Thursday, August 07, 2008
Pessimistic Much? or Why I Think Dark Knight is my new Favorite Movie
I'll break this down quickly by saying that I think the film makers of Dark Knight really hit a home run by nailing the current political/economic/spiritual/personal attitudes of our age.
Say what you want but things seem pretty bleak these days. Media is focused on the war or poor economy or the widening gap between rich and poor or the freaking planet being destroyed.
I think it boils down to us all wanting and needing a Dark superhero who blurs the line between good and evil. That being said I think all movies have been overly fascinated by the anti-hero for more than 20 years, but the Dark Knight let itself examine some current popular themes through the voices of its characters which transformed anti-hero(s) into village voice shouting from its soapbox.
1) The Joker plot is about chaos being at our doorstep. It just needs a little push to be unleashed.
2) The Joker also refers to the fact that you can't go back to the way things once were.
3) The 2 Face plot is about how everything is left to chance and there is no real order in the world.
4) Bruce's plot is about what it means to be a hero and being forced to make sacrifices that ultimately result in you getting only part of what you really want.
These are powerful subjects to tackle and its impressive that a super hero movie was able to take them on and do it successfully. I won't really go into them individually except to say that you can put a personification of America into each one and you come out with a truthful statement about the current state of our country.
#1 "America's situation is fragile and is faced with chaos at its doorstep"
#2 "America can't go back to the way things used to be"
#4 "America is both a villian and a hero and will not get what it wants"
#3 is more personal, but I still think a lot of Americans feel these days that most things in life are based on luck - jobs, relationships, salvation, death. This is certainly becoming more and more true for me personally.
So because of its profound commentary on current opinions about life in general I think Dark Knight is a very important movie. I wonder if it will hold up over time?
Say what you want but things seem pretty bleak these days. Media is focused on the war or poor economy or the widening gap between rich and poor or the freaking planet being destroyed.
I think it boils down to us all wanting and needing a Dark superhero who blurs the line between good and evil. That being said I think all movies have been overly fascinated by the anti-hero for more than 20 years, but the Dark Knight let itself examine some current popular themes through the voices of its characters which transformed anti-hero(s) into village voice shouting from its soapbox.
1) The Joker plot is about chaos being at our doorstep. It just needs a little push to be unleashed.
2) The Joker also refers to the fact that you can't go back to the way things once were.
3) The 2 Face plot is about how everything is left to chance and there is no real order in the world.
4) Bruce's plot is about what it means to be a hero and being forced to make sacrifices that ultimately result in you getting only part of what you really want.
These are powerful subjects to tackle and its impressive that a super hero movie was able to take them on and do it successfully. I won't really go into them individually except to say that you can put a personification of America into each one and you come out with a truthful statement about the current state of our country.
#1 "America's situation is fragile and is faced with chaos at its doorstep"
#2 "America can't go back to the way things used to be"
#4 "America is both a villian and a hero and will not get what it wants"
#3 is more personal, but I still think a lot of Americans feel these days that most things in life are based on luck - jobs, relationships, salvation, death. This is certainly becoming more and more true for me personally.
So because of its profound commentary on current opinions about life in general I think Dark Knight is a very important movie. I wonder if it will hold up over time?
