I grew up mildly aware of the comic books paradigm. For example, I didn't know that DC Comics even existed. Only Marvel and Archie's existed to child me. That would make me one of these apostate people who thought the first iteration of Batman was Adam West in that silly 1960s television series. It's OK, I can live with the judgment of comic book nerds. I believe that the ability to think independently of the comics universe is a strength, not a debilitating psychological condition.
Despite my qualms with superheroes and my initial confusion about his origins, I love Batman. He probably is the only superhero I really care about because he doesn't really have superpowers outside of his otherworldly creativity and his endless financial resources. He's a crazy person with an irrational grudge against criminality and the means to sustain it for the duration of his natural life. I think one of the greatest attempt to explain the psychology of Batman to the common of mortals was Christopher Nolan's ambitious mainstream trilogy of the Dark Knight, that sprawled over 7 years.
Believe it or not, I had never watched the entirety of the Dark Knight trilogy, but now I did. I watched movies back to back over the weekend and found out it was an oddly reactionary, enjoyably contradictory and deceptively psychological series of action movies best enjoyed by crazy people like me.
Batman Begins (2005)
This is the most karma-free movie in the series. It centers around the psychological motivations behind the creation of Batman. Basically, American billionaire and playboy Bruce Wayne realized as a child that all the privilege in the world couldn't keep him safe from the violence of Gotham City's streets, so he dedicated his life to protect those who were once like him: innocent and carefree. I like to see his fortune as a metaphor for the innocence he lost because it once shielded him and now it became his responsibility.
The plot of Batman Begins is more philosophical than the other movies of the trilogy as it centers around the League of Shadows trying to tear down Gotham City because it has become too corrupted, claiming it's the only way it will become pure again. They're more a conceptual enemy than anything else as they confront Batman to the dark side of his own quest to save Gotham: is he just accepting responsibility for everybody else's burden? Is the city headed for self-destruction anyway? Can a rotten fruit become edible again without getting buried and having to regrow?
One cool thing I noticed about Batman Begins (which I had never saw until last weekend) is the symbolism of the well. It's very present in The Dark Knight Rises, but I didn't know how central it was to Bruce Wayne's character. It's anchored in his childhood as his dad saves him from one and he is plagued by visions of it until he saves himself from another giant prison-well in the last part of the trilogy. The immaterial light on top represents his ideals who are always out of reach while he's prisoner of his past. It was a very cool idea by Christopher Nolan.
The Dark Knight (2008)
Kind of a paradigm shift from the philosophical Batman Begins. The enemy shifts from organized crime and secret societies to terrorism. Heath Ledger's immortal interpretation of The Joker couldn't care less about monetary gain and outlaw romanticism. He just wants to watch the world burn, like Alfred says in the movie. The Joker is a terrorist without a cause. All he's interested in is power and other need you might have aside of that, he's going to use it against you, to manipulate you into doing what he wants.
This is where the series gets a bit right wing-y. Harvey Dent is the new face of Gotham City's fight against crime and he is supposed to take over Batman as the protector of the city. What the movie states though is that there are people the law doesn't get to. They are born outside of it and are unbound by its shackles. This kind of quintessential being only understands violence. The Dark Knight is basically saying that terrorists will only understand and respect displays of brute force.
That said, my favorite parts of The Dark Knight were The Joker's exchange with just about everyone who believe in something, even the bad guys. There is this amazing scene where he confesses to Batman he never wants to kill him because they give each other purpose. A symbol of hope doesn't have any use without a symbol of fear and vice versa. He invites him to reject people who think of him as not real, just like he did. Batman Begins was philosophical, yet The Dark Knight is the most ideological and political film in the series.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Further down the terrorism ladder, there is Bane. An internationally known and feared mercenary with a chip on his shoulder about Gotham City, the symbol of greed and perversion among the criminals of Batman's universe. The Dark Knight Rises was bound by the non-narrative requirement of closing a movie trilogy and therefore being the most spectacular fucking extravaganza it could be and well, it did just that.
The Dark Knight Rises is not very subtle and not that thematically different from its predecessor, but it is by design. Once again Gotham is prey to terrorism, by a guy who just want to see the city turned into a pile of ashes (for reasons you eventually learn in the movie), but Bane is no different from the villain who ties the girl to the railroad tracks in old movie or the evil father separating lovers at the Opera. If The Joker believed in nothing, Bane represents nothing or not much. He's just a powerful guy for you to hate and fear, and for Batman to face. It is my sincere belief that The Dark Knight Rises is just catharsis, a spectacle made for you to suspend your lives for three hours.
Christopher Nolan finishes what he started in the first movie with Bruce Wayne's character. He finds a bit of freedom both by doing the highly conceptual exercise of climbing his way outside a well and by more or less sacrificing the symbol he created in order to unload the burden of the murder of his parents. I thought it was a nice narrative wrap-up to such a chaotic and spectacular movie hell-bent on creating immortal scenes. Of course, there is the promise of a subsequent movie at the end, but that's another story. You can't arbitrarily decide of an ending for Batman. He belongs to everybody.
