28 July 2008

Batman And America's Vigilante Violence

Andrew Neil is onto something ...

"Batman is really an allegory for America. He thinks he stands for truth and justice but his penchant for vigilante violence is deeply suspect as a means of spreading these virtues (think of G Bush's invasion of Iraq) and actually attracts the sort of evil he is meant to be destroying. The Joker is obviously al-Qaeda and you are given the strong impression that he wouldn't exist if Batman wasn't there in the first place. Batman is not averse to beating a confession out of the Joker (Gitmo, Abu Ghraib). Batman wins in the end, but since most of Gotham (Baghdad) is trashed in the process - even the city's biggest hospital gets blown to smithereens - you wonder if it was really worth it."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So we have another person reading too much into a movie about comic book characters.

scott redding said...

Well. It must be a touchstone to how people are feeling towards the legitimate use of force in the US if it makes that much money in its opening weekend.