More Than Just a Comic Book
The Dark Knight is more than just a comic book movie. Analyzing the movie with the different schools of thought: utilitarianism, deontology, and Kantian Ethics, proves fruitful in the search for a deeper moral meaning. The movie explores the limits of the human spirit, and aims at the implications of placing a person in a no win situation. Analyzing the story from a kantian perspective allows a viewer to obtain more from the story rather than just entertainment.
In The Dark Knight there is a scene where a group of criminals and a group of Gotham citizens are on two seperate boats filled with explosives, and each boat has the detonator to blow up the opposite boat. The Joker imposes on the groups a hairy situation,
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For example, Alfred lies about a letter Rachel wrote to Bruce, Bruce and commissioner Gordon lie to Harvey Dent about their decision to save him, and the Joker lies to Batman to facilitate the corruption of Harvey Dent. Again applying the categorical imperative, would a world be acceptable if everyone lied, what are the implications in a world where lying is fact? So, once again the act of lying is immoral, and the Joker uses this tactic often to get what he wants. In the movie The Dark Knight, the Joker intentionally lies about the location of Harvey Dent and Rachel, knowing that Batman would choose to save Rachel over Harvey, so that he could corrupt Gotham’s “White Knight.” At the end of the film Two face is threatening Gordon’s family because they saved him instead of Rachel. Two Face says “You thought we could be decent men, in an indecent time, but you were wrong. The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world, is chance. Unbiased. Unprejudiced. Fair.” After this Batman lies to Harvey saying “What happened to Rachel wasn’t chance, we decided to act.” Why didn’t he just tell him the truth, that he went to save Rachel instead, that the Joker deceived them? Would it have really helped resolve the situation at all? Two face then shoots Batman, and when he goes to shoot Gordon’s son, Batman chooses to save Gordon and kills Harvey by knocking him off the building, which leads to another lie. Harvey goes on to …show more content…
Analyzing The Dark Knight with the different schools of thought, allows the viewer to reflect on the morals that they live by, and the ones that mean the most to them. In a world without ethics and corrupt individuals, Gotham needs a hero to turn the tides on the immoral.
References
Coit, C. (2016, February 15). “The 10 Best Movies That Deal With Kantian Ethics.” Taste of Cinema. Retrieved January 20, 2018, from http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2016/the-10-best-movies-that-deal-with-kantian-ethics
Noy, K. (Executive Producer) & Nolan, C. (Director). (2008). The Dark Knight [Motion Picture]. USA: Warner Brothers.
Walters, T. (2009). “The Dark Knight” | Issue 73 | Philosophy Now. Retrieved January 20, 2018. from https://philosophynow.org/issues/73/The_Dark_Knight
White, M. D. (2008). “Why Doesn't Batman Kill the Joker?” In W. Irwin & D. K. Johnson (Eds.), Introducing Philosophy Through Pop Culture: From Socrates to South Park, Hume to House (pp. 164-171). New York, NY: John Wiley &
The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan, depicts Gotham and its citizens defending their city from a malicious mastermind, the Joker. Crime in Gotham virtually disappeared thanks to the efforts of Lieutenant Gordon, District Attorney Harvey Dent, and Batman. The Joker aspires to corrupt the city by testing its citizens’ integrity and moral principles. A clever criminal mind, the Joker develops and alters schemes quickly to create mayhem throughout the streets of Gotham. The chaos the Joker creates comes across as arbitrary and random to the viewer, however, he surprises the audience with his meticulous planning. He knows that chaos will incite terror among the citizens of Gotham and will test their ethical boundaries.
