Dark Knight America

The Dark Knight, matching America's dark mood, has swiftly rocketed up to the #2 position on the all-time domestic box office list.

A lot of chatter about veeps, much more focus on the Olympics. There's one thing we do know about where America is now.

When America is in a dark mood, Batman pictures do well. America is in a very dark mood. As we note pretty much every day on my New West Notes.

The presidential candidates are trying to punch through the Olympics, and a deep summer malaise, prior to their back-to-back national convention infomercials.

With very limited success for all the effort. One thing they know they can't alter is the national mood. The national mood is dark. And in this milieu, The Dark Knight, sequel to the 2005 franchise reboot Batman Begins, is shattering box office records. Fastest to $100 million. Fastest to $200 million and $300 million. Fastest to $400 million, over twice as fast as the previous record.

The Dark Knight has continued and expanded upon the recent vogue of superhero movies. After last weekend, the picture, released on July 18th, has rocketed to number two on the all-time domestic box office list. With a stunning $475 million today, it's second only to Titanic.

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John McCain says this is his favorite movie. But does he really get it? I happen to know that a number of his top people have not seen the picture.

Naturally, lots of explanations are offered for the success of this dark and violent movie -- hardly a date movie -- moving into titanic territory. The Dark Knight is a darkly epic comic book picture starring the late Heath Ledger as an anarchistic terrorist calling himself The Joker, the always excellent Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, and an all-star cast of actors filled with Oscar winners and indie film faves. It's expertly directed by Christopher Nolan, with hugely expensive set piece action sequences and plenty of memorable lines.

Then there is the late Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker. As much as I enjoyed Jack Nicholson in the same role 19 years ago, Ledger is far more impactful. Fittingly, like the shark in Jaws, which he greatly resembles in a metaphorical sense, the Joker has his own musical motif signaling danger. An electronically twisted one-note affair from Hans Zimmer that is notably unsettling.

Perhaps all this is why Dark Knight quickly roared past such recent blockbusters as The Lord of the Rings movies, the Star Wars prequels, and the Spiderman and Pirates of the Caribbean franchises, not to mention this year's return of Indiana Jones, finally passing the much re-issued original Star Wars last weekend.

But all that probably doesn't account for the phenomenon that Dark Knight, suddenly in a tie for best movie of all time with The Godfather on the Internet Movie Database, has become.

Many on the right amusingly claim that Batman is a metaphor for George W. Bush. Or, heh, Dick Cheney.

Meanwhile, it has Aaron Eckhart as Bobby Kennedy-type District Attorney Harvey Dent, the shining knight of the picture. Not a Bushie in sight. And somebody as the bin Laden analogue, naturally.

While some on the left say it's really a liberal movie about the problems of the war on terror. That would be, ah, a liberal movie about a vigilante who nonetheless triumphs in the end.

The Dark Knight "takes the viewer on a sometimes traumatic but ultimately redemptive and humanistic journey towards a post-9/11 ethic", writes Michael Dudley, of the Institute of Urban Studies, on AlterNet.

Kind of like, say, that noted liberal Dirty Harry. Count me as a Callahan fan. He's no lefty, that is for sure.

More darkly on the left, it's suggested that Batman actually attracts the evil he ends having to destroy. That Batman is happy to beat a confession out of the Joker, as American soldiers and agents have done at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. And even more sardonically, that the people of Gotham Batman thinks have opted to "believe in good" actually vote to blow up hundreds of people in order to save themselves. Batman wins in the end, but at what cost?

At much the same cost encountered by the heroes and heroines in another middle film of a trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back.

While the claims from the left are wrong-headed or sardonic -- which is not to say they are wrong -- those from the right, which have gotten much bigger play, are unintentionally amusing.

"There seems to me no question that The Dark Knight is at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W Bush in this time of terror and war," conservative screenwriter Andrew Klavan wrote in The Wall Street Journal. "Like W, Batman is vilified and despised for confronting terrorists in the only terms they understand. Like W, Batman sometimes has to push the boundaries of civil rights to deal with an emergency, certain that he will re-establish those boundaries when the emergency is past."

Kyle Smith, film critic for the New York Post, says that Batman isn't Bush, he's Cheney! "Batman isn't popular, partly because he's a zealot and partly because he doesn't bother to explain himself to the press. He is independently wealthy, having spent years as the head of an industrial company. His methods are disturbing, his operations bathed in darkness. He is misunderstood, mistrusted, endlessly pursued by the attack dogs of the night. And he lives in an undisclosed location. Isn't it obvious? Batman is Dick Cheney with hair."

