12 Comments Add your own

• 1. Casper  |  July 20th, 2008 at 11:32 pm

  I haven’t seen it yet, because I have been super busy this weekend, but it is on my to do list for this week. I’ve ben a Batman fan for 45 years, and I’m really looking forward to seeing it.

• 2. Matt Margolis  |  July 20th, 2008 at 11:38 pm

  I watched most of Tim Burton’s Batman the other night in anticipation of seeing this new new one featuring the Joker. I don’t think there’s any way to compare Jack Nicholson’s Joker and Ledger’s. But boy… this was a dark dark movie.

• 3. Casper  |  July 20th, 2008 at 11:51 pm

  Matt,
  Why compare. Just enjoy.

• 4. liberalDream  |  July 21st, 2008 at 2:42 am

  you do realize the entire point of the movie is to say that acting like a vigilante (fight evil at all costs even if it means being somewhat evil yourself) leads to more terrorism. So either you have changed your ways Matt - or your simply to dumb to realize you are supporting your anti-thesis. Either way- cheers!

• 5. neocon  |  July 21st, 2008 at 9:10 am

  I saw previews of Dark Knight and now want to go hunt down and kill the perpetrators of the armed bank robbery this weekend.

  Boy you are right liberalDream.

  I then saw a picture of Cheney and now am compelled to make a profit off of my vigilante ways.

  This is fun

  have a vigilante day
  neocon

• 6. Mike Burleson  |  July 21st, 2008 at 9:20 am

  Matt,
  I agree that the movie gave vigilantes a hard time, but it wasn’t against them. The characters’ grudgingly admitted that extreme measures outside the law are needed during dire times, when innocent lives are at stake. I saw Commissioner Gordon as a “Bush” character, because he stood by his man, even when the Dark Knight was torturing the Joker in order to save lives!

• 7. Will  |  July 21st, 2008 at 11:05 am

  Well, as long as we’re injecting politics into this movie, here were two largely consevative themes I noticed: 1) The Joker is presented as a man without a plan, without any kind of broader motive, a man “who just wants to watch the world burn.” Talking to this kind of man is useless, there isn’t anything to threaten him with, all you can do is stop him by any means necessary. I have a sinking feeling we’re going to see this play out in real life over the next few years with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran. Sometimes “talk” just doesn’t work.

  2) Without giving anything away for people who haven’t seen the movie, Mike mentions that measures outside the law are necessary to stop the Joker. Well, the good guys would not have even FOUND the Joker in time were it not for something Batman did that was analogous to one of the biggest political controversies of the past few years.

  LD seems to think the theme of the movie is that vigilantism only adds to more terrorism, yet only a vigilante could stop the Joker: the policy couldn’t, Harvey Dent couldn’t, only Batman could. While the movie clearly makes the point that a vigilante is hardly a cure-all, it also makes the point that sometimes the only way to stop evil is to do everything in your power to fight it. Even if you sometimes have to cross the line.

• 8. Rana Quijotesca  |  July 21st, 2008 at 12:18 pm

  I loved this movie; I saw a late showing of it Saturday Night. I would like to make a few clarifications of some of the “conservative points” in the movie, however. The movie stresses that the government, and agents of the government, if they want to create any sort of positive change, cannot go (or give the appearance of going) outside of the law. Batman can because he’s not technically affiliated with the government. It also shows that if one man stands up to evil, more will follow. The movie also shows that destroying any power hierarchy, will create a power vacuum that needs to be dealt with.

  With that being said, I don’t think that the movie meant to make those political points; it was just a good movie that stuck pretty much to the comics.

• 9. Some Assembly Required  |  July 21st, 2008 at 4:59 pm

  7. Will | July 21st, 2008 at 11:05 am

  Will, I do agree with your assessment here. I would also like to add a couple of points though.

  The first in regards to the Joker and Harvey Dent. Harvey Dent being the ‘White Knight’ who batman saw as the face in which he could hang up his cape for good. Again without giving to much away, I thought the conflicts between the Joker and Dent spoke truer towards the fight of Good vs. Evil then Batman vs. the Joker. I also feel Dent himself helped batman in coming to the realization of what need to be done.

  The second, revolves around your second point. It was what happened to this lets say ‘Bat Computer’ which caught my attention more so then it’s application in the movie.

  “While the movie clearly makes the point that a vigilante is hardly a cure-all, it also makes the point that sometimes the only way to stop evil is to do everything in your power to fight it. Even if you sometimes have to cross the line.”

  Again I agree almost entirely with this except for the last line. Batman, the vigilante in question never once crossed the line in which his persona hinges.

  As for my personal opinions on the movie, I thought it was brilliant. It was unbelievably realistic to the point where if I didn’t know any better I’d say there could be a batman of New York in the near future. Everything, even down to the offices of Dent, the commissioner, and even the Mayor were as true to life as one would expect. The portals of the Joker, Dent and Batman again, were not of these super villains but of extraordinary people. If Ledger does not receive at minimum an Oscar nod it would mean this summer movie season will be one that will be talked about for decades.

• 10. hermie  |  July 21st, 2008 at 10:07 pm

  It also shows that standing up to evil is a lonely, painful path to take. Batman takes up the burden willingly, but knows the price he must pay is to bear all the scars, emotional as well as literal.

• 11. What?  |  July 22nd, 2008 at 12:38 am

  Please, I am a huge Batman fan. I love Batman. I love this movie. This is not the place to discuss Batman or this movie.

  Is nothing sacred?
  (If anything should be, it should be Batman.)

• 12. Mike Burleson  |  July 22nd, 2008 at 9:01 am

  Just a couple more comments on the comments:

  I understand where “What?” was coming from, being a decades-long Batman fan myself. You just want to go and enjoy the movie while leaving politics to the TV News. I get it. It was very hard though, considering the times we live in and the movie was just “in your face” with the subjects of torture and revenge.

  To Rana, I would ask, who would be the vigilante Batman in the real world, outside of government who stands against those who wish us harm? Do you mean reporters or trial lawyers? Please! These guys are so fouled up on the question of right and wrong, they see the government as the enemy rather than just bumbling and slow to action. For better our worse, our government is a reflection of the population as a whole, and if its screwed up, its up to us to fix it, not just finding someone to blame.

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