The movie The Dark Knight (2008) is the genre of superhero films. Superhero films are movies that deal with vigilantes saving the city from criminals. Criminals have become more evil, heroes have become more violent and victims have become more innocent. Movies have become more graphic and the crimes have become more unjustifiable. Crime is a key component of superhero hero films and is often used to show injustice towards the state. To control crime society has to try and deter crime by adding punishment that outweigh the rewards. Some people are biologically more crime oriented than others and it constitutes natural born criminals. The Joker is seen as the main criminal in the movie challenging the notion of justice. Bruce Wayne, also known as Batman, is seen as the vigilante. The Joker becomes personal with Batman forcing him to come face to face with everything he believes and uses technology to try and stop him. Hervey Dent is considered a symbol of hope because he takes the law and uses against criminals. The Criminal Justice System is then corrupted by the Joker, which leads to the corruption of two-face. Harvey Dent is angry about Batman letting his one true love (Racheal Dawes) die and seeks revenge upon him with the help of the Joker’s corruption and becomes two face. This demonstrates that even the most innocent people can be corrupted. The Joker challenges the notion of law and justice by attempting to destroy Gotham City and all the people in it. The law deals
The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world is chance. Unbiased. Unprejudiced. Fair” (Batman: The Dark Knight). Batman try to fight the rules and regulation of this cruel world and in
The Dark Knight Rises is an awesome movie, conclusion to the Batman trilogy, and is about an ambitious superhero; the Batman. As an ordinary man with the Wayne Enterprises, gifted through inheritance, Bruce Wayne completely leaves being the batman because of the blame he took eight years ago. The Dark Knight, in the movie, is the name for Bruce Wayne. In the previous movie, he takes all the blame for Commissioner Gordon and, hence vanishes in the dark for eight years. Increasing terrorism in the Gotham city merely destroys all the peace and the class warfare occurring in the city rips all the infrastructure of the city. That is when the dark knight comes again, he rises again to protect the Gotham city. But after so many period of time too,
factor beyond The Dark Knight. Consider how your ideas on Batman's ethics relate to your own
The viewpoint of Kant explains about the categorical imperative. The moral laws are universal and impartial in nature and its categorical ways are there to make particular criteria that could pass the evaluation of universality, impartiality, and rationality ("Categorical Imperative"). The question that arises by the movie “Batman in the Dark Knight” is that why Batman needs to or should kill the Joker who was the main enemy of the movie. There is no doubt that Batman was following the policies in which he will not kill any human being, but due to the certain bad aspects of the Joker, Batman should also consider the moral obligation. The moral obligation of Batman is that he should kill the joker for the sake of the world and the bad deeds of the Joker should
"Batman" is no longer just a story for nerds and comic book fanatics. Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" is one of the greatest super hero movie to date. The storyline follows a beloved Gothem hero who has an unfortunate twist of fate and is no longer able to be the hero everyone saw him as.
The film “The Dark Knight”, written and directed by Christopher Nolan in 2008. In "The Dark Knight" the location is set in a fictional place called Gotham City, where Batman, a superhero played by Christian Bale, acts as the main protagonist of the film and alongside him is, Lt. Jim Gordon, the police chief of Gotham who was acted out by Gary Oldman, Harvey Dent and Aaron Eckhart. Both of these characters feel that they carry the responsibility of protecting Gotham from the dangers that lurk around. Throughout this film, the main objective of these protagonists is to protect their town from the main antagonist, The Joker. The Joker, who is played by Heath Ledger, is a character who loves to induce carnage and is quite literally, mentally unstable. He carries out his passion of inducing carnage by killing people using many ghoulish tactics such as setting bombs at certain locations and spreading lethal toxins into the air. The main characters in the film all have a sense of responsibility. By being obligated to do something it shows how the theme of Justice and Judgement is being applied.
The human nature is a very strange aspect of the human race but it is also an important aspect in everyday life; it makes people who they truly are. Human nature in a way is like water in a container, it takes the form depending on how the container is shaped. It depends on how one attributes and characteristics are set, which is what molds a person to be who they truly are. The Dark Knight, which is directed by Christopher Nolan, is the second installment on Nolan’s batman trilogy. It is a story based on the DC character Batman, who struggles against the odds of the psychotic villain, the joker. In The Dark Knight, the main characters consist of: Batman, The Joker, Alfred, Lt. James Gordon, Harvey dent/Two Face, and Rachel Dawes; all of them are characters who played a major role in the film. In Gotham, Batman increases the risks on his war on crime by setting out to dismantle the remaining mafia groups that plague the streets. Leading to batman being introduced to the joker and trying to stop him from unleashing chaos on Gotham city that could plunge it into anarchy. With the use of character development and motivation, Christopher Nolan portrays the human nature of people, and that even the most good of people can be corrupted.
