How Evil Can We Be? Views On The Dark Knight Movie

Movie Review: First off, the movie The Dark Knight totally rocks! If you have not seen it yet, you should, even if you have seen go see it again!
I have seen it twice and have enjoyed it both times! It is a powerful movie that will take you to places you never thought that you would go, that is if you will let you mind go there. It is a long movie so be prepared to sit for a long time but it is totally worth it. This movie offers the talents of many great actors/actresses (Christian Bale - Bruce Wayne/Batman, Heath Ledger - The Joker, Aaron Eckhart - Harvey Dent/Two-Face, Michael Caine - Alfred, Maggie Gyllenhaal - Rachel Dawes, Gary Oldman - Det./Commishioner Jim Gordon, and Morgan Freeman - Lucius Fox), who come together in this action packed thriller to bring the story of Batman to life. This is the sequel to the movie Batman Begins, where Batman sees how far he must go to stop this mastermind villain known as The Joker (Heath Ledger) before the city of Gotham is completely destroyed and the mob is once again in control. There is hope however, a new District Attorney (Aaron Eckhart) comes to Gotham and begins to collect the mob. Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) appears to be Gotham's shining light, a glimpse of hope for the citizens of Gotham. An accident however, changed what Harvey Dent strived for and turned him into Two-Face, a villain who's face is half scared and half normal, who acts with a vengeance according to his "lucky" coin. Batman must break his rules in order to defeat his enemies, who have no rules, and save Gotham. The Dark Knight in my opinion is worth 5 stars.

My Thoughts: I went to go see The Dark Knight on opening night. It was packed full of people of all ages, many of whom where dressed up like different characters of the movie (Batman, The Joker, Harvey Dent, etc.). I love opening night movies because you get to see all the different people and who they think is the best character. Surprisingly there where not as many people dressed up like Batman as I thought that there would be. Many people were dressed up like The Joker, which I can only assume that some were dressed like that in honor of Heath Ledger who died of a drug overdose after the film was made, but possibly they may have just like to be different from what they thought everyone else was going to wear.

This brings me to my first thought, what makes people dress/act the way that they do? Some people just like to be different, and so they will do the opposite of what others are doing (ex. if everyone is dressing "emo" those people that dress started to dress that way, will change to a different style to be different and stand out). In the case of The Dark Knight, what causes the characters of the movie to act the way that they do? Does Bruce Wayne dress up in a rubber bat suite just because he has the money to do so, or is there something that he believes is worth fighting for and does the symbol of Batman (for that is really what Batman is, he is a socially constructed image of something else) stand for something more? Does The Joker dress in purple and green and wear clown makeup because he likes those colors or does he where them for something more? Was Harvey Dent elected to D.A. because he looked good or was his position an idea of something more?

I am not going to analyze to much why people who attended the showing of The Dark Knight dressed in the manner that they did, however I do think that people are interesting. Before movies start on opening nights, there is a crew of people who work for the movie theater who play games to try and get people up and moving. I believe that they only do this during movies which they believe are going to be a hit (Lord of The Rings, Indiana Jones, The Dark Knight, etc.) not on the opening night of Wallie or any other movie like that. One of the games that is played is a costume contest to see who was dressed and acted the most like a character from the movie. Everyone who dressed up goes up front and puts on a "show" displaying their costumes and the mannerisms of that particular character. People really get into character! This one guy in particular was a large man, much like myself, but not as good looking, who had on a Batman toy. It was a really tiny Batman chest plate with a small cape on the back, half of a mask and the Batman spikes on his forearms, which could shoot off by the way and was actually pretty sweet. I don't know why he dressed like that particularly because it was obvious that he could not fight crime with a suit that was a little tight, all over, my only guess is that he was trying to be funny or impress someone, or maybe he really thought that he was Batman. Maybe he really was? Who knows, anyway I digress. Now on to the meat of my blog...

