British actor Michael Caine has observed that Superman is how America sees itself, and Batman is how the rest of the world sees America.
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Caine was part of the heavily British ensemble that produced The Dark Knight, which may help to explain the film’s toughminded portrayal of Batman as Gotham’s self-appointed vigilante (and, by inference, of the U.S. as the world’s vigilante).
Director and co-writer Christopher Nolan, a dual citizen of Great Britain and the U.S., has denied that he intended The Dark Knight as a critique of post-911 America, insisting the old Batman comics also explored the dark side of vigilantism.
That may be so, but no Batman film to date has so thoroughly mined those ambiguities.
In The Dark Knight, Batman as reprised by Christian Bale, spends most of this movie being led in circles. Despite Bruce Wayne’s deep pockets and technological prowess, he can’t comprehend the Joker, who uses terror not to amass money or power, but for the sheer thrill of watching people suffer and die. In the end, Batman manages to catch up with his rival, played to creepy perfection by the late Heath Ledger, only after embracing a strategy that makes him an even greater outcast from Gotham.
He makes that moral calculation because he believes there is no other way to save the city, and in so doing, becomes a tragic figure who is never as alone as he is at the end of this film.
It seems significant that both Nolan, and his co-writer and brother, Jonathan Nolan, were born in London to a British father and an American mother. The two move easily between British and American culture (although Christopher Nolan was educated in the United Kingdom and sounds English, while his younger brother went to school in Chicago and Washington D.C., and sounds American.)
“I have two passports and my mom is American and my dad’s English, and these sort of arguments have gone back and forth for years because those two countries have such a natural kind of affinity for one another,” Jonathan Nolan told Movies Online. “It’s not that big of a leap, but it does give you a slightly schizophrenic perspective growing up.”
The two brothers have collaborated on several projects: Jonathan Nolan’s short story, “Memento Mori,” was the basis of the screenplay for the indie hit, Memento, directed and co-written by his brother. The brothers also co-wrote the screenplay for The Prestige, which was directed by Christopher Nolan.
(The younger Nolan suggests their success is rooted in the fact that his older brother is left-handed, and he is right-handed. “He’s somehow able to look at my ideas and flip them around in a way that’s just a little bit more twisted and interesting.”)
In addition to the Nolans, several leading members of the cast of The Dark Knight are Brits, including Welsh-born Bale, whose own darker impulses may have been on display in London this weekend when he was accused of assault by his mother and sister; Caine, who plays Alfred the butler; and Gary Oldman, who plays Lt. James Gordon; Ledger, of course, was Australian.
All are among a network of collaborators Nolan has developed, to a large extent outside of the usual Hollywood channels. His longest-standing partnership, which dates to Doodlebug, in 1997, is with his wife, Emma Thomas, who was a fellow student at the prestigious University College, London, and who has produced every film he has made.
Other long-term collaborators include cinematographer Wally Pfister (an American), who worked on both Batman films, as well as on The Prestige, Memento and Insomnia; and also British composer David Julyan, a friend since student days, who worked on Memento, The Prestige, Insomnia and The Following.
As for Caine and Bale, Nolan has cast them in three, back-to-back films - Batman Begins and The Prestige before The Dark Knight .
Christopher Nolan is playing played his cards close to the chest about future projects and collaborations, whether on another Batman sequel or something else entirely.
His brother, at least, is tied up for the moment, writing a script for Interstellar, a science-fiction film set to be directed by Steven Spielberg. Not bad for a 32-year-old who describes how he learned to speak with an American accent by watching nonstop television as a boy.
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15 Comments
#1. NY Johnny 07.23.2008
The difference is that Batman actually DOES make a positive difference in the world. And of course, unlike the U.S., he doesn’t kill.
#2. Annon 07.23.2008
Not everything has to be about America!
#3. Robert NJ 07.23.2008
NY Johnny,
You simple minded fool.
#4. KS Joey 07.23.2008
Batman is a ficticious character, but somehow makes a difference in the world? Anyway as terrorists continue to blow people up, be-head “infidels”, assassinate, maim, rape, torture, and kill innocence, oh and whine about every danish cartoon that comes out. I guess the US will take the roll of vigilante. After all what wonderful life changing event has your spoiled New Yorker snobbery done NY Johnny? Thats what I thought, nothing… Go play some more video games.