What's obvious is that the Joker is a much smarter and more capable -- not to mention far funnier -- version of Osama bin Laden. And that Bruce Wayne/Batman, for all his vigilante ruthlessness, is a much more scrupulous and competent character than the current cast of characters in La Maison Blanche.

Let's go through the movie without spoiling it entirely for those few of you who haven't seen it.

** The Rendition. Bruce Wayne, in his guise as Batman, joins forces with Bobby Kennedyesque new DA Harvey Dent and good guy cop Jim Gordon to crack down on the Mob that has corrupted Gotham's politics, journalism, and legal system. They decide to go after all those ill-gotten gains. Which are largely secreted offshore, where the legal system can't get at them.

But as the Joker notes when he offers himself to the Mob bosses as their most unlikely of contractors, "Batman has no jurisdiction." In a dramatic action totally outside the law, Bruce Wayne kidnaps the Mob's financial mastermind, who is intimidated into giving up his clients.

** The Big Roll-Up. With this intel, gotten outside the normal system, the organized crime system of Gotham is taken down in one fell swoop.

** The Joker Empowered. As a result, the Mob hires the Joker to take down Batman. But the now empowered Joker, with huge resources at his command, has more in mind than that.

** The Joker Creates Havoc. With a few well-placed blows, he creates havoc in Gotham. He's not out to do what the Mob hired him to do, i.e., kill Batman. He's out to unravel Gotham's systems themselves, including the organized crime system. And he's out to do something more.

** The Forces of Order Escalate. As the Joker anticipates, Dent, Gordon and Wayne escalate in their efforts to bring him in, going further over the line as they become more frantic.

** Batman Embraces Torture. Finally, Batman embraces torture, something he'd urged against earlier. But unlike on, say, 24, where Jack Bauer always quickly learns the truth from his swift torture sessions, what Batman thinks he learns isn't quite right. Tragically.

** The Joker Rolls Back The Plans. In fact, the Joker has anticipated their moves. He has baited them into doing what he wants.

Kind of like Al Qaeda embroiling the US in the Middle East.

** Batman Creates The Surveillance State. As Bruce Wayne realizes that the Joker is playing them perfectly, he uses his corporation's technowizardry to turn Gotham into a surveillance state. All geared to finding the Joker.

Which prompts Wayne Enterprise's CEO, unlike the CEOs of our telecom giants after 9/11, to balk at this intrusion into private lives.

"Beautiful. Unethical. Dangerous ... This is WRONG," intones Lucius Fox, played by the great Morgan Freeman, as he examines Wayne's program.

And unlike Bush and Cheney, Wayne insists that the surveillance will be for one purpose only, time limited.

In the end ... well, I'm not going to give away the ending. Some of you have undoubtedly not yet seen the movie, which I highly recommend.

In the end, Batman wins. And he loses. The Joker loses. And he wins.

Let's give the final quote to the Joker, as he runs it down for Batman. "You see, madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little push."

Does this really sound like a movie extolling the greatness of the Bush/Cheney White House in its war on terror?

Obviously not.

So the new Batman picture, for all its material success, ends in the same place as the current America, with the latter in rather less spectacular fashion.

Actually, without giving away the ending, The Dark Knight ends up in much the same place we find ourselves today.

Bereft of a clearcut hero. Having narrowly survived a fundamental assault against our essential selves. And wondering what comes next.

Both in terms of our attempts to protect ourselves against a threatening world. And in terms of our attempts to protect ourselves against our own worst instincts to protect ourselves.

Comments

[Larkspur]

I've seen the The Dark Knight 3 times. I see it as an antithesis of the Dirty Harry male macho movies and the 24 TV series, which take a Bacchean delight in violence against those we perceive as enemies. Unlike in Jack Baur's 24, torture fails in The Dark Knight because The Joker is a sado-masochist and is immune to Batman's attempts to make him fear him. The Joker also intentionally lies to Batman about where his friends are. In real life, the FBI has reported that at least 90% of the information garnered from torture is garbage and the other 10% of minimal usage. The Joker enjoys pushing Batman and the authorities to their moral limits and beyond. Destroying their "souls" is The Joker's real goal. When our troops tortured Iraqis in Abu Graib, we followed in the footsteps of Saddam Hussein and America's "soul" became tarnished.

