Welcome back to our discussion on Batman: The Dark Knight.
Harvey Dent/Two-Face: Gotham’s “white knight”
Harvey has no moral basis for his commitment to good. Lost love destroys his reason, and he has no anchor to truth. He worked hard, and then he wasn’t rewarded, but instead lost his love, so he became vengeful.
Harvey is a good example that good men can fall.
1 Corinthians 10:12
Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.
Sometimes, men take pride in doing the right thing and then one wrong decision and it all crumbles. We have to do right for the right reasons.
Also, be careful in whom you put your trust because men can fail you. We can’t make people into idols or the foundation because men are not capable of fulfilling all our expectations.
The Dark Knight is a good reminder that even good men can fall. In this way, it almost over emphasizes the condition of man.
Two-Face also shows the two sides of man: even if we have a beautiful appearance, we also have a horrifying spiritual deformity.
The Joker personifies Satan
The Joker personifies chaos, disorder and lies. He’s her to, in his own words, “upset the established order—an agent of chaos,” which reminds of how Jesus described Satan, the father of lies.
John 10:10a
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.”
“A man who wants to see the world burn.” The Joker is not motivated by anything tangible. He appears to be just evil personified.
John 8:44
“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
Is Batman a Christ figure?
Batman wants to inspire good in people. Part of the hopelessness of the movie is Batman becomes depressed in how what he stands for is twisted and he is powerless to fix it. But in attempting to do so, Batman uses wrong methods to reach a good end. But Christ was sinless and took the sins of the world upon Himself.
Is Batman the hero Gotham deserves? Do we, as sinners, deserve a hero?
Romans 5:7-8
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
“Truth is not enough” But can people have their faith rewarded with lies? Is it really better to have your faith rewarded than to know truth?
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
In the Hebrews hall of faith, all the men listed were fallible and human, making mistakes and yet having faith in the right thing.
Batman is not corruptible? Why did Harvey fall and Batman didn’t, even though they lost the same love? Is Batman really immune from making from a wrong decision? Harvey has the accountability since he stakes his real identity and reputation on his actions—Batman doesn’t.
Morality
“People are only as good as the world allows them to be.” This is definitely relative truth morality: right based on what people think is right. Follow the logic of relative truth … a subjective truth means a subject standard. What if our subjective truth is volently contrary to yours?
“The only morality in a cruel world is chance.” There’s no real standard with the chance method. Just because the world is cruel, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have an absolute basis for right and wrong. The world is a cruel place because of sin, but that’s why Jesus Christ died, to provide an eternal escape from the cruelty of a world cursed by sin.
Wrapping up
There’s a lot more to say about Batman: The Dark Knight, and we could spend a lot more time on it, but we want your thoughts! So please comment on this episode either here, send a message through the website or email feedback@AreYouJustWatching.com, or call our voicemail line (903) 231-2221. Please remember that you can rate, review, and subscribe to Are You Just Watching in iTunes, with your Zune, or grab the RSS feed to read and listen to with your favorite program. If that’s all too geeky or inconvenient, then you can subscribe by email through the Email button on our site. You can also follow Are You Just Watching, Daniel, and Eve on Twitter.
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