In the movie The Dark Knight, the Batman suite stood for something more. In fact in the opening scene there are normal people dressed in Batman outfits trying to stop The Scarecrow and a group of thugs. Needless to say, the wannabe Batmen got served a plate of pain and humiliation, but it was interesting that one of the fakes asked why only Batman could do what he did, and he said because he could. Do we allow a Batman to do the dirty work and stand up for what is right, or should we stand up for what is right and be a Batman where one needs to be? What would happen if people stood up against injustice where ever they saw it? I do not mean that if you are in a bank and in come some robbers that you should stop them, unless you feel that you should, I can't stop you, that is your choice, but my own personal belief is that we should allow the proper authorities to deal with those type of situations. I believe that each of us, no matter who you are, can understand the concept of justice, but the blessing and the curse is that we can choose to be apart of justice or against it, but either way that choice is up to the individual. But what about not doing anything, there is no way that someone who does nothing for or against justice is doing anything wrong, right? One of my favorite quotes is by Edmund Burke who said, "All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing." When we see injustice happening and choose to look the other way, we are allowing evil to prosper, but again we must choose to be different.

For me, one of the most interesting aspects of The Dark Knight is the fact that good men can and do turn evil, but why? In our society particularly we think that when people are good (morally and ethically sound, based on societies values) that they will not turn evil because of what they know, what they have done or are doing, and/or what they believe. We as a society, particularly people in the United States, are very good a "knowing" who will do what and why they will do it, but when that image is shattered we do not understand what happened because we had it all figured out. "He was a nice man, he loved his wife and kids, he had a great job at a prosperous company, he was well off, he had many friends, everyone liked him... I just don't understand how he could murder his family and then take his own life?" However we are not quite as disturbed when an image of someone is upheld. "I knew she would get pregnant, it was just a matter of time. I mean look at the way she dressed, she was just 'asking' for it [which by the way is a dumb concept by itself, no one "asks" to have something happen to them]."

For people who did not follow the Batman stories and were upset when Batman turned out to be more of a bad guy than they thought or when Harvey Dent went from pursuing justice to seeking revenge, did you ever stop and wonder why they did that, and if put in the same circumstance or even a different one, could you do the same thing? How well do you really know who you are? How well do you know who your friends and family really are? I do not believe that people are born one way or another (i.e. good or bad), however I am a Symbolic Interaction Sociologist, and I believe that people are who they are based on three things: (1) how they were brought up (what morals and values do they hold that have been taught to them by others), (2) after they have been able to compile all that they have learned in the past, what morals and values do they hold at that moment, and (3) what circumstances lead them to where they are at that moment (how they did in school, whether they were athletic, where they worked and do work, their relationships, etc.). This all has to do with context. The context which a person is living at any given moment determines who that person is and what they will do.

Bruce Wayne was raised in white upper class world, where his family had a nice house, nice cars, good friends, etc. He was able to go to a nice school and have whatever he desired. But what made him fight for justice and become a symbol of hope? When he was young his parents were murdered right in front of his eyes, yet instead of becoming the villain he became the hero, whether or not you think that his actions constitute a hero in your mind or not, he still pursued justice, which I believe is what defines a hero. Harvey Dent had obviously attended a good law school, and had the support of the city in order to become the D.A. of Gotham. He had put away most of the mob and was cleaning up the city until an accident happened that turned him into Two-Face. Not only did he get severely scared, but he also lost the love of his life, and now instead of strengthening his quest to defeat evil, he became a weapon of vengeance. He had lost faith in people because people had betrayed him and so to be "fair" with his vengeance he would flip a coin to decide what would happen.

Both in Wayne's mind and in Dent's mind they were doing the right thing, whether or not that reflected the views of the population. We cannot know for certain why someone decided to do what they did, all we can do is look at what aspects of their life affected their decision to do whatever act they did. One of my favorite scenes is where to groups of people, convicts and regular citizens, on two different boats heading away from Gotham are given the choice to destroy the other boat and save themselves if they want but if they don't decied before midnight they both die. Though they both try different ideas about how to get around this problem and save themselves, in the end they both decied that it is not up to them to decied who lives and who dies. Even the convicts who are bad chose to not kill the people on the other boat.

So how evil can we be? Do we trully know what we and those around us are capible of doing if we do not understand their context? How far could we go before we did something that we would regret? Are we willing to do what it takes to ensure that justice prevails, even if it is not the popular choice? I erge us to truely think about how far we could go before we "know" how far someone else can go.

If you enjoyed this topic and would like to know more about choice and what people are capable of, I would encourage you to pick up a book that I had to read for a college class that I took. It is called "The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil" by Philip Zimbardo, his studies website, and here is a blog about The Dark Knight that I found interesting:

http://www.presence.tv/cms/soc_notsodarkknight.php