The War on Terror

Lucius Fox fulfills his role in parallel to
the Department of Homeland Security

The last theme reoccurring throughout the movie is the war against the acts of terrorism. Batman and his allies, Commissioner Gordon, Lucius Fox, and for most of the movie, Harvey Dent combine their efforts and ideas to stop the Joker’s path of terrorism and destruction. During the final moments of the movie, Batman realizes that it’s going to be difficult to find the Joker without the help of a high frequency generator, which enables Batman to spy on everyone one Gotham to find Joker. Fox tells Batman that the use of it is dangerous and wrong; Batman responds that he must find “this man” (referring to Osama bin Laden in the real world)

The Patriot Act deprives citizens of their constitutional rights

            If this does not scream George W. Bush's War on Terror, I don’t know what does! Besides the fact that obvious connection of their roles Batman as President Bush, Lucius Fox as the Department of Homeland Security and even Joker’s scheme where he plans to destroy two ships are in direct resemblance of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. In a document where the “ACLU Warns Against the ‘Patriot Act’” in 2002 is almost exactly what Fox said to Batman. The document states that the Patriot Acts violates the freedoms of citizens through “expanded wiretap authority” and “the use of sneak and peak searches to circumvent the Fourth Amendment.” Because of the Patriot Act, American citizens are deprived of their rights for the cause of searching a few people, and Fox completely agrees that it's immoral to do that; he although agrees to help Batman just this once, and it works, as it did for the Bush administration but at the cost of citizen's rights.

Globalization

Today's business conferences similar
to that of the mobs conference with Lau.

Globalization since the 90’s, has been a major change in our view of the world today. Now that we are brought close together through the use of technology, we can access information and go places quicker than we have ever done in the history of mankind. As the textbook describes it, the internet has created a great amount of wealth and has “rapidly transformed into an electronic public square, a place to exchange ideas and sell wares.” Unfortunately, the backlash of such technological advancement encouraged companies to go abroad in search for cheaper labor resulting in the loss of jobs in the United States. As companies flourish outside of the United States, so does the country they reside. In a the words of the historian, Thomas L. Friedman, on his essay “Running to Keep Up: The Perils of Globalization” he states “There may be a limit to the number of good factory jobs in the world, but there is no limit to the number of idea-generated jobs in the world” making the country evolve from its developing status. This is true in China, and so far we owe them a tremendous amount of money.

Batman goes after Lau in China.

In the film, there is no better connection to globalization than with the mob entrusting their money to Lau, a Chinese accountant, who secures their money in China. The way Lau communicates with the mob has all the aspects of globalization; he is on a plane, using video communication to do business with a foreign client. Even more surprising and direct connection to globalization is Batman going to China and bringing back Lau to face justice. I was surprised when I saw the film for the first time, thinking to myself “Batman in China!?...that’s awesome!” and realizing that the effects of globalization has made the world much smaller place.

Political Scandals

Gotham's "White Knight"

In “The Dark Knight,” Harvey Dent, the district attorney of Gotham City, is portrayed as the “White Knight” of Gotham because he fights crime during the day and uses the legal system to criminalize thugs and mobs, unlike Batman who works during the night and uses his fists to clean up Gotham; hence the “Dark Knight.” But the focus here is on Dent. In the movie, Dent goes from being a public hero, to a two faced antagonist, no pun intended, which ultimately leads him to his downfall. The reason is because he was influenced and tempted by unethical tactics to get through criminals the hard way, but Batman advises him not to because it would lead to political scandal, resulting in mistrust and malaise in government of Gotham. It is not until when the Joker corrupts him to madness which only then now believes that the use of any force, ethical or unethical, would clean up Gotham of its injustices.

