tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3619321320076553248.post2348936382154395910..comments2024-03-04T05:43:25.791-05:00Comments on Yer Sweet Chimneys: Conversation Piece: Batman = George W. Bush?BJKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17661848156141924913noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3619321320076553248.post-80055797947151524942008-07-29T12:52:00.000-04:002008-07-29T12:52:00.000-04:00That's exactly what bugged me about the film. The ...That's exactly what bugged me about the film. The kind of black and white, good vs. evil dichotomy that organizes the action in the superhero story archetype simply does not apply to real life (I agree with you, bjk). So, when the dialogue in the movie kept slipping into not-so-veiled (okay, downright talking points-y) contemporary neocon political rhetoric (sometimes a true leader has to do what he thinks is right regardless of public sentiment, it's okay to spy on people if it's for their own good, etc.--holy moly, they may as well have thrown out a few "stay the course"s or "the surge is working"s) I found it seriously distracting/irritating rather than particularly insightful or even necessary for the story. <BR/><BR/>We already know going into the movie that Batman is out for the greater good and sometimes he's got to hurt some people to get there; that's, like, the whole point of Batman (and a lot of other superheroes). And we are okay with that; we are okay with Batman and how he does his thing. But we are okay with it because he is fighting (like you said, bjk) a kind of uncharted, superlative evil that does not really exist. OR, even if it does exist somewhere, Joker Evil is NOT what the U.S. is currently battling the the real world. It's just not. The neocons may try to spin it that way to make everyone think they deserve Batman-like vigilante authority, but it's just not the case. <BR/><BR/>Importing what amounts to current neocon political rhetoric--rhetoric that has, for the last 5 years, been specifically and pretty much exclusively used to discuss the "war on terror"--into the Batman dialogue just seemed confusing and weird to me. It didn't add anything to the story, it just rang bells in my head. Yes, duh, Batman should stay the course, because Batman is battling the Joker in GOTHAM FRIGGING CITY. We don't care if Batman spies on people, we don't particularly care if he beats a bad guy to a pulp in an interrogation. He's BATMAN. <BR/><BR/>And Batman has no bearing on or relevance to the current U.S. political scene. Trying to make him seem relevant by putting war-on-terror jargon in his mouth is ludicrous and maybe could have been funny in a satirical kind of way, except the movie was not satirical. Batman (and Harvey Dent) spouting neocon war-on-terror rhetoric kind of seems like the people making the movie were trying to say something like, "See?? You're okay with Batman beating people up in interrogations and spying on people's personal phone calls and going against public sentiment! Soo... You should be okay with the war on terror too! Woo!" More likely, though, they were just trying to make their movie seem culturally/politically/contemporarily relevant by tossing in some charged rhetoric. But because that rhetoric is so specifically tied to the current war-on-terror situation, it just seemed inappropriate in the Batman context.t.a.b.https://www.blogger.com/profile/12628779584437277591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3619321320076553248.post-80633737263389071382008-07-29T12:46:00.000-04:002008-07-29T12:46:00.000-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.t.a.b.https://www.blogger.com/profile/12628779584437277591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3619321320076553248.post-68536080315799128562008-07-26T16:37:00.000-04:002008-07-26T16:37:00.000-04:00The thing to keep in mind though is that your conc...The thing to keep in mind though is that your concept of "the terrorists" as having real, obtainable political goals is not always the line coming out of the neocon camp. In fact, that rhetoric puts them even closer to the Joker in the film. "They want to destroy our way of life" or "The goal of terrorism is terror".<BR/><BR/>I mean, Batman's habit of taking on street-level crime is just adding to the oppression of the already economically disadvantaged who are forced to resort to criminal activity to survive in a jobless urban environment anyway. Why doesn't Bats go after the REAL criminals?<BR/><BR/>You know when Superman started out, he fought almost exlusively aliens and corporate criminals? <BR/><BR/>Just sayin.No Radiohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06177544635350560405noreply@blogger.com