The Joker laughs at the Dirty Harry types and shows them how impotent they really are in the face of true evil. The only answer to The Joker's malice and anarchy came from the Gothamites on the ferries. The ferry boats scene was a mirror image of the ethical debate that the Triad of Batman/Bruce Wayne, Harvey Dent/Two-Face and Commissioner Gordon had.

[TRIATHLON]

THE ANTI ESTABLISHMENT HERO
It doesn"t matter to American"s who is doing the torture, Dirty Harry, Jack Baur, the Joker, US Industrial Complex troops in Abu Graib, or in "Git MO" it is torture, and yes it does tarnished the "Soul Of America", it"s not the American way. The Canadian"s in Burn Notice, even addressed torture, and Michael took more of a beating from his Irish Girlfriend and Brother than anything done to the bad guy. America is tired of the Military Industrial Complex giving statements of justification for something that can"t be justified.
"The Joker laughs at the Dirty Harry types and shows them how impotent they really are in the face of true evil." Let"s add another Hannibal made into a monster and turned loose on the world.
The People of The Untied States are tired of the Military Industrial Complex and it"s Imperial Presidency, were tired of the social injustice, as those in government and corporations are not held accountable, for their crimes, against not only those held in captivity in "Gitmo" but crimes against the People of The United States.
Our choice in entertainment is the Anti-Establishment Hero, those who working alone or in groups undermined the New York City Corporate Thugs, and local law enforcement who represent their local people cause grief to Federal Bureau legal authorities.
A PEOPLE HERO, A ZORRO, A ROBINHOOD, OR GHOST RIDER!

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

And this relates to The Dark Knight in what way?

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

Batman is a lot like Dirty Harry. You are forgetting that he enjoys beating the crap out of criminals every night.

The Joker is a lot like Scorpio in Dirty Harry. But smarter.

[TRIATHLON]

A NEW YORK CITY BOY WANTS ADVISE?

Look, (NYC) New York City, the (NYSE) New York Stock Exchange, and most of all the New York City Propaganda Mill Tele-Prompter Readers, New York City Times Journalist Fiction Writers, and New York City Blog-Meisters, David Knowles, Tommy Christorper, are the problem. New York City knows best. Even the other (3) Tiers of the (4) of the State of New York don't like the New York City State, and a New York City boy, what's advise?

Here is some advise, cross any bridge going out of New York City, wipe your feet off and don't look back. The two city states that form the Military Industrial Complex are New York City and Washington, D. C. Rudy, is tied at the hip with the Military Industrial Complex and so in your carpet bagger (D-NY) US Senator Hillary Diane Rodham-Clinton, Wall St. tell's the lobbyist in D.C. to write the legislation, hand it to Hillary, who doesn't even read it, votes as she is told, get's her campaign or library donation, and then make's an excuse as to why she voted for every Bush request for war funding. And the New York City Propaganda Mill just churns out the "You must Think This Way'.

You want advise? Leave your City State and Freedom and Main St., is across the Bridges.

[BottomLine2008]

Say what?

[Ramirez]

I saw a moonbat with a Chinese menu in his hand, walking the streets of Soho in the rain.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

A moonbat or a wingnut?

[TRIATHLON]

IT IS COMIC-CON EXCAPE!

Every year in AMERICA"S FINEST CITY, San Diego, San Diego County, California, a convention has been held it"s the Comic-Con convention and this year it was the largest ever held at any time in its history. Now, even the CITY OF ANGLES is fighting to get it to relocate.

But, it"s not about Bat Man, Iron Man, The Shadow, Green Lantern, Superman or my personal favorite Vamperilla, it is about being in a very Dark Mode, caused by losing control of our own government, being helpless to do or change anything, as we shifted to the Military Industrial Complex, Imperial Presidency Government over the Clinton and Bush years.

It"s about looking for the Hero, to come up out of the group, to bring us back to what we once stood for, Truth, Justice, and what was a once good way THE AMERICAN WAY. We now have to look into the comic book characters as once the public looked to the cartoons in the newspapers for a Hero. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men, The Shadow Knows, Faster than a speeding bullet, move powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall building in a single bound.

It"s not like when your own government is out of control you can call government busters.

[TRIATHLON]

A SAN FRANCISO BOY?

Sorry, about that! No, wonder you sound and write like a New York City Boy, but unlike them you put up with me and don't just have your comment has been excepted you will receive an e-mail that never comes. But, really a (D-CA) US Rep. Nancy Pelosi do nothing back Bush Upstate Northern Californian, I left my heart in San Francisco, by the Bay, City Boy.

