Review: The Dark Knight

I was actually expecting just a lot of explosions, a useless woman that Batman loves and has to save - which will ultimately be the climax of the story, but I think Christopher did a wonderful job in making that NOT the point of the story.

I think the story is actually an insult to the society, which the society can do nothing but admit.

This is revealed in the Joker's plans. The first was when Joker visits Harvey Dent and said something like (paraphrased) "The people get frantic when their puny plans are interrupted".

In the ferry explosion story, the Joker did not intend to bomb the ferries - but he was confident that humans are selfish in nature that they will blow themselves up anyway. Of course, there was a good guy at the ship which threw the remote control out of the ship - doing the right thing. But we saw a tension between doing what is fair and what is sacrificially good.

Joker was trying to point out that humans, even the best of them (Harvey Dent) will turn wicked and mad given the proper pressure and circumstances. In this, the Joker got it right. The best did turn evil.

Another insult to the society is that the society cannot handle truth. Harvey was the wicked guy, and Batman was the good guy - but in the scene where son asked the inspector why Batman has to run(escape the police), he said Batman has to run... because the police had to chase.

See, the issue was - in the last scene, either Harvey Dent was the bad guy or that Batman was the bad guy. The truth is that the real saviour is batman, but the society hates batman. Harvey Dent was the symbol of hope and goodness for the society, but Harvey couldn't really help the society - so for the greater good (with the ignorance of the society in the picture) Batman had to be the bad guy, and Harvey must be the good guy - even though he turned wicked.

The movie also ends with the idea that Batman must be the dark knight, he has to get his hands dirty and play the bad guy role in order to be the good guy - because of the ignorance of the society.

If we took moral classes in college, we would know that there is a difference between the consequentialists and non-consequentialist theories. The non-consequencialist (like Divine Command theory) is critisized somewhat in this show - saying that Batman cannot do the right thing, because doing the right thing will tear the society apart. Batman had to lie in that sense, to save the society. A somewhat twisted version of Robin Hood.

There are quite a few contrasts here in the show. The first is Harvey Dent versus the people in the ferry. Harvey Dent turned wicked under desperate conditions, but the ferry people, though they inclined to do the selfish thing, yet under desperate conditions they chose the right thing, to sacrifice their rights.... but instead by sacrificing themselves, they saved both the ships.

Another contrast is Morgan Freeman and Batman. Morgan knew certain things that were unethical, and he said he would only help Batman once, and then he would quit the job - he faced the pressure, yet he to some extent bought the consequentialist idea to some extent.

Though Batman actually asked Morgan to do the illegal thing (installing the sonar detector into everyone's phone), yet when he was in his bike and he tripped the truck that Joker was in, he did not choose to kill Joker, but did things the lawful way and allowed the inspector to arrest the Joker.

But another insult to the law is this - it was within Joker's plan that he ought to go to prison to fulfill his greater plan of threatening the whole society. On one hand, it might show some intelligence on the Joker's part, but on the other hand, it is also trying to say that our so called organized institutions are full of flaws.

Yet, one starking truth that we ought to know is this: Being the good guy is always harder. Good guys have to play by the rules, bad guys can do anything. Yet in such a deficient society, it is always the more sacrificial and counter-intuitive thing to do the right thing.

The conslusion I think from the movie is a heavy consequentialist theme - it is that we cannot really do good in a bad society; to some extent that is true, but that is not the ultimate solution for earth. The Bible records that God will one day come in Judgement and He will righteously and justly render to each person their work, no partiality and fairly.