The Dark Knight directed by Christopher Nolan is not to be conceived to the audience as a ‘standard Superhero’ film, but that of a non-stop action thriller that focuses deeply on the ideologies and morals which both the protagonist and antagonist show. The film is based on the original Batman comic books but additionally changes the way we, the audience, perceive the everyday world as good to naturally bad. Throughout the movie, Batman stands for honesty and goodness whereas the Joker symbolises chaos and evil. Both sides are forced to make quick-thinking decisions in order to stop the opposing side from doing his desired work. Nolan represents the sides of good and evil through the characters of Batman (Christian Bale); the good, and Joker (Heath Ledger); the bad, by using the mise-en-scène and breaking down these characters to their cores to show their true ideologies.
German Philosopher; G.W.F. Hegel saw the ‘hero complex’; someone believing they are doing good by going outside of the law to achieve their heroic goal, as criminal and thus rejected the idea of a hero. He saw the legal order as an establishment too large to allow room for heroism and so that automatically means they are opposed to the law; “Individuality is a law unto itself, without being subjected to an independently subsisting law, judgement, and tribunal.” [footnoteRef:1] meaning in the laws perspective it would be seen as evil as the hero’s actions will undermine it. Todd McGowan, carries on Hegel’s belief and states that Christopher Nolan’s use of Batman within The Dark Knight[footnoteRef:2] takes the problem of the hero complex to the law; “the hero’s activity would become criminality, and there would be no way to differentiate it from evil”[footnoteRef:3], agreeing with Hegel that the role of a hero can blend in that of criminal activity and states Nolan makes it his overriding concern. [1: G. W. F. Hegel, Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art, vol. 1, trans. T. M. Knox] [2: Nolan, Christopher. 2008. The Dark Knight.] [3: McGowan, Todd. The exceptional darkness of the Dark Knight, page 2 discussing G.W.F. Hegel philosophical views on heroes.]
Unlike previous Batman films, Nolan does not push to idolise the Batman, but instead delves deeper into the psychological reasoning of his actions. This is helped by the world Nolan creates for these characters, even with the help of Batman. The film’s dark and brooding Mise-en-scène shows the audience the true extent to which criminality rules life there. Unlike Batman Begins[footnoteRef:4], in which Gotham appeared as a futuristic city despite its rise in crime, in The Dark Knight, crime creates a grim look and feel of the city. Buildings stand forming shadows across the streets making daytime scenes occur under dark gloomy skies. People’s attire is generally dark, even Batman is seen wearing head to toe in black armour, unlike the previous iterations who wore hints of colour, giving him an almost villainous look. [4: Nolan, Christopher. 2005. Batman B]
Despite his dark appearance, the film starts off with Batman as the traditional hero as it demonstrates how he has his grasp on the current problem. As a result of his actions, the criminal activity is at an all-time low and he now wishes to take a step back, relinquishing his high status and to allow the legal order to work alone once again. He soon realises that in order to do this, a new form of heroism must step in his place, away from the one he formed for himself by wearing a mask, and give the public a proper face of heroism, which leads him to Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). Dent is represented as the complete opposite to Batman as Dent demonstrates the ‘ideal’ heroic qualities; Hegel’s belief of working within the law. Whereas the Batman’s heroism goes against the law in order to win, Dent’s sense of heroism embraces the law, making him not need a mask allowing the citizens of Gotham to rally behind a man and not a symbol in which the Batman tried to do. However, after tragic events[footnoteRef:5] we see Dent drop heroism and the idea of being a defender within in the law to become a criminal named Two-Face. This is where we see the true heroism of Batman as he realises the impossibility of taking off the cowl. He steps away from his own happiness for the sake of the people as the once be hero; Dent, who he looked up to, no longer holds the heroism he once possessed and is now the criminal. This turn of events reveals that heroism isn’t to be idolised or wished for as it can change, manipulate, become toxic to withhold and can ruin your life and the lives of the ones around you. [5: the sudden death of Rachel (Maggie Gyllenhaal); Batman’s and Dent’s love interest, and Dent suffers from serious burns,]