Despite my qualms with superheroes and my initial confusion about his origins, I love Batman. He probably is the only superhero I really care about because he doesn't really have superpowers outside of his otherworldly creativity and his endless financial resources. He's a crazy person with an irrational grudge against criminality and the means to sustain it for the duration of his natural life. I think one of the greatest attempt to explain the psychology of Batman to the common of mortals was Christopher Nolan's ambitious mainstream trilogy of the Dark Knight, that sprawled over 7 years.
Believe it or not, I had never watched the entirety of the Dark Knight trilogy, but now I did. I watched movies back to back over the weekend and found out it was an oddly reactionary, enjoyably contradictory and deceptively psychological series of action movies best enjoyed by crazy people like me.
Batman Begins (2005)
This is the most karma-free movie in the series. It centers around the psychological motivations behind the creation of Batman. Basically, American billionaire and playboy Bruce Wayne realized as a child that all the privilege in the world couldn't keep him safe from the violence of Gotham City's streets, so he dedicated his life to protect those who were once like him: innocent and carefree. I like to see his fortune as a metaphor for the innocence he lost because it once shielded him and now it became his responsibility.
The plot of Batman Begins is more philosophical than the other movies of the trilogy as it centers around the League of Shadows trying to tear down Gotham City because it has become too corrupted, claiming it's the only way it will become pure again. They're more a conceptual enemy than anything else as they confront Batman to the dark side of his own quest to save Gotham: is he just accepting responsibility for everybody else's burden? Is the city headed for self-destruction anyway? Can a rotten fruit become edible again without getting buried and having to regrow?
One cool thing I noticed about Batman Begins (which I had never saw until last weekend) is the symbolism of the well. It's very present in The Dark Knight Rises, but I didn't know how central it was to Bruce Wayne's character. It's anchored in his childhood as his dad saves him from one and he is plagued by visions of it until he saves himself from another giant prison-well in the last part of the trilogy. The immaterial light on top represents his ideals who are always out of reach while he's prisoner of his past. It was a very cool idea by Christopher Nolan.
The Dark Knight (2008)
Kind of a paradigm shift from the philosophical Batman Begins. The enemy shifts from organized crime and secret societies to terrorism. Heath Ledger's immortal interpretation of The Joker couldn't care less about monetary gain and outlaw romanticism. He just wants to watch the world burn, like Alfred says in the movie. The Joker is a terrorist without a cause. All he's interested in is power and other need you might have aside of that, he's going to use it against you, to manipulate you into doing what he wants.
This is where the series gets a bit right wing-y. Harvey Dent is the new face of Gotham City's fight against crime and he is supposed to take over Batman as the protector of the city. What the movie states though is that there are people the law doesn't get to. They are born outside of it and are unbound by its shackles. This kind of quintessential being only understands violence. The Dark Knight is basically saying that terrorists will only understand and respect displays of brute force.
That said, my favorite parts of The Dark Knight were The Joker's exchange with just about everyone who believe in something, even the bad guys. There is this amazing scene where he confesses to Batman he never wants to kill him because they give each other purpose. A symbol of hope doesn't have any use without a symbol of fear and vice versa. He invites him to reject people who think of him as not real, just like he did. Batman Begins was philosophical, yet The Dark Knight is the most ideological and political film in the series.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Further down the terrorism ladder, there is Bane. An internationally known and feared mercenary with a chip on his shoulder about Gotham City, the symbol of greed and perversion among the criminals of Batman's universe. The Dark Knight Rises was bound by the non-narrative requirement of closing a movie trilogy and therefore being the most spectacular fucking extravaganza it could be and well, it did just that.
The Dark Knight Rises is not very subtle and not that thematically different from its predecessor, but it is by design. Once again Gotham is prey to terrorism, by a guy who just want to see the city turned into a pile of ashes (for reasons you eventually learn in the movie), but Bane is no different from the villain who ties the girl to the railroad tracks in old movie or the evil father separating lovers at the Opera. If The Joker believed in nothing, Bane represents nothing or not much. He's just a powerful guy for you to hate and fear, and for Batman to face. It is my sincere belief that The Dark Knight Rises is just catharsis, a spectacle made for you to suspend your lives for three hours.
Christopher Nolan finishes what he started in the first movie with Bruce Wayne's character. He finds a bit of freedom both by doing the highly conceptual exercise of climbing his way outside a well and by more or less sacrificing the symbol he created in order to unload the burden of the murder of his parents. I thought it was a nice narrative wrap-up to such a chaotic and spectacular movie hell-bent on creating immortal scenes. Of course, there is the promise of a subsequent movie at the end, but that's another story. You can't arbitrarily decide of an ending for Batman. He belongs to everybody.
