem, as I mentioned earlier).
Mr_sausage wrote:One of the problems of the arguments being lined up is that they refuse the idea that Batman's actions (because he's the hero, because he saves the day) are ambiguous.
I'm not saying there aren't points where the film treats Batman's actions as ambiguous; for a good portion of the film it does so intelligently, and those portions are fantastic and enough for me to recommend the film. It's the smaller portion where it loses it shit that's problematic, and the ending is a point where it is especially so.
I'm not yelling Pro-Bush because there's nothing I've read that suggest Nolan believes in that direction, and many things I've read show he recognized how complex the moral questions brought up are. But it doesn't take away the fact that there are problematic conclusions in the film, and if not the result of fascist politics, they're definitely the result of a failure in storytelling.
Mr_sausage wrote:Again, I'll repeat myself: people are finding things in this movie I'm sure they would not if the film had been made pre-patriot act. Nor do they object to similar stuff in other, older movies. Oh well. It's not like anyone's proven beyond a doubt the movie is endorsing the allegories that are being extracted.
I don't see how that is a problem. Dynamic shifts in the world require shifts in what's acceptable.
There's literature with hints of Antisemitism made before Nazi-Germany I can enjoy since I recognized for many people antisemitism was a highly present, and relatively acceptable aspect in society. I can't ignore it nor how ugly it is, but there is a context where its understandable. After the Holocaust, I really can't say the same; the ugly inevitable conclusion of antisemitism is far too obvious now for antisemitism to be overlooked or explained away so easily. I think
Coal Black and De Sebbin Dwarfs is one of the great cartoons of all time despite its racism for similar reasons; if it was made today, I need not say how it would be received by the public, me included.
Cde mention art isn't created in a vacuum. The same applies here.
Mr_sausage wrote:And perhaps the only way to "save" the West from terrorists is indeed to take away every freedom we have. It's not implausible, and may be a rather disturbing reality of terrorism: that the things we cherish may be the things that most expose us. Acknowledging that this may be a reality does not make you neo-conservative (although you just might be a pessemist). You can read it as a propoganda move if you want. I'd rather see it as one more reason evil is so disturbing.
Perhaps it is. It still doesn't take away the complexity of the issue, nor the fact that while it may be necessary, it still isn't right.
Watchmen, which you may or may not have read, ends similarly to
The Dark Knight: A lie must be sold to the public for their own good, a lie in this case which happens to kill several million innocent people. There's nothing in
Watchmen to suggest under these circumstance, that the lie wasn't the right choice. Even the god-like figure, with infinite knowledge and powers, agrees. Yet, Moore doesn't remove the moral dilemma inherent in the act, regardless whether it was necessary or not. We still feel outraged that millions had to die. We still feel outraged that the public will never know the truth. We feel outraged that Rorschach is killed for daring to reveal the truth. We feel outraged that such an act could ever be necessary, yet like Nite Owl and Specter, we feel powerless to stop it, or even oppose it.
If that sort of recognition of both sides of the coin was prevalent through the entire film, I don't think there would be such a problem, its points where they reduce the complexity of the dilemma, and towards the side that doesn't fall under our modern understanding of justice and civil rights, that are problematic.
sevenarts wrote:the film heavily suggests that Batman's presence in Gotham helped to create and inspire the Joker, and that without Batman's actions the Joker would probably never have existed in as extreme a form -- much like how the West's militaristic actions around the world helped create and fan the flames of Islamic fundamentalism.
I think "heavily" would be too strong a word, but it does suggest it. The film would have benefited from exploring this idea more. In my opinion, it doesn't do enough with it.