Do you also know Sandy Clark the buddy of Tommy Christoper? He gave Hillary ($1100), for her campaign? We should trade places, I could vote against (D-CA) Rep. Pelosi and you could vote for (D-CA) Rep. Hunter.

[BottomLine2008]

What about the Watchmen?

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

Watchmen is the next huge "comic book" movie. Coming next year. I almost wrote about it, but that would make this piece too long and discursive.

Very dark. In some ways, darker than The Dark Knight.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

There actually may be a revival of the Ghostbusters.

[DennyCrane]

I'm not surprised that people on the right would not only miss the point of this movie, but twist it to support their own arguments. Any rational person would understand what the movie was trying to say. In the face of terror, even good people can cross the line. The movie doesn't endorse the methods that the good guys use and in some cases, as pointed out in this article, those methods sometimes backfire. What's funny is that it's The Joker who points out that Batman is being used. The police let him do their dirty work but someday, they'll turn on him when they realize they don't need him. This movie is such an excellent commentary on the world in which we live in. Batman breaks the law, uses torture and even spies on people, all to combat terror. We as the audience aren't supposed to be cheering for him. We're supposed to be seeing ourselves and what fear has let us get away with.

[BottomLine2008]

"DENNY CRANE!"

Shatner's signature line. Hey, it won him an Emmy.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

William Shatner will always be Captain Kirk.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

That's pretty much it. Until the end, when your ideology gets the better of your analysis.

[walk0nwalls]

Bush is Elmo?

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

I'm not sure I'm following you.

[RedSt8r]

Oh, and the Joker is liberalism, not bin Laden.

[BottomLine2008]

Oh, that's just ridiculous.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

OK, I'll bite. How is the Joker "liberalism."

Because he's pure evil?

[RedSt8r]

No.

I don't know that the Joker is pure evil. Evil, no doubt, but pure... I'm not sure.

Metaphorically, you have the crime bosses setting around a table in TDK. Now, I'm not saying all of the old bosses are "criminal" (that's a separate conversation), but this is what has happened to the Democratic Party. The old New Deal Dems, the old precinct bosses, the Civil Rights leaders, organized labor - they've all sold their souls to align themselves with the McGovern loons... the Liberals who take a look at traditional American values and "just want to see (that) world burn." In doing so, liberalism has (figuratively) killed them all. Made them the "hostages" that get "sacrificed" for Liberalism.

[Uberbah]

One significant distinction between Batman and Bushco....Batman is competent.

[BottomLine2008]

Hah!

[Ramirez]

Batman lost the hospital. And the girl.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

Stuff happens ...

[ProfessorDuh]

Wait a minute. The people of Gotham City, and the prisoners, finally REFUSE to blow up other people to save themselves. That is the point, isn't it?

[BottomLine2008]

Didn't they vote to kill the people on the other boat? And then chicken out to actually do it?

I think they came off as weenies one way and weenies the other way.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

Actually, they didn't refuse to blew the others up.

They voted overwhelmingly to blow the others up, nearly 3 to 1.

But no one had the gumption to actually do it.

[ProfessorDuh]

Or their better selves finally prevailed and prevented them from doing it. It's easier to vote for rotten things than it is to carry them out personally.

[PghDemocrat]

I like your analysis of The Dark Knight and I can see where you would make the connections you made. I find it very interesting that JM says this is his favorite movie because, in my opinion, that means he doesn't see the irony of making such statement.

JM represents Two-Faced in this story. Good intentioned to begin with all the right pedigree and hard work to reach a certain level, but the weight of ambition cracks him. He has literally reached a point where he is flipping a coin to decide the fate of policy and war. Which side is good and which side is evil is based on factors outside of the reality of the situation and more on the influence of others (his advisors have become his coin).

The movie discusses the concept of having a "hero we deserve." This dialogue in the movie really stuck with me. It is very similar to the dialogue in V for Vendetta about how one man's hero is another man's terrorist. What is it we deserve as a nation?

Yes, I am taking this movie way too seriously. I am a geek.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks.

Interesting you see McCain as Harvey Dent.

That hadn't occurred to me, and it is actually quite intriguing given his sense of loss.

[PghDemocrat]

A sense of loss can from all types of experience. The most obvious would be losing someone close like Harvey Dent does. But what about the loss of youth because you were held prisoner? The loss of fullfillment by not living up to your father's goals of becoming a high ranking admiral? ...Not being able to hold onto the promises made in your first marriage. ...Not being able to win the election in 2000.

JM is in a position where he knows this is his last shot. He will never get to run 4 years from now and he has that sense of urgency. That drive will push him to make the decisions between "good and evil" in a different way than it would BO. JM needs people to believe he is the hero they deserve.