In similar fashion to Nolan’s other films, McGowan argues the conclusion of the film also sees a twist. He argues the ending sees that the true form of Batman’s heroism is his acceptance to appear evil. This is evident as the film concludes with Batman volunteering to take responsibility for the murders Dent commits, hence allowing Dent to die as a martyr of the cause to the public, where at the same time changes the public view on himself to that of a murderer and a criminal. Batman confesses openly to the audience the need for the heroic exception and the needs for his heroism to appear as criminality as he knows that the heroism he stands for is not as powerful for justice compared to what Dent stood for. The ‘Heroic Gesture’ conceived in the Dark Knight does not need to be that of any actual lifesaving or crime fighting activities we see him act upon in the film. His heroism is seen in his embrace of the appearance of being a criminal which concludes his arc and that of the film itself. Commissioner Gordon’s (Gary Oldman) praising voiceover to Batman that closes the film confirms that this is the true heroic act as both Gordon and Batman know if the citizens of Gotham were to see through this lie of Batman’s ‘criminal activities’, and to recognise his real heroism, that the heroism would be instantly lost and the city of Gotham would lose both of its knights, so the hero of the story must mask his heroism as evil. Therefore Nolan’s film agrees with the view of Hegel’s belief that the heroes actions are ultimately seen as criminal like to begin with as Batman goes against the law as the law does not allow room for vigilante justice and therefore is seen as a criminal to the public whereas Dent; the actual criminal, is seen as the hero as he worked within the law, even though it corrupted him.
Given the film’s focus on the theme of a hero’s need to step out of the law to win the day, it has been believed that the film is a right-wing political commentary on George W. Bush and his prosecution of the Iraq war. Vivienne Chen[footnoteRef:6] highlights this belief by using an article by Andrew Klavan in the Wall Street Journal which he states: [6: Andrew Klavan’s article on ‘what Bush and Batman have in common.’ (cited in Vivienne Chen’s, The Dark Knight and the Post-9/11 Death Wish)]
“There seems to me no question that the Batman film 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. 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.”[footnoteRef:7] [7: Klavan, A. (2008). What Bush and Batman Have in Common. [online] WSJ. Available at: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB121694247343482821]
The similarity that Klavan states between Bush and Batman can be seen in their joint recognition that a threat; in Batman’s case the Joker, to the legal order requires an extra-legal exception in order to end the threat. This is represented in the Dark Knight when Batman violates the citizens civil liberties to produce a device which tracks, monitors and records every citizen in the city. We the audience see his acts as an unheroic having gone over the line and his heroism is questioned, like that of Bush. However, the audience understands that in order to catch the Joker, Batman has to do this, even if it is not correct to do so. Audience acceptance is also raised at the end of the film where he destroys the device, limiting back his power. Therefore, it could be argued that the similarities to Bush and Batman were done intentionally to show what the ideal hero should do. However, Batman follows a belief that doesn’t allow him to kill anyone and destroys the device which disrupts Civil rights. Bush arguably did not act on the same values[footnoteRef:8]. [8: Dolan, C. (2006). The War About the War: Iraq and the Politics of National Security Advising in the G.W. Bush Administration’s First Term. Politics & Policy, pp.30-64.]
To every Hero, there must be the Villain to cause conflict and this is the Joker for Batman. The reason why these two characters within the film are loved so much by the audience is due to the fact that they are alike. Both Joker and Batman live outside of the normal world and both believe to live above the law. Just like the Batman, the Joker lives by a belief as well. This is seemingly where the similarities end between the two as Batman can be seen with-holding justice, whereas the Joker commits to injustice. However, they share a position that outdoes the planned ethics authorised by the law itself and sees underlying bitterness to it, something which German Philosopher Immanuel Kant also argues. Kant suggests that our morals to the law is nothing more than trying to become good; ‘The human being (even the best) is evil only because he reverses the moral order of his incentives in incorporating them into his maxims.’[footnoteRef:9] Meaning we only do acts of good for our own self-love, something Christopher Nolan makes clear through both of these characters, Batman for the death of his parents and The Joker has realised these phycological needs and therefore chose evil [9: Immanuel Kant, Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, in Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason and Other Writings, translated by Allen Wood and George di Giovanni (1998)]
The joker is the polar opposite to Batman when it comes to their morals. The Joker is the one in film who gives the audience the best view in which these two characters place themselves with their ethics by analysing the world around him and how everyone schemes and plan to better themselves, unlike him;
“I don’t have a plan. The mob has plans, the cops have plans…. I’m a dog chasing cars. I wouldn’t know what to do if I caught one. I just do things…. I hate plans. Yours, theirs, everyone’s … I show schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are.”
