The Dark Knight: A Post-9/11 Tale (Part Three)

In my last semester of college, I completed a writing portfolio entitled "Exploring Modern American Culture through Contemporary Cinema." It contained four essays dissecting four recent films. I started with Christopher Nolan's dark epic The Dark Knight (2008). The third part of that essay is below. I will post a new portfolio excerpt every day. Previous posts: Part One, Part Two.
 

 The Dark Knight: A Post-9/11 Tale

Gotham: A City in Need

Long before the Joker’s ascension, Gotham was city notorious for its corruption. That corruption was what inspired Bruce Wayne to don the batsuit in the first place. In Batman Begins, the titular hero returns to his hometown after a long absence, a massive goal weighing on his mind: restore Gotham to decency. At the start of the second film, we learn he was largely successful; between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, crime rates have gone down, the once unscrupulous police force has started to turn around, and Gothamites are slowly taking on the responsibility of keeping their city safe.

The Joker sees all of this, and he is not pleased. He doubts Gotham’s ability – and humanity’s, in general – to be truly good. In an attempt to break Batman’s spirit and turn him against the strict moral code he follows, the Joker condemns the city’s inhabitants, declaring: “their morals, their code – it’s a bad joke, dropped at the first sign of trouble. They’re only as good as the world allows them to be. I’ll show you. When the chips are down, these – these civilized people, they’ll eat each other” (Nolan). He tests this hypothesis repeatedly, terrorizing citizens with a variety of horrific threats. For example, in his first threat, which is broadcast on the Gotham City News network, the Joker announces that for every day Batman does not reveal his true identity, someone will die. And just as he says, he’s a man of his word (Nolan). This threat alone sends the city into a frenzy. Even more warnings come later, each pushing the civilians a little closer to utter depravity. The Gothamites turn on their leaders and each other in their tense, frightened state. By the end of the film, however, the citizens’ goodness prevails over their crueler survival instincts, much to the Joker’s surprise and dismay.

Though the Joker’s radical philosophy does not triumph, he does, through his terrorist acts, coerce the citizens to do terrible things to each other. This can be seen when he demands the death of Coleman Reese (Joshua Harto), a Wayne Enterprises accountant who asserts he knows who Batman really is. Deciding his cat-and-mouse game with the Caped Crusader is too much fun to give up, the Joker gives the people of Gotham one hour to kill Reese, or else he will blow up a hospital. The Gothamites are so on edge, so fearful of the Joker, that they make several attempts on Reese’s life. This sequence displays the acute anxiety that inevitably arises when a community is struck with unexpected large-scale violence. Though magnified and dramatized, the emotions of Gotham’s citizens are not dissimilar to those experienced by Americans in the years after 9/11.

In the years after the attacks, there has been a “widespread sense of crisis” in the U.S. as people see few solutions to what seem like never-ending problems of political, social, and economic turmoil (Baum 267). Unlike in The Dark Knight, this apprehension has not caused constant fear of inter-citizen violence among all socioeconomic groups. In the film, Gotham’s entire population lives in daily fear of death, either by the Joker’s hands or those of their fellow citizens. Despite an atmosphere of unease, U.S. society has never faced the dire life-or-death situations seen in the movie, which lead to monstrous actions by everyday people. However, this does not mean the post-9/11 culture of fear and anxiety has not produced unethical behavior among citizens. For example, issues of xenophobia, particularly against those of Middle Eastern descent, plagued the nation for some time after 9/11. They even continue today, with several attacks on Muslim homes and mosques documented last year, all carried out by non-Muslims (Belnart). It seems that in real life, just as in The Dark Knight, the threat of terrorism has the power to lead to societal disunity. The everyday tensions and prejudices built up out of fear may not be as dramatic as the gunshots the Joker encourages, but they have just as much power to keep society from functioning as a united whole.

Sources

Baum, Bruce. "The Dark Knight (Warner Brothers Pictures, 2008)." New Political Science. 31.2 (2009): 267-69. Print.

Belnart, Peter. "A Quiet Campaign of Violence Against American Muslims." Newsweek. 20 Aug 2012: n. page. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. .

Nolan, Christopher, dir. Batman Begins. Writ. David S. Goyer, Christopher Nolan, Perf. Christian Bale, and Liam Neeson. Warner Bros., 2005. Film. 16 Nov 2013.

Nolan, Christopher, dir. The Dark Knight. Writ. Jonathan Nolan, Perf. Christian Bale, and Heath Ledger. Warner Bros., 2008. Film. 31 Oct 2013.

 

The Dark Knight: A Post-9/11 Tale (Part Two)

In my last semester of college, I completed a writing portfolio entitled "Exploring Modern American Culture through Contemporary Cinema." It contained four essays dissecting four recent films. I started with Christopher Nolan's dark epic The Dark Knight (2008). The second part of that essay is below. Read part one here. I will post a new portfolio excerpt every day.

  

 The Dark Knight: A Post-9/11 Tale

The Joker: An Agent of Chaos

The demented and mysterious Joker is The Dark Knight’s fiendish antagonist, as well as the catalyst for its culturally symbolic story. This well-known figure from Batman mythology is given an interesting and terrifying twist in Nolan’s post-9/11 tale. In his metaphorical world, the Joker represents terrorism, unhinged and unrestrained. Terrorism is a difficult word to define; though commonly used in the media and by the general citizenry, there has been no consensus about its meaning (Williamson 38). The term is usually related to the use of violence to send an ideological message, often a political one. In The Dark Knight, the Joker spends most of his time trying to demolish the very notion of principled behavior, so viewing him as a terrorist promoting an ideology might seem far-fetched; but, as much as he denies it, the Joker is motivated by one particular worldview. As he creepily tells Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), he is an “agent of chaos,” claiming it is “fair.” He also manipulatively encourages Dent to “upset the established order” (Nolan). The Joker upholds anarchy and amorality; this is his creed. He is a terrorist because he forces it on a city with violent actions that create panic in the streets.