[RedSt8r]

McCain is Frank Castle.

[5150]

The Original Maverick is known for cantankerous irregularity.

[readytsf]

Klavan said it way better than I ever could. The reason you refuse to see his analysis is probably the same reason you're a liberal. No worries. Never forget, however, that you have slept safely in your bed for the last 8 years because that W signal has shone brightly in the sky...........

[StillAmused]

Yeah... and we haven't been invaded by space aliens, and our rivers and lakes haven't burst into flame on his watch, either. That Boosh... what a guy.

I've slept safely in my bed for the last eight years because I lock my doors at night, something the dim bulb in the White House can't grasp... not because I roam the streets of neighboring towns, looking for likely burglars, to fight them where they live so I won't have to fight them in my bedroom.

Immigration management, the so-called no-fly list and port "security" remain laughable Rube Goldberg spectaculars, Junior's excellent adventure in Iraq has added over 4,000 NEW American casualties to the 3,000 suffered in 2001 (not to mention hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis) and we've pissed off an entire region. Something about cutting off one's nose to spite one's face...

[readytsf]

Sonny, if it wasn't for people like me (and W) roaming those streets, those precious locks of yours woulda been smashed in years ago. Remember that along with all your high-minded ideals.........

[Russycle]

Actually, that's 4,000 dead US soldiers. Throw in wounded soldiers and dead and wounded "contractors" (who now outnumber troops in Iraq), and the real casualty figure is many times higher.

[BottomLine2008]

No alien invasions. Better than the President in "Independence Day."

Stay the course with Johnny Mac!

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

How do you know we have not been invaded by dangerous aliens?

[skatscan]

You need to study a little basic math, like kindergarten math. It hasn't even been 7 years since the terrorists killed 3000 civilians over here instead of over there, because your man Bush was sound asleep in the classroom, with his eyes open no less.

Creepy.

[HamletsMill]

Yep. The W sign in the sky was a pet goat shining brightly in the moonlight. As someone said on this thread, at least Batman is competent. W has created a million Jokers now. Enough to use up all the white face and lipstick still left in armed fundamentalist brain chemistry. I will finally see the film this week. Does Bruce Wayne ever say "Bring it on!"? I hope not.

[BottomLine2008]

And Klavan didn't say it very well.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

Sorry. The Klavan piece is one of the silliest things I've read in a long time. He literally has no idea what he's talking about.

[readytsf]

See above.......

[5150]

HOLY MOLEY, everyone's a religious fruitcake. It takes all kinds of fruits and all kinds of nuts to cook the results. At Saddleback, McCain vowed to defeat EVIL in our lifetimes, not his. Free Will will thwart predestination and prove the pundits wrong.

[skatscan]

But McCain wants this war to last 100 years. Does he expect to live to be 172?

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

Oh, that's a lefty canard.

McCain doesn't want the Iraq War to last for 100 years.

[5150]

The Joker in the deck is Trump. Batsh*t-- you're fired...

[BottomLine2008]

Trump?!

[TheEmptinessOfTruthiness]

Batman is.....Hollywood?

Haven't heard much from/about them lately. Holed up in an undisclosed location perhaps?

[BottomLine2008]

Yeah. I think Hollywood produces the Batman movies.

[William Bradley - Huffpost Blogger]

Sorry. Not following your point.

[coyote4til7]

Bush isn't Bush and hasn't been since he realized sounding like a Yalee would never get him into public office. None of the current political actors have exact analogues in the movie. I suspect that's very intentional. Much like the current iteration of Battlestar Galactica the movie takes the current situation, distills it, re-imagines it, and then turns it back on us.

This movie is handling the traditional role of horror movies: taking the fears that pervade the zeitgeist and recast them into something that we can actually handle. In the '50s we had communists ... err aliens ... that wanted to take over the world. In the '80s we had movies like Halloween dealing with our fears and concerns around sex, AIDS, drinking and the morality police.

Then Scream completely spilled the beans on the conventions of the genre. No matter how good they are now, that Mystery Science Theater 3000 voice is always there to turn it all into a big laugh fest, undercutting the ability of horror movies to do what they've done in the past. Given the darkness of the times, we needed that. Dark Knight delivered in spades.

I've heard that Heath Ledger got too far into character and had a hard time separating afterward. How much of that was Ledger realizing that even the worst villains may start out as a hero we hope will save us or the guys just trying to make it through the day on the next ferry?