#5. Matt 07.23.2008
While I think that the Dark Knight could very well be interpreted as a critique of the US’s status as a self appointed world police, the source material has *always* been (under a variety of authors) very dark. And the particular comics from which The Dark Knight drew heavily for plot and characterization were all pre-9/11
#6. KS Joey 07.23.2008
Matt is right. Frank Miller wrote the Dark Knight graphic novels way before 9/11.
#7. MA Bob 07.23.2008
Batman as the US? Kind of a stretch. I mean, Batman has altruistic motives. We’re just bullies.
#8. Kevin 07.23.2008
The theme is too old and too well-traveled to be inspired by post-911 America, but the similarities are striking. America has become the world’s enforcer while the established “authorities” (UN) are generally helpless and corrupt, but constantly struggles with the moral dilemma of sometimes contradicting core values or impeding basic freedoms to accomplish its goals. Like Batman, many Americans feel the fickle reactions of much of the rest of the world are ignorant and disingenuous, but lament actions that harm what we like to think is a solid and well-deserved reputation of relative fair play and humanity. Like the Joker, fundamentalist Islam is often incomprehensible to us… at times both single-minded to the point of blindness in its purpose and anarchistic in its quest for general chaos…. and we struggle to understand the new threat so unlike the old “criminals” we’ve been fighting in Communism, Socialism and random dictatorships.
I’d like to say not everyone would call a comparison between Bruce Wayne’s and America’s moral and physical battles a “critique” in a critical sense… not all pretend to practice self-loathing like NY Johnny, who is most likely neither named Johnny nor from NY. Many liberals spent their weekend debating whether Batman should have let the Joker fall off the building.
#9. Ryan Co 07.23.2008
Where’s Team America when you need them the most? America F— Yeah!
#10. NY Johnny 07.23.2008
KS Joey, I was referring to the fictional world Batman inhabits juxtaposed with the real world of world politics. But if you would rather toss about ignorant assumptions (and misspell your diatribes) perhaps you should go watch the wheat grow while you wait for Jayhawk season.
#11. NY Johnny 07.23.2008
Wrong on both counts, Kevin
#12. Poodle 07.23.2008
For one, I noticed a connection between the US and Batman right away as US = Batman and World = Gotham. Actually, I thought of President Bush every time someone tried to convince Batman to keep doing what he was doing regardless of casualties. Anyone else notice the similarities?
Batman is doing something that he thinks is right, but Gotham is paying the price. He does a good job at messing up the mob, but that drives them to desperation, which in turn causes more severe crime. The Jokes is always referred to as a Terrorist, not a villain, so Batman is fighting Terrorists. Before things get better, people cry out for Batman to stop what he is doing because people and cops are dying (cops = troops, no?), yet all of his close friends tell him that he must go on because it is “the right thing to do” and the people will “endure.”
I think it was the Joker being called a Terrorist that drove it home for me. Whether the writers intended to make this comparison or not does not matter; it is clearly there.
#13. Alex 07.23.2008
*SPOILERS*
*SPOILERS*
The scene where Batman uses Fox’s technology to spy on the citizens of Gotham through their cell phones made it pretty obvious to me as soon as I saw it. Fox say’s he doesn’t think it’s right to spy on 30,000,000 people, and Batman responds with, “I have to catch this man.” How much more of a paralell to current events do you need?
And the fact that at the end of the movie, Batman surrenders his reputation and succombs to becomming the hated outcast of Gotham for the sake of the city itself (not that America necessarily surrendered its reputation for the good of the world, but the similarity is there.)
And if you need more proof, the Joker in the film says he is simply trying to disturb the natural order of things and wants chaos to reign over Gotham, and Batman let’s people die because he believes order is so important–just like how many people view some of America’s choices.
*SPOILERS*
*SPOILERS*
#14. bobby 07.23.2008
How about a spoiler alert assholes.
You almost ruined the movie for me.
Belive it or not not everyone has had time to see the movie since its release.
#15. barstool 07.23.2008
Batman cant be how everyone see American….he is not fat!
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