“The Dark Knight” of the Soul – Part One – The Faith Explained with Cale Clarke

This is part one of my most recent Catholic Insight article, a film review of The Dark Knight, the latest Batman film.

In a previous article (Catholic Insight, Sept. 06), I noted the Christological themes inherent in Superman Returns. The Dark Knight, the second installment of the Batman film franchise, so skillfully rebooted by director Christopher Nolan with 2005’s Batman Begins, also deals in spiritual issues – but in a much more nuanced manner. As Father Joseph Singh has noted, the difference between Superman Returns and these new Batman movies is the difference between C.S. Lewis’ Narnia series, where Christian symbolism is obvious, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, where one must look for God, and the devil, for that matter, in the details.

The Dark Knight’s devil is Heath Ledger’s diabolical Joker: tongue slithering over hideously scarred lips, he is a liar through and through – like Satan himself, who Christ called “the father of lies” (John 8:44). The Joker offers conflicting (but equally disturbing) accounts of the source of his wounds, and claims there’s no method to his madness (“I’m a dog chasing after cars; I wouldn’t know what to do if I caught one”). Yet, he meticulously scripts his nefarious schemes to the nth degree, exhibiting a seemingly preternatural intelligence befitting a fallen angel. The final act pictures the Joker surrounded with three hounds as if from hell, underlining the source of his destructive madness.

The late Ledger’s performance lives up to, and surpasses, all the hype surrounding it. A posthumous Oscar would be an accolade well earned – no sympathy votes necessary. Makeup notwithstanding, Ledger totally disappears into the role, and his Joker gets the chilling treatment the character deserves – his is a truly frightening and malevolent presence, not Jack Nicholson’s comic buffoon.

Batman/Bruce Wayne is played again, ably, by Christian Bale. Fitting, for his character truly represents the Christian and his struggle against evil. Superman, like Christ, was born great, but Batman has struggled to achieve greatness. Like us, he has fought something like the spiritual battle St. Paul speaks of in Ephesians 6, as the apostle reminds us to don the armour of God to battle the wickedness of the devil. Batman uses his own high-tech weaponry and armour to whistand the Joker’s assaults, resisting the temptation to compromise with evil, to break his “one rule”: Batman will not kill.

Batman is actually less like a Christ figure than Pauline in his approach. As St. Paul once said, “Imitate me, as I imitate Christ” ( 1 Cor. 11:1), Batman has sought to inspire others to take back the streets of Gotham City. Other similarities abound: in one scene, Bruce Wayne reveals the scars on his body resulting from his war on evil. Saint Paul wrote, “I bear on my body the marks of Jesus” (Gal. 6: 17), suffering numerous stonings, beatings, and lashes (2 Cor. 11:16-12:10) to proclaim Christ. The extreme measures to which both Paul and Batman will go to combat the darkness are striking. Paul traversed the known world on his missionary journeys. Batman, in one of TDK’s most thrilling sequences, even reaches Hong Kong in his pursuit of the criminal element.

Stay tuned to this same Bat-channel for part two!!

“The Dark Knight” of the Soul – Part One

Trackbacks & Pingbacks

Leave a Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Interesting links

Menu

Newsletter

Previous Posts