New York Dreamer

What makes a hero different from us? A hero can stay as a hero forever, or would inevitably turn into a villain before too long? Are humans selfish and evil in nature or good-hearted naturally? What makes them cooperate if they are evil? Or do humans have both faces?

“The Dark Knight” revolves around a dark contrast between two unusual characters, both burdened with flawed destiny.

On the one side of the coin, there is a Joker who seemingly puts on smiles and fun chasing masks all the time; but he has a somehow tragic and traumatic past from a family authority figure, his father. This dark side bared under the surface is believed to have inescapably destined him to become a villain, resisting the system, ridiculing the authority, and promoting disorder and anarchic chaos. Joker is out loud in ridiculing the authority’s ‘little scheme’ to control the system. He claims he’s not doing his act for money, but to realize his idealism. His ideal utopia is Anarchy and an uncontrolled society like a vicious hacker terrorist would justify.

On the opposite side of the coin, there is a Batman who puts on a dark mask without smiles, or sometimes puts on a millionaire playboy mask with no care for the world; but in truth he is a hero who cares about the world the most and reveals his vulnerability even for Joker. He represents heroism, justice, reason, science, knowledge, belief in the good, and wealth. Batman stands on the opposite of Joker, but he doesn’t necessarily represent control or rigid societal rules. Batman even gets to control the telecommunications system and use them for the bigger good, but his ideal is to do good, not in the control or monitoring itself.

Since these two are on the opposite side, they are all different? Or are they part of the same coin anyway, displaying the same side in reality with deception to be different like the coin District Attorney Harvey was playing with? If we get to choose one of them, should they be Head or Tail, or Black or White? Aren’t they all weak tear-shedding human beings anyways? They could remind us of history-long conflict between social classes. Would it be proletariat vs. Bourgeois? Would it be nationalists vs. anarchist? Or is government vs. individual? Villain vs. Hero? I may be stretching too far, but their conflict has set to exist from their origin and destiny. Their free will and individual choices could be part of the huge wheel of fate for all flawed individuals. Or our individual heroic choices could really matter in the end. Sometimes, we could have two faces like Harvey when he got burned and a sense of fairness and revenge was burning his mind.

“The Dark Knight” was full of dark quests for moral and social dilemmas faced by weak, wicked but sometimes heroic human beings. Who would Batman should run to save, when his love and a symbol of justice were captured and kept wired to bombs in the opposite side of the city? What would you choose if you should choose between two seemingly impossible choices? Choosing one of them could bring at least one devastating consequence anyway. Are you willing to leave it to a random chance, just by tossing the coin? Or are you going to make heroic a decision with real courage to face the consequence. You may choose the same destiny without knowing that you are going to be in the trap of the wheel.

As described in “The Revolution of Cooperation” by Robert Axelrod, similar “Prisoner’s Dilemma” was portrayed by the situation where people in boats in a mass exodus from the Gotham City face a brutal dilemma in the bomb detonation game trap Joker set for people to fall under. People on ships are given detonators and get to choose to detonate the bombs in other ships. If they choose to blow off other ships, then they will be ok. Otherwise, people in another ship would choose to detonate these good people who choose not to press the button. Would Joker be right about ordinary people’s selfish desire for their interest or would ordinary people rise up to heroic altruism?

When two prisoners are separated in different room, who were forced to defect on the other prisoner to survive, the best outcome will be achieved if both prisoners cooperate and not defect on each other. On the other had, the worst outcome will be brought to both of them when both defect. So, what would make self-interested people cooperate in a society full of selfish people? When you are in the middle of dilemma to choose one of the choices, what would be the best way to come best out of that dilemma? People can leave it to chances, like tossing coins. They could wait for super heroes. Or they can rely on popular votes. Or they could heroically decide not to defect, even facing the threat of harm on themselves. When faced with the dilemma to choose his love or a symbol of justice, Batman took the courage to choose one of them and took the pain and dealt with its consequences.

“The Dark Knight” cast philosophical questions surrounding moral, social and ethical outlays, and of course about true heroism. The answer would be not be one-sided like Harvey with the two-faces: one side showing symbol of justice and the other side showing dark vengeful side.

I thought that “Batman Begins” was a great movie. But after this screening, I dare to say that “The Dark Knight” is the best Batman movie ever. I hardly watched Batman movies before Christopher Nolan directed these two Batman movies. He raised the story to s different level. I would applaud Christopher Nolan’s ingenuity as our age’s true film maker and as a genius. And finally, I really admire Heath Ledger’s superb last acting as Joker… He was great!!! Period.