The United States is of course faced with two main categories of terrorism: foreign and domestic. With the 9/11 attacks, foreign terrorists set the stage for the War on Terror and a culture of anxiety, but in the years since, a number of violent acts have instead been planned and sometimes even carried out by domestic terrorists. There have been at least sixty “publicly known” terror plots since 9/11, with an increasing number being planned within U.S. borders (The Heritage Foundation). There have also been a number of mass shootings in the past decade, not always considered acts of terrorism, but definitely adding to the fear of seemingly spontaneous violence that permeates modern American culture. With this in mind, the Joker clearly works best as a representation of domestic rather than foreign terrorism. This is due to his loner status and his lack of loyalty to another government, or any government for that matter. Viewers could interpret the Joker’s reign of terror as what might happen if a mass shooter was given immense power and endless resources. Driven by a twisted mentality, he kills for personal reasons, thinking he is sending a message every citizen of Gotham needs to hear. That message is the superiority of irrationality, senselessness, and pandemonium.

Sources

The Heritage Foundation. (2013). 60 Terrorist Plots Since 9/11: Continued Lessons in Domestic Counterterrorism. Washington, DC: Steven P. Bucci, James Jay Carafano, and Jessica Zuckerman.

Nolan, Christopher, dir. The Dark Knight. Writ. Jonathan Nolan, Perf. Christian Bale, and Heath Ledger. Warner Bros., 2008. Film. 31 Oct 2013.

Williamson, Myra. Terrorism, War and International Law: The Legality of the Use of Force Against Afghanistan in 2001. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2009. 38-40. Print.

 

The Dark Knight: A Post-9/11 Tale (Part One)

In my last semester of college, I completed a writing portfolio entitled "Exploring Modern American Culture through Contemporary Cinema." It contained four essays dissecting four recent films. I started with Christopher Nolan's dark epic The Dark Knight (2008). The first part of that essay is below. I will post a new portfolio excerpt every day.

 

The Dark Knight: A Post-9/11 Tale

Introduction

There is no doubt the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001 have had a lasting and profound effect on the United States. An assault of such magnitude had never before taken place within the country’s borders; almost 3,000 people were killed (United States). The events of 9/11 stunned civilians and pushed leaders to take decisive, dramatic action. A multitude of Americans have decried the counterterrorism effort that followed. In October 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan, kicking off a decade-long War on Terror. Around this time, the government also implemented strict security measures and started organizations like the Department of Homeland Security and its agency the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Whether their choices were ethical was – and is – a much debated topic. While some insist the extreme steps taken were necessary to ensure safety, others are more skeptical, calling them “crimes of the most serious kind” (deHaven-Smith 403). The effects of these regulations and operations – and the horrific acts of violence that inspired them – can still be felt today. From 9/11, a new, anxiety-ridden culture was born in the United States. Many of its people were left either anguished or apathetic, and those in charge were presented with innumerable difficult decisions. The whole nation has been confronted with a tough ethical question that may not have a clear answer: How far is too far when attempting to maintain order and public peace of mind in the face of unimaginable tragedy?

Numerous writers, artists, and filmmakers have tried to capture this uneasy millennial mood in their work, all with varying degrees of success. One of the most potent and acclaimed creations to come out of the influx of 9/11-tinged art is director Christopher Nolan’s 2008 blockbuster The Dark Knight. This superhero sequel to 2005’s Batman Begins paints a grim picture: the slowly evolving city of Gotham is brought to its knees by a psychotic, anarchical villain, the Joker (Heath Ledger). The unusual criminal is “a dog chasing cars,” perpetrating brutal acts of violence for no rhyme or reason (Nolan). Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) – aka Batman – works alongside good cop Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and new District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) to defeat the volatile felon. The hero struggles to understand the warped worldview that drives Gotham’s most dangerous madman.

Post-9/11 culture pervades The Dark Knight. It echoes everywhere – in the characters, the dialogue, the themes. Like terrorists in New York and Washington, D.C., the Joker causes citywide hysteria and distress. There is no rational purpose for his behavior. He is driven by a strange ideology, valuing chaos above all else, insisting that the “only sensible way to live in this world is without rules” (Nolan). He declares Batman has “changed things forever” with his vigilante heroics; but the Joker, too, has left his mark, and not for the better (Nolan). He overtakes Gotham with “a few drums of gas and a couple of bullets,” instilling fear and rage in all its citizens (Nolan). One can sense early on the lingering effect the Joker will have on the city, a deep scar that will not heal quickly. The people do not understand how or why this mayhem is taking place, and in desperation, they cry out for help. Their leaders – both legal and extralegal – go to extreme lengths to stop the Joker and protect the citizens of Gotham. Given the unrest among citizens and the questionable decisions by leaders like Batman, The Dark Knight is an allegory for post-9/11 U.S. society. Gotham stands in for a nation plagued with moral ambiguity, anxiety, and fear caused by the threat of terrorism, which constantly looms over their lives.

Sources

deHaven-Smith, Lance. "State crimes against democracy in the war on terror: applying the Nuremberg principles to the Bush-Cheney Administration." Contemporary Politics. 16.4 (2010): 403-420. Print.

Nolan, Christopher, dir. The Dark Knight. Writ. Jonathan Nolan, Perf. Christian Bale, and Heath Ledger. Warner Bros., 2008. Film. 31 Oct 2013.

United States. The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States - Executive Summary. Washington: GPO, 2004. Print.