Recently saw Batman Begins, and TDK again. Looking forward to rewatching TDKR, especially after catching a discussion on reddit about why Batman had to take the fall in TDK and not the Joker. This overlooks the most important part of the Dark Knight, which is that the Joker himself blames his existence on Batman in those video tapes he release to the press. They had to blame Batman, because Batman was already illegal. For the law to be the supreme authority, which is necessary to maintain a stable social structure, all illegal entities have to be pursued. Blaming the Joker doesnt solve the problem of punishing Batman for operating outside the law. Because the political system in gotham was so corrupt and broken, it became necessary for Batman to be created to enforce the moral and legal code that the legal system was too hamstrung to. In other words, the failure of the legal system to fight crime necessitated the creation of an extra-legal entity that would enforce the law *from outside the law*. The Batman represents pure order, pure justice. And by doing so, Batman gave the legal system enough breathing room to reconstitute itself. And in the Dark Knight we get the rise of good guy Harvey Dent. But the problem is that by going outside the law to fight crime in the first place, the system makes outside the law a space where its fair to operate. So the joker emerges. The Joker is not the antitheses of the law, hes the antithesis of order. Hes lunacy, madness, anarchy. A force not about breaking the rules (which would be the ordinary criminals) but about not having rules at all. The rules about fighting crime dont apply to Batman. He can torture, violate privacy, get evidence without a warrant, obstructs justice with impunity, etc. Batman has his own rules. As long as we trust Batman to adhere to a strict moral code of his own, then we know hes only going after bad guys. Except Batman lied. Batman covered up Harveys crimes, and pinned them on himself in order to close that ideological gap that Batmans existence opened. Batman made it okay to publicly go out of bounds to enforce the boundaries, which challenges the very notion of those boundaries. So Batman, and Gordon, have to close this gap, so they pin the crimes on Batman, and hunt him down. Insodoing, they create the myth that no one is above of the law. This myth is very important for Gotham to function. This means that the legal system and the social order is in control, and everyone else, regardless of personal morals or motives is a criminal and a rogue element. And this is the lie. In truth, not only was Batman above the law, but so was Harvey, who was never punished for his crimes (his death wasnt an act of the law), and so is Gordon, who rises to the privileged position of having power within the system while knowing the truth behind the lie. And it is the creation of this myth, this noble lie, that sets up TDKR. On the back of this lie, Gotham passes legislation that gives the police expanded powers *which are very similar to the powers used by Batman*-warrantless search, detention without probable cause, etc. **By making Batman the bad guy, the police are able to move the boundaries of the law back, so what was once illegal for them to do is now legal.** No one is above the law anymore, because the Dent Act just gave the justice system more headroom. The law is opposed by the criminal, who corrupts the law. Corruption is opposed by the superhero-the agent of ideal justice and order. The superhero is opposed by the lunatic, who embodies chaos. The new legal order constructs a new narrative under which it subsumes the powers of superhero, rendering him superfluous, and relegates chaos to the asylum, where it is relabelled madness. The new order is opposed by the terrorist, who manifests as the repressed truth that there is no moral spectrum at all, there is only power. Bane is pure power, as is the social order. The only opposition to power is destruction. So TDKR ends in complete annihilation for everyone. Batman as a figure is dead. Bane is dead. The political structure of Gotham City is dead. What isnt dead are the people, who took to the streets for their own city from the bottom up. This answers the question asked by Batman Begins: Who will fight for society? The answer given in the first two films was Batman, but that was the wrong answer. TDKR gives the right answer: all of us should.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 21:10:14 +0000
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