tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256317.post8168734231794573888..comments2023-09-07T22:24:51.654-05:00Comments on League of Melbotis: The League finally saw Dark KnightThe Leaguehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04836241071795980225noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256317.post-15758750064587439042008-08-22T21:58:00.000-05:002008-08-22T21:58:00.000-05:00Simon, we're so neck deep in our paranoia here in ...Simon, we're so neck deep in our paranoia here in the US, I'm not sure if the Joker as terrorist was part of the zeitgeist, or intentional, but its certainly true (in my book). But I think its also the natural parallel of the Joker and terrorism. He IS the threat you can't contain because you have nothing he wants, aside from his desire to break you and remind you how fragile you are.<BR/><BR/>And, I agree with your final question (spoiler alert) to such an extent that a sick, small part of me felt ripped off that I didn't find out if what you suggest were true.The Leaguehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04836241071795980225noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256317.post-85886771292698892008-08-22T13:33:00.000-05:002008-08-22T13:33:00.000-05:00My wife and I finally got a chance to see TDK and ...My wife and I finally got a chance to see TDK and while both of us really enjoyed it Kate echoed the sentiment that it was an exhausting movie. I don't mean the fact that it was 2.5 hours long but more along the lines of emotionally exhausting as the tension did not let up for a moment.<BR/><BR/>I thought this movie was truly a Harvey Dent movie as he is the character who the story arc resolves around. Aaron Eckhart did a great job as Harvey. <BR/><BR/>Ledger's Joker was fantastic as well. Am I alone in reading the sub-text as the Joker being an analogy on America's fear of terrorism? Very scary to think what anarchy one can wreak with such simple building blocks.<BR/><BR/>Major Spoiler ahead, do not read the rest of my comment unless you've seen the movie. Who else thought that whatever boat choose to detonate the bomb would end up blowing themselves up?Simon MacDonaldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14749383583517044214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256317.post-19259989406955748942008-07-25T17:29:00.000-05:002008-07-25T17:29:00.000-05:00I think this is a fairly typical reaction to peopl...I think this is a fairly typical reaction to people getting excited about fictional characters. To an extent, you can see this writer making certain assumptions about those darn, dirty liberal surrender monkeys versus the virtuous conservative and chucking the constitution in the name of good. And ignoring how this could possibly be taken another way.<BR/><BR/>Couple of points;<BR/>a) the point of Batman's anonymous do-gooding is that he ISN'T an elected official sworn to uphold the law. It could just as easily be said that George Bush is, perhaps, Harvey Dent in this scenario. Elected with people who believe in him, and ultimately becoming vengeful and violent when he is unable to control the situation. George Bush COULD have been the Jim Gordon in this scenario, sticking to the letter of the law, and even partaking in subterfuge if he knew it was for the benefit of Gotham/ The US. But Gordon ALSO can't break the law, and he has to hope that the agents working around him will follow suit, even those who've played outside the boundaries before. I don't think it's any mistake Nolan's trinity of the movie is the guy outside the law, the guy inside the law who fails and the guy who has to compromise from inside the law in order to make things work. Again, Bush ISN'T outside the law. Many of us just believe he's been more than willing to act outside the law and compromise the law and make it work for us.<BR/><BR/>B) If this guy wants to draw the line between Batman and the Joker, he should consider that the point of the Joker was that Joker was a natural escalation to the Batman's strongarm tactics. Which suggests that the nature of Batman/ Bush's methods has done nothing but make things worse for all the bystanders. <BR/><BR/>C) I've been on comic message boards long enough to posit a sort of theory on this. <BR/>We all sort of see in our heroes what we want to see, but the magic of superheroes is that they have the technology/ ability/ etc... to do what we can't, but to fix the things we'd like to. We tend to think of others on the other side of the political aisle as folks who aren't as clever or smart as us, or see "the truth". We often forget that its our methods that are different, but our goals are often the same. <BR/><BR/>Comics have left me to think about things that way. I know Superman and Batman have different methods. I know Batman and Gordon have different methods. But they all want the same things. <BR/><BR/>But that's the point of heroic tales. You find a hero who is fighting a threat we can all agree must be stopped. But whether you go after the threat with a black tank, or a police force, or pick him off with heat vision from low orbit... that's all methodology.<BR/><BR/>I think this writer is being more than a little disingenuous in his assertions, and he's seeing something in this movie that reinforces his assumptionsThe Leaguehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04836241071795980225noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256317.post-53989555858053320102008-07-25T13:03:00.000-05:002008-07-25T13:03:00.000-05:00Here's an article from the Wall Street Journal com...Here's an article from the Wall Street Journal comparing favorably Batman to George W. Bush. <BR/><BR/>http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB121694247343482821.html<BR/><BR/>Thoughts?Carlahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02078268714821565805noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256317.post-84454662277278730342008-07-21T15:59:00.000-05:002008-07-21T15:59:00.000-05:00I'm no comics guru, but I liked it a lot.Here were...I'm no comics guru, but I liked it a lot.<BR/><BR/>Here were some additional ideas:<BR/><BR/>1. The Joker as a Loki, the agent of chaos, the null mirror. That is, he's absolutely unhinged and when, invariably, anyone looks closely at him <EM>he's not there</EM>— he reflects the other.<BR/><BR/>2. The Joker as Socrates. Socrates was certainly a joker as well, but the “Saw”–like setups that were used to induce the difficulties in moral evaluation were excellent.<BR/><BR/>3. The “how to handle the events of the last 10 minutes of screen time” certainly put me in mind of “LA Confidential”<BR/><BR/>4. Continuing on the morality theme. I think Jonathan Nolan takes us through an interesting dialectic on what Michael Corleone called “the same hypocrisy”.<BR/><BR/>The avenger, to avenge, must be above the law...<BR/><BR/>The law, to protect itself occasionally transcends itself ( torture / etc. )<BR/><BR/>et. al.<BR/><BR/>I think that this ambiguity hits the heart of what “The Dark Knight” is about: that ambiguity between those who follow the law, those who love the law, and those who must betake a mantle of lies to protect civilization. <BR/><BR/>In some ways it was a great next-round in the thought of the League of Shadows from “Batman Begins”.<BR/><BR/>5. In some ways it makes me think of the Sophoclean tragedies where the heart of the tragedy is one moral order ( ancient ) coming in conflict with a new moral order ( the city state / the polis / the king ). Invariably the tragic action hinges on the intersection and our lack of a roadmap of how to navigate the difficulty.Stevenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04068217923979593122noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5256317.post-71872435505791832562008-07-21T09:34:00.000-05:002008-07-21T09:34:00.000-05:00Well, I'm not sure you're right about Dark Knight ...Well, I'm not sure you're right about Dark Knight missing out on the humongous box office numbers...<BR/><BR/>http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-boxoffice-story-0721jul21,0,1792761.story<BR/><BR/>...just beat out Spiderman s for best opening weekend ever...J.S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/03903186469796595837noreply@blogger.com