Thoughts from the Usher Podium: The Dark Knight Trilogy Analysis Part 2

Batman Begins stands within the Dark Knight Trilogy like 1977's Star Wars stands in its own seminal trilogy. Both created their world with pomp and circumstance which was kneaded out in further installments. You give credit to the first of the trilogy but they're ultimately overshadowed and left only with their impact on the culture to justify their pantheon status. Yes Batman Begins is good but The Dark Knight is much better. It's less conventional, the stakes are higher and the themes are much more dense and complex. Yet The Dark Knight continues the thematic arc started with Batman Begins. It's still loaded with religious undertones and succumbs to the temptation of a straightforward conservative political and economic ideology. More so than its predecessor, The Dark Knight equates order with religious dogma and makes a cogent case for draconian even fascistic methods to achieve societal ends.

The story begins with the Batman extended universes most popular villain the Joker tasking his henchmen with a bank robbery. The beautifully planned robbery devolves into controlled chaos with each successive robber killing the other in an attempt to receive a larger share of the loot. At the end of the robbery an injured bank manager screams at the remaining robber demanding to know what he believes in. It is then revealed that the last man standing is the Joker himself. His answer to the bank manager is, " I believe that whatever doesn't kill you, simply makes you stranger".

In retrospect Joker's modus operendi is made clear at this point even if what he says is utter nonsense. He believes in nothing. He stands for nothing, at least nothing that is valued by the common masses. He's a nihilist and believes in nothing that can accrue value as he proves when he burns a warehouse literally full of money. He believes in nothing accepted as sacred or taboo as when he attempts to unmask Batman, blows up a hospital and lowers the status of District Attorney Harvey Dent. He believes in nothing emotional as he tells multiple conflicting stories about his own origins. Joker states he is an agent of chaos and we believe him yet his plans have complexity. His goal is to create chaos but he never uses it as a means to achieve his ends. Instead he uses the institutions and technology around him to show the emperor has no clothes. By the film's end Batman says the Joker "What were you trying to prove? That deep down, everyone's as ugly as you?"

Essentially...yeah.

I would disagree with Batman's prodding and I would disagree that the Joker symbolizes chaos like most reviewers have speculated. The Joker's motivation isn't as self-fulfilling as all that; its reactionary. The Joker doesn't see himself as a symbol but a reaction to the existence of Batman. "See, this is how crazy Batman's made Gotham!" says the Joker. He latches on to Batman in an almost fetishistic way and aims to prove that Gotham's tie to order isn't altogether a good thing. Before the arrival of Batman the only person who might reach the status of "super villain" was Ra's al Ghul. Sans Batman's mentor, Gotham was plagued by regular criminals and mob bosses. At one point the Joker says "this city needs a better class of criminal". Not one that would exist even before Batman but one that exists because of Batman. He then continues, this time talking half to himself "It's not about the money, it's about sending a message." The message being an overemphasis on order leads to dissent and ultimately existential anarchy.

Bruce Wayne looks to rid himself of the Batman persona and sees Gotham's redemption and his escape through Harvey Dent.  Bruce's primary motivator is Rachel Dawes who promised him they would be together only after he stops being Batman. Harvey however is not the Christ-like figure Gotham needs to redeem itself from years of corruption and crime; at least not ultimately. Bruce seems to believe that order through fear which Batman represents isn't enough, the city needs idealism which on paper Dent symbolizes.On the surface he typifies a rigid adherence to justice and morality yet early in the story Dent meets with Lt. Gordon where it is alluded that internal investigations used to call Dent Two-Face, implying duplicity. When Dent approaches Batman to bring back Lau, the mob's accountant, back from China, he actively endorsed extra-judicial action.

When Bruce meets Harvey as Bruce they discuss Rome's habit of suspending democracy to appoint a Caesar in times of trouble. Then in a scene of callousness Dent threatens one of the Joker's men with death if he doesn't tell him what he wants to hear. Take in concert with the common cultural understanding that Dent will become Two-Face, the audience sees the values he holds and how they can become easily corrupted.

Yet despite warning signs Bruce Wayne holds a fundraiser for Dent believing him to be the savior Gotham needs. There is near religious connotation when the phrase "I Believe in Harvey Dent" a campaign slogan not only mentioned in the film but in the viral campaign for the film as well. During the closing scenes Dent is sprawled on the ground with hands outstretched in a Christ-like tableau yet in the film there is no resurrection. A man who to the city of Gotham upheld order through idealism became the angry animal the Joker wanted him to be. Yet Batman and Commissioner Gordon see the value in creating a false narrative in Dent. By obfuscating his actions and elevating him to a martyr of order he becomes the symbol that may just get Gotham up from the muck.

Pictured: Two men using their family issues as a crutch

And what of Lieutenant/Commissioner Gordon, the main prophet of the cult of Batman? Gordon fakes his death hiding it even from his family and knowingly employs corrupt police officers in his unit. He endorses extra-judicial action when Batman brings Lau back to Gotham despite having no extradition authority. He also lets Batman into the room during the Joker's interrogation tacitly approving torture. Yet regardless of all of his questionable actions he is never punished. In fact he is rewarded with better job titles; lieutenant then Commissioner. The only time Gordon is temporarily inconvenienced is when Two-Face holds his family hostage. Yet there is no negative consequence as Batman swoops in to save the family at the last minute as if he were a guardian angel.

At the end of the movie Joker muses Batman "...truly [is] incorruptible". The irony is that while he's referring to Batman's no killing rule, Batman used unsavory means to catch the Joker, namely using surveillance without public consent. Early in the film Lucius Fox develops micro-sonar technology which Batman implants into all the cellphones in Gotham. Without public consent, Batman indirectly monitors phone conversations in order to ferret out where the Joker may strike next.

Joker's penultimate villainous action is having citizens of Gotham participate in a sick social experiment. Two ferries, each fitted with explosives is given each other's detonators. The occupants must choose who will die themselves or those on the opposite ferry. One is full of convicts while the other is full of regular citizens. Those in the regular ferry overwhelmingly vote in favor of blowing up the convicts yet none on the boat have the stomach to actually turn the key. Meanwhile a prisoner from the convict's ferry gets a hold of the detonator and throws it out the window, knowing they will likely be destroyed. This scene not only makes good drama but also emphasizes a thought from earlier in the film. In cases of extreme danger, democracy must be suspended and "Caesar" must perform the "public service" for the good of all.

Thus far The Dark Knight endorses suspension of democracy to protect the greater good, retaining traditional social institutions under normal circumstance, non-consensual surveillance to stop terrorists, torture in extreme and time-sensitive circumstances, iconography to justify order and the ends justifying the means; all ideals furthered by the political right. I say this of course with hesitation as I do not want to misrepresent conservative ideology. Yet within the historical context of the movies release, there are a lot of similarities between Gotham and America during the Bush era both in policies domestic and abroad. Internationally the policies of the Bush administration comport the the aforementioned. By omitting any mention of socioeconomic, political, racial or psychological reasons for Gotham's crime rate, instead focusing on catching criminals, Dark Knight endorses a conservative view on domestic issues. Harvey Dent even goads the city's mayor into approving a RICO case of 549 criminals with the promise of "...18 months of clean streets".

Harvey Dent becomes a unwitting martyr to further Gotham's cult of order started by Batman in Batman Begins. Order by fear and order by sacrifice; the two sides of the coin that brings the city salvation. Yet that salvation will ultimately be tested in the final installment of the Dark Knight Trilogy.