The Dark Knight: The Devil Inside, The Devil Outside

Yesterday I finally saw the blockbuster hit of the summer - The Dark Knight.  It was a disturbing film on many levels but also a penetrating look into our confused national moral psyche.  We moderns tend to believe that evil is outside, out there - in bad people.  Or are good and evil just empty, meaningless concepts?  The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche penned his immensely influential work Beyond Good and Evil in 1886, essentially nullifying 2,000 years of Western morality.  The subtitle of the book was "A Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future," and, clearly, Nietzsche's future is now our reality.  After discarding the "outdated" notions of good and evil in the 1960s, Americans were rudely awakened on September 11, 2001 that, yes, evil still exists in our world and is something which must not only be recognized and identified but actually resisted and defeated as well.  And so began our War on Terror.  But then came the Abu Grahib prisoner torture and abuse scandal - not to mention the U.S. government now condoning the torture (waterboarding) of detainees.  What has fighting evil done to us?  We would be wise to heed, ironically enough, something else found in Beyond Good and Evil.  It's one of Nietzsche's aphorisms (pithy sayings usually commenting on religion and morality) and a serious warning:  "Those who fight monsters should make sure that they, in the process, do not themselves become monsters.  And when you look for a long time into an abyss, the abyss also looks back into you." (aphorism 146) 

Christianity, not only as a religion but also as a philosophical system, takes evil seriously.  Christianity is, in the final analysis, the only entity in this world that can effectively war against the evil forces at work in this fallen world.  It is effective because it starts within us and extends to the world through us.  It has never tried to gloss over two important points in this regard: 

(1)  Evil resides in all of us within our sinful nature.  Christianity proclaims that all humans are born into sin.  Evil automatically resides within us.  While not all of us (fortunately!) fully exercise the massively destructive potential of our sin, we all have done bad things and any newspaper can testify that we humans are inherently sinful creatures.  So in that regard the Batman and the Joker are on equal footing.  Both are sinners possessing evil natures.  If one is to triumph against evil and injustice in this world, the evil nature with them must first be dealt with.  Only Christ's sacrifice on the cross can check this sin nature and free us to battle exterior evil.  We conquer this evil by accepting His work and receiving His new nature to dwell within us, a deposit sealed by the Holy Spirit.  We are called new creatures but these new creatures must be careful in their fight against evil as we shall see below. 

(2)  Christianity also makes clear the debilitating influence of unchecked evil in this world.  Evil must be resisted and fought - starting, as I said above, with the evil within us which was conquered by Christ on the cross.  The Joker in the film is a chilling representation of the Satanic evil which exists in our world.  Our foe is both crafty and stealthy.  Like the Joker, he doesn't play by the rules and will stop at nothing to unleash destruction and chaos.  Even as Christians we must heed Nietzsche's aphorism and not become monsters ourselves in our fight against the evils and injustices of this world.  This was both the Batman's as well as District Attorney Harvey Dent's downfall - the evil within them was never dealt with, therefore hamstringing their best efforts to fight the evil around them.  They both stoop to the Joker's evil level.  This is a stark lesson for all of us - well illustrated in The Dark Knight. 

So I could say a lot more about this film (and probably will as it really reminded me of things going on in Mexico right now) but for now I prefer to reflect on what I posted above.   

Comments

[RebeccaC]

That was well-written. In fact, that was so well written that you make me want to watch the movie just so I can look for more parallels.

I had similar issues with the last Batman movie, but thought perhaps they would deal with the "who I am inside" question in the next. I guess they didn't. What we do may define us, but it certainly won't redeem us and neither will it rescue us from evil -- inside or outside.

Thanks for sharing your views on this film. I think I made the right choice to keep the kids away from this one for now.

Bendiciones!!!

[gena]

I'm quite sure it's you guys who taught me how to find the absolute truths founded in Christianity in every movie I see. I believe it started with Chocolat. Thanks for that! As for The dark Knight movie, I want to watch it again b/c I do think there are all kinds of parallels within it that remind us of how the enemy works and how we need to watch ourselves, and recognize what ultimately fuels us ... our calling, a romance, an obligation to society ... etc.

the article on you guys comes out manana :-)

[Alan]

Heya Greg!
I'm all for finding common ground between Christian and cultural concepts, but I'm not sure I really agree with some of your conclusions. Just a sec. I'll re-read and see if I get a different impression. BRB.

Ok. I'm back. I think I'm on-board with what you're saying except at the very end. (I'll confess right now that I'm a bit of a Batman-nerd, so please indulge me a moment while I geek out on your blog here for a sec ;)

You said, "They both stoop to the Joker's evil level" but I think the thesis of the movie was the very opposite.

****** SPOILER ALERT ******

I think the Joker was convinced that deep down, everyone was as psychotic and deranged as he was. He intended to prove that with the two ferries. He knew that, given the right circumstances, normal, law-abiding people could become ruthless killers as well. And he was proven wrong.

Secondly, his sense of joy came from the fact that he knew Batman WOULDN'T sink to his level. He knew that he could kill people helter-skelter, and that Batman would not take a life. That question was supposed to be the weight behind their final confrontation and is propulsion behind their stories in the comics: What do you do when a killer refuses to stop killing? Do you kill him and sink to his level, or do you allow him to live knowing that he may kill again? Batman made his choice, and it was a good one.

Now then, if you want to talk about Christian parallels in the movie, we need to talk about Two Face. Ohhhh, how I could talk about Two Face. There is no fictional character I can empathize with more than Two Face, the poor soul so caught between his desire to do good, and a yearning to do what is wrong. Granted, my own free will isn't so debilitated that I need a coin to decide which impulse to act on, however I know what it feels like to know the right thing to do and still desire to do the wrong thing. (Insert optional interpretation of Romans 7 here.)

So, yes, there are some basic parallels that can be drawn from the movie, but I don't think they include Batman dealing with his sinful nature (since I don't think it's fair to impose Christian paradigms onto works of fiction that are independent of our Christian world). However, I believe there are also marvelous lessons we can still learn from the movie (as we can from many great creative works).

Ok. I think I'm done being a geek now. :)

[The Dark Knight Soundtrack]

Thank you for reviewing !!The Dark knight is the best movie I ever seen. It is great movie with great story. On the other hand, The film ,trying to make a statement of modern terrorism,didn't work.