As Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy concludes, it’s a good time to reflect back on what the previous two films have had to say about the human condition. Yes, these are movies where people seriously wear capes and spandex, but make no mistake: these are films that also seriously ask questions philosophers and moralists wrestle with all the time.
The most important questions for me in The Dark Knight (the second movie of the trilogy) deal with our
ability to discover the truth and our moral obligations to share it once we
have it. Wanting to know the truth is seemingly fundamental to us as humans.
Science is founded on the search for truth. It’s a cornerstone of religion: “I
am the way, the truth, and the light.” In our personal relationships, if
someone were to say, “That story she just told you isn’t what really happened,” how many of us would
say, “Whatever, the first story was good enough”? No way. We’d pester the other
person until we knew every juicy little detail.
So what do we make of The Joker in this scene? What's the truth of this scene? (The person who posted this video helpfully cut out the car chase shots from this section, but it will look a little choppy.)
How much of what The Joker said there is true? Do we believe him when he says that Dent's scarring and Rachel's death were nothing personal? Does he truly not plan anything? He certainly seems genuine in his "apology," and in this scene he seems to be treating Harvey as an equal. The Joker doesn't lie to his equals; for example, he lets the mob bosses that he is the one who stole their money.
But he's a notorious liar; that he tells two distinctly different stories about how he got his scars is the most obvious example of his penchant for deception. And he's definitely the bad guy of the film. Harvey Dent is the good guy. So why does Harvey believe The Joker and accept The Joker's worldview? Good guys should be able to tell truth from lies, right from wrong. We need the good guys to be able to do that because the bad guys can't.
Batman and Commissioner Gordon decide that Gotham needs as many good guys as it can get. Harvey is the White Knight of Gotham, and when he becomes Two Face and begins to kill people, Batman and Gordon reason that Gotham has lost its best hope. So, to give hope back to Gotham, they conspire to blame Batman for Two Face's killings and his holding Gordon's family hostage. They plan to lie to the world about the circumstances of Harvey's death, making Batman a villain and Two Face a hero.
Aren't the good guys supposed to tell the truth? I mean, Superman stands for truth, justice, and the American way; truth is the FIRST thing he stands for. Batman and Gordon just want to make sure that The Joker doesn't win, that he doesn't break the spirit of Gotham. But when the three great spirits of Gotham - Harvey, Batman, and Gordon - have turned to killing, terrorizing, and perpetuating lies (at the great potential risk to Gordon's family's mental health [aren't they going to have to lie too?]), when the good guys use the tools of the bad guys, don't the terrorists win?
Next up: I look at horror movies.
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