Gotham's "Two-Face"

America's "Tricky Dick" Nixon

            This theme directly relates to the political scandals that have happened in the United States, especially in the presidency. First and foremost, I would like to start off with the rise and demise of President Richard Nixon. President Richard Nixon’s first term went amazingly well, he did the things Lyndon B. Johnson could not do. He, like Dent, was tough on the policies of law and order, wanted to relax tension with China and Russia, which he did, and ended the Vietnam war. Most of the American population loved Nixon, and as obvious result of his reelection in 1972. But suspensions started to surface and it showed Nixon’s true “face.” According to the document “Senator Sam J. Ervin Explains the Watergate Crimes” in 1974, Nixon was charged with bribery, espionage of the Democratic party convention at the Watergate, installation of recording devices in the White House, blackmail, and public deception all in the name for his reelection. Americans started to notice that Nixon’s contributions and actions as commander in chief were just factors of necessity to ensure a second term. After the sad truth, people felt a malaise with the government and concluded that even elected officials at the highest level cannot be trusted. Another scandal that people also took to heart was Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, also resulting in disbelief that even the President himself cannot combat the unethical behavior of the new age.

Violence

"Some men just want to watch the world burn"-Alfred

Although there is much violence in the movie, history in America contains probably ten times more violence than the film. But there is always reasons why people resort to violence and a specific reason that is presented in both the film and in history is the use of violence to generate attention for an idea of an individual or group. One particular event in history that applies this idea was during the Industrialization Era of the Haymarket Tragedy. Terrence Powderly, leader of the Knights of Labor Union, insisted that the use of strikes in the union would “jeopardize the union’s public standing.” He proved to be right when the union went on strikes and lead to the tragedy in the Chicago’s Haymarket Square. This accidentally resulted in the idea that the Knights of Labor were anarchist by popular belief. The only difference of this event to the movie is that Joker purposely thought out his acts of violence, such as blowing up the hospital, to express his idea of anarchy and “wanted to see the world burn” as described by Alfred.

Soldiers in Vietnam fighting to preserve ideas

            One major era in United States history where violence was waged to preserve the idea that capitalism is better than communism was throughout the Cold War wars. In the document “Diplomat George F. Kennan Advocated Containment” implies that the U.S. must contain the growth of communism, and they did this through fighting wars that attempted to keep the Soviets at bay and keep the “dominoes from falling.” Those bloody and grotesque wars were the Korean War, Vietnam War above all, and the operations in Cuba.

            One specific event that closely resembles Jokers spread of an idea through violence is the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City, by Timothy McVeigh in 1995. McVeigh’s intention for his actions was because he frustrated with the government and expresses his idea of anti-government through his act of violence. I am sure that there are many more acts of violence that had a motive to express an idea, but throughout American history, I believe the ones listed above are the most important and relate to the film.    

Manipulation through Fear

The Joker maniacally laughing 

Manipulation, or control, through fear is one of the movie’s main themes reoccurring throughout the film. There are some specific scenes where this theme is displayed such as when the Joker threatens Batman to reveal his identity or people will start dying. This scene of manipulating someone through the fear of more casualties correlates back to the Reconstruction Era. During that time, the Southerners used a same type of tactics such as raping innocent African American women to suppress their newly attained freedoms and applied a policy created by southern democrats in 1875 called the Mississippi Plan. This policy allowed southern democrats to use as much violence as necessary to regain political control of the South. This planned unfortunately succeeded in keeping republicans out of the vote and political power because they were afraid.

Senator Joseph McCarthy...laughing

            Another example in history that relates to the movie is Joseph McCarthy’s communist threat in America. In the same scene, in Joker’s video with the guy dressed up as Batman, he addresses the public, “you see this is how crazy Batman has made Gotham,” in other words this is the result of Batman’s influence on the people of Gotham. The Joker concludes that if people want order in Gotham, Batman must unmask. Joseph McCarthy is similar to Joker, besides being crazy, that the influence of communism has spread throughout the people of America and can destroy basic American beliefs and the only way to provide order is if they unmask the communists in America. This is evident in McCarthy’s document “Senator Joseph McCarthy Describes the Internal Communist Menace” in 1950.