After eight years under the terrorizing of The Joker, The Batman has dissapeared during the state of peace. Locking himself inside the newly built maynor refusing to come out Bruce Wayne has nearly bankrupted Wayne Enterprises funding the new machine to purify Gotham 's water supply, it is quickly closed down after hearing about how easy it is to weaponize it to a nuclear bomb. The now infamous Batman hated for killing Harvey Dent (Harvey Dent had turned to Joker 's side after the death of his fiance and later killed himself) is said that he will be turned into the authorities and caught. Before Commisioner Gordon reveals that teh Batman is innocent, Gordon is shot
The movie The Dark Knight (2008) is in the genre of superhero films. Superhero films are movies that deal with vigilantes saving the city from criminals. Since the release of superhero films, criminals have become more evil, heroes have become more violent and victims have become more innocent. They have also become more graphic and the crimes have become more unjustifiable. Crime is a key component of superhero hero films and is often used to show injustice towards the state. To control crime, society has to try and deter crime by adding punishment that outweigh the rewards. Some people are biologically more crime oriented than others and it creates natural born criminals such as the Joker, the main antagonist in the movie who constantly challenges the notion of justice. He becomes personal with Batman forcing him to come face to face with his ideals, trying to show him how irrational being good is. Batman, in turn, attempts to put a stop to the Joker’s anarchy with the technology at his disposal. Harvey Dent is considered a symbol of hope because he relentlessly pursues criminals through legal means as Gotham’s District Attorney. The Criminal Justice System is then corrupted by the Joker, which results in the death of Rachel Dawes, Harvey’s girlfriend. The two of them were captured by corrupt police officers and tied to explosives in two different buildings all while the Joker was in prison. The Joker then tricks batman into saving Harvey when he thought that he was going
For my film analysis’s I chose the film The Dark Knight (2008), directed by Christopher Nolan. The film is part of Nolan’s Batman film trilogy and is the sequel to Batman Begins (2005). I chose this film because I am a huge DC comics fan and Batman is one of my favorite hero’s and also because, while most superhero films are bright with great lighting to give us a happy feeling, so that we “fall in love,” in a sense, with that superhero. What makes the dark knight so interesting and different is that Nolan insisted that the film should have a distinctive style which included making the film feel extremely dark and sinister. Nolan also makes the views feel like they are in a dark place to match the themes that are portrayed in his film. I believe that the main theme in this movie is that, that there is a villain inside all of us. “You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” (Harvey Dent).
I chose to analyze The Dark Knight (2008) directed by Christopher Nolan. My scene begins at 00:01:13 and ends at 00:05:54. I chose to analyze this scene because it contains interesting points that I have recognized, as the villain shows different characteristics, using aspects such as camera angles. In this analysis, I will be looking at the setting, lighting, sound and the use of the camera and how each of these views influences the audience.
igmund Freud, the famed Austrian considered to be the father of psychoanalysis, has certainly left his mark on the world of psychology through a variety of different theories, studies, and new forms of treatment. Freud was born in 1856 and died in 1939, just four months after the character of Batman was first introduced, in Detective Comics #27, published by DC Comics. Freud had most likely never heard of Batman, but the caped crusader’s escapades and adventures can actually lead us to a deeper understanding of the concepts and ideas about the mechanisms and mannerisms of the human mind and psyche the Freud introduced to the world. More specifically, the ways in which the film The Dark Knight help us to understand Freud’s concepts of the
The Dark Knight is a superhero movie and is part of a sequel. It comes second after Batman Begins. It is a fantastic movie directed by Christopher Nolan. The main Theme of this movie is Faith. The plot and Characters develop this theme in a few ways. When the film opens up we have a bank robbery scene in the city of gotham and we encounter the joker, our antagonist. Because of this we see a chain of crimes happening around the city and the people of Gotham turn their faith toward the Batman. This is the basic plot of the film where the protagonists are trying to restore people's faith back into the city and the police force. The characters develop this theme by carrying out the plot of the film and helping restore faith back into the city.