This shows that the Joker does not seek anything from his criminal activities and that he doesn’t care about the risk of death or that of burning piles of money, which separates him from his criminal counterparts. The only person he can relate to is the Batman in the fact that Batman does not seek satisfaction in what he does. The independence, ethics and beliefs of the Joker renders him difficult to understand, for us and even for Batman. At first, he interprets the Joker as just another criminal seeking to better himself financially, but Alfred points out the possibility that this belief fails to capture what motivates someone like the Joker. Through a past story, Alfred suggests that the Joker acts for the sake of acting rather than for a goal such as money, which sees the Joker break out of what Kant calls Heteronomy; actions taking place by being influenced by an outside force, to achieve autonomy (being self-controlled).
Even though he shows the similarity of the characters[footnoteRef:10], Nolan makes sure to show the evil within the Joker. The Joker goes further in his actions than Batman does to achieve his criminal activities he doesn’t care if people die, in fact he hopes they do. Unlike Batman, the Joker is not known publicly, he has no Bruce Wayne identity to withhold beneath his make-up. If someone was to remove the mask of Batman, they would learn his real identity to be Bruce Wayne. The Joker’s make-up does not hide his identity but instead highlights the fact that he doesn’t have one and we don’t know how he got there, that is why he doesn’t worry about having no make-up on, as he has nothing to hide, no identity worth knowing. [10: such as in one noticeable scene of the pent house when both Wayne and the Joker make a grand entrance demanding the presence of Harvey Dent.]
The identity, or lack thereof, of the Joker is used by Nolan to create a sense of dread and fear when the Joker creates fake back stories to how he got his scars. Each time he tells his story, Nolan uses different editing and camera techniques to cause unease amongst the audience. The first story sees a series of close-ups between the Joker and the Gangster he holds with a knife in his mouth and the intensity visible on the Joker’s face gives a sense of truth to this story. When he kills the Gangster immediately afterward by slicing his mouth open, the act appears to have its ultimate motivation in the violence done to the Joker when he was a child, as explained in the story. In contrast to the first story where the Joker relates the origins of his scars in a series of close-ups, in this story the explanation occurs while a 360-degree tracking shot circles the Joker and Rachel in an almost one-shot fashion. The visual shift in the depiction of the Joker’s explanation helps to transform the spectator’s response to the Joker and cause more unease.
Overall, Nolan truly shows the themes of heroism and evil through the characters of Batman and Joker by the use of camera work, editing styles and making them almost relatable to one and other but changing their core beliefs to show how, even though they are similar in their phycological needs they have act differently on how they act upon these needs and therefore make themselves drastically different to one and other.
Bibliography
- Bal, Z. and Dikencik, M. (2013). The Dark Knight and the Ideology Behind. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 82, pp.580-584.
- Brooker, W. (2012). Hunting the Dark Knight: Twenty-First Century Batman.
- Chen, V. (2013). The Dark Knight and the Post-9/11 Death Wish.
- Dolan, C. and Cohen, D. (2006). The War About the War: Iraq and the Politics of National Security Advising in the G.W. Bush Administration’s First Term. Politics & Policy, 34(1), pp.30-64.
- Hegel, G. and Knox, T. (1998). Aesthetics. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Klavan, A. (2019). What Bush and Batman Have in Common. [online] WSJ. Available at: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB121694247343482821 [Accessed 11 Mar. 2019].
- McGowan, T. (2009). The Exceptional Darkness of ‘The Dark Knight.’
- Wood, A. and Giovanni, G. (1998). Kant: ‘Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason’. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Filmography
- Nolan, Christopher. 2005. Batman Begins [Film]
- Nolan, Christopher. 2008. The Dark Knight [Film]
