Thoughts from the Usher Podium: The Dark Knight Trilogy Analysis Part 3

Serious fans of the Dark Knight Trilogy will stringently and exhaustively argue that The Dark Knight Rises is not only the worst of the three but a big step down comparable to Raiders of the Lost Ark and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. On the surface they do indeed have a lot to justify their ire. The Dark Knight Rises suffers from problems of form and length, features story elements that don't mix very well and, the largest supposed problem, plot holes, lots of plot holes. I will not spend an entire blogpost refuting every complaint as I find many well founded but by dismissing the last movie in the trilogy I feel that fans are dismissing the emotional character arc of Bruce Wayne. They also betray the underlying message behind the films. The final evolution in the story that drives the subtext home. More so than any of the three Christopher Nolan movies, The Dark Knight Rises encapsulates conservative political and economic dogma and does so while keeping with Judeo-Christian themes.

The last leg of the trilogy begins years after Batman encountered the Joker. Batman had all but disappeared from the limelight, taking an extended break from crime fighting. It's just as well, the city blames him for the death of Harvey Dent; their white knight. The only people who know the truth behind Dent's demise are Bruce Wayne, Commissioner Gordon and his kin. Dent's death rallied the city to pass the Dent Act which granted the police the power to all but eradicate organized crime in Gotham.

What powers are they specifically given remains unclear. Later in the movie Blake lets the audience in on only one detail on the Act; criminals are denied chance of parole. Other than that the details remain scant. What is clear is there are obvious and immediate benefits to the Dent Act and Gotham's adoption of a tough on crime stance. According to Commissioner Gordon, crime is at an all-time low in the City, 1,000 violent criminals were arrested as a direct result of the Act as well as "essential cogs in the organized crime machine."

If they made a 4th one, it would have been shot in Miami!

Director Christopher Nolan further illustrates the benefits of Gotham's tough on crime stance by choosing to represent the exteriors of Gotham with Pittsburgh instead of Chicago or Detroit. Pittsburgh, like Chicago and Detroit has a long and proud history of rust-belt industry and a city-scape full of industrial period buildings which keeps with the overall aesthetics of the trilogy. More importantly Pittsburgh is a city enjoying a vibrant comeback from the days of Carnegie and Ford. Pittsburgh; the Steel City, is considered among America's safest big cities and one of the most livable. Conversely back in 2008 when The Dark Knight was being filmed in Chicago, it was considered the murder capital of America. As for Detroit, the less we say about it the better.

Despite relative calm, evil lurks underneath the surface of Gotham. Bane a terrorist said to be too extreme even for the League of Shadows has emerged from his hiding place. He brings to Gotham a crew of dedicated fanatics who's aim is to hold Gotham hostage with a bomb created from Wayne Enterprise's new fusion reactor. Like the Joker, Bane is a terrorist through and through and comes seemingly out of nowhere. Sure we get little nuggets of information but that information is ultimately used as a narrative tool to set up a final twist. Unlike the Joker, Bane isn't an anarchist. His actions amount to much more than a cruel nihilist joke on society. His principle actions are one of a revolutionary blurring the line between violence and justified violence; terrorist and freedom fighter.

In many ways Bane represents the ugly side of liberalism/socialism as painted by traditional Judeo-Christian and conservative beliefs. He makes eloquent speeches about changing the established order built by the City's elite, going so far as to place the rich in show trails where death is a certainty. "We take Gotham from the corrupt! The rich! The oppressors of generations who have kept you downwith myths of opportunity," He says. He justifies his violence with every broken jaw and dislocated spine by speaking of justice and moral absolutes. He consistently talks about the downtrodden, the disenfranchised etc. and the gullible eat it up as a revolution. In the eyes of a conservative American, Bane is the real nightmare in its ultimate form; "Liberty through fear," oh the irony.

Dent died for our sins! Praise Zoltan!

In earlier essays there was discussion about the "Cult of Order"; order through fear, order through idealism, order through sacrifice. Batman represents order through fear, Harvey Dent represents order through idealism and his death becomes order through sacrifice. Bane takes the religious connotations of the Cult of Order and turns it on its head. He reveals Dent as a false prophet through the speech he stole from Commissioner Gordon. Like a modern-day Voltaire he proclaims "God is dead," and the man Gotham lionized as a savior is in-fact a fake.

This looks eerily similar...

Behind Bane's Robespierre-like persona and intimidating speeches to the public, he and Miranda are just as selfish as Batman. Miranda seems to want to destroy the City out of a mixture of pride and revenge. She wants to finish what her father Ra's al Ghul started and stick it to the Batman who killed him. Bane wants to destroy Gotham because, as it's revealed at the end, he's a protector to Miranda. Did he truly believe all what he was saying? Doubtful since the bomb was supposed to go off regardless of Gotham's lower-class latching on to his dogma. That is the ultimate hypocrisy of Bane. He creates the image of a radical who wraps himself in socialist rhetoric but really wants to destroy Gotham and by extension America.

When Bane is talking to the disenfranchised mobs with high-minded speeches, the main characters who should be most receptive to his message are arguably Selina Kyle and John Blake (and maybe a recently impoverished Bruce Wayne). John Blake was raised an orphan boy in an impoverished side of town who rose from his circumstances to become a police officer. Regardless of wearing his uniform blues, he has an appreciation for vigilante justice and Batman, going so far as to deducing who Batman is and continuing to keep it secret. He admonishes Gordon when Dent's true character is revealed; he doesn't even question whether Bane is telling the truth or not. I would argue if not for his association with law enforcement he'd probably be roaming the streets with the rest of the mobs seeking out his own sense of justice and liberty.

Selina does not have the luxury of proximity to authority like Blake does. Therefore she's receptive to Bane's plans. When Selina confronts Bruce at Miranda's charity party she warns him "There's a storm coming, Mr. Wayne. You and your friends better batten down the hatches, because when it hits, you're all gonna wonder how you ever thought you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us." Yet she doesn't buy in to Bane's rhetoric 100% largely due to her fear of him. When she has a front row seat to Batman's back-breaking her fear becomes more realized and that informs her judgment when Bane starts talking like Occupy Wall Street.

By the third act Selina probably goes through he most dramatic change a character in the Batman universe has ever had. She goes from a self-interested anti-hero and accomplice to Bane to a woman who comes back to help Batman without promise of reward. She conflicts morally with the majority of the characters in the film with maybe the exception of Alfred. That would likely explain Bruce's attraction to her. That and when Selina first meets Bruce she's wearing his mother's necklace.

Dark Knight Rises ends with Batman's supposed noble sacrifice. A sacrifice I felt needed to be made to redeem the Batman character. Then that sacrifice was undermined by Bruce and Selina sitting comfortably in a cafe in Florence. While its an ending I don't agree with, I suppose it does feed into its political subtext rather nicely. order can be administered in many ways including intimidation, fear, government overreaching, the eroding of privacy rights, the sacrifice of an idealist martyr, religiosity, the obfuscation of the truth and on, and on. But what ultimately matters is that order, as a function of a civilized society, is the most important thing in the furtherance of that society. The trilogy as a whole makes a cogent argument and as I posited before; the Dark Knight Trilogy, has a politically authoritarian bent and is chalked full of religious and conservative themes. You only need look for them.

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.