Bush is Batman: The Dark Knight- Part 1

I saw The Dark Knight for the third time, yesterday. Undoubtedly, it's a tribute to the War on Terror, yes, the same war that George W. Bush has been commander-in-chief of for the past 5 years.

Tribute? Bush? In the same sentence?

Well, yeah. After Andrew Klavan of the Wall Street Journal provided insight as to the true meaning of the film, journalists and pundits alike went berserk trying to debunk the claim, deny it, and then acknowledge it (but still try to prove it was left-wing). Now the main journalistic instinct is to belittle the film. Even though it was so critically acclaimed that it is now the #2 most-grossing film ever, we see writers bashing its vision as misguided and wrong.

But the secrets lie in the screenplay.

Granted, not every scene in the movie represents some significant event, not every character is an allegory of a real-life person. However, there are some very significant themes and text that need to be addressed. And yes, director Christopher Nolan has stated that he's let the "current political climate" seep into the film. If I knew Nolan's own beliefs, it would make this a heck of a lot easier. But I don't, so we'll just make do with my own analysis.

The Significance of Lau

President Bush was meant to be a "domestic president". He specialized on issues like tax reform, farming and agriculture issues, education and the economy (yes, the economy, don't forget the stability we had before 1st quarter 2008). He didn't have much foreign policy experience, and he'd served in our domestic National Guard. 9/11 was an issue entirely new. Therefore, he had to change and adapt to manage his lack of foreign policy experience. Seeing as the last 7 years have revolved heavily on foreign policy, it's obviously turned out to be very important.

Now, in Batman Begins, we have Lao. He's the first enemy that Batman's got to go after, and he's a criminal: your basic crime boss. He's the type of guy that Batman's been dealing with for a while. He and Lucius go through the typical process. Lau is akin to the basic issues we'd been dealing with for a while. When the Joker reveals himself, it's a threat entirely new for Batman, and one that he ultimately wasn't prepared for.

A Vigilante

Batman has taken an oath to fight crime. Perhaps not an oath in the technical sense, but certainly a small monologue somewhere. He is bound by rules. Bush has also taken an oath to protect the country and serve it within bounds of the Constitution. He is also bound by rules. Batman is percieved by the public as a vigilante, Bush is thought of as a figure of immense power, able to change things at his whim. Both of these assertions are incorrect, as they are indeed, bound by rules.

"Tonight, you're gonna break your one rule."

Batman broke the law in several ways, by developing the intrusive spying technology and fighting SWAT team members> However, he did indeed intend for these measures to be temporary. Lucius acknowledges that he will only go to this extreme "just once," and Batman then tells him, after he's done, to "type in your name." This destroys the spying device that had been a breach of ethics.

On the flipside, we have Bush, who some argue has breached ethical obligations by wiretapping and suppressing so-called "rights" for terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. This has been done in the name of national security (and so far, it's worked; we haven't had a terrorist attack on our homeland since 9/11). Perhaps it is this quote from Harvey Dent that surmises the movie's position: "One day he'll answer for the laws he's broken. But it will be to us, not to them."

The Role of Harvey Dent
Although the movie revolves around Dent (some have argued that he was the main character of the story), it's hard to figure out what role he plays in the grand allegory of The Dark Knight. I believe I've found what he's supposed to represent. Harvey Dent is the promise of righteous, people-serving government. It is one of our strengths in this country that seperates us from the rest of the world, what we look at and remember the legacy of the Founders who designed it to be just and true. For most presidencies, it has worked toward goals and achieved progress. When Bush ran, this is what he promised. When he arrived in office, people thought they'd recieve it.

However, just like Harvey was changed by the Joker into a monster, the government has changed as well. The recent Justice Department allegations, the Alberto Gonzales trial, the refusal of the bureaucracy to release information. The do-nothing Congress. The conflict between the courts and the prsidency. Terrorism and the threat of it was not the sole cause of the fallout, but it exacerbated it extremely. Likewise, the Joker's murder of Rachel and his ascent over Gotham contributed majorly to Harvey's transformation.

An Agent of Chaos

The Joker represents terrorism and its threat to our country. Gotham doesn't represent the U.S., but it represents the battlegrounds of both the United States and Iraq. Anyhow, the Joker is a terrorist, releasing his intention to scare Batman into revealing himself by killing innocents (including cops) until he does.
"Batman must take off his mask and turn himself in. Oh, and every day he doesn't, people will die…starting tonight. I'm a man of my word." He doesn't represent Islam at all, much less fascism (since he's an established anarchist). However, the Islamofascists we face in Iraq are terrorists, killing innocent civilians to try to get to us, to get us to give up.

The Obvious: Iraq War Parallels

There's a scene in The Dark Knight that has a meeting of public officials. Harvey Dent, who comes to the defense of Batman about as often as the White House and other parts of the government come to the defense of Bush, tries to comfort the public while the Joker killings are going on. A man in the back yells "No more dead cops!" as if it's a slogan, much like "No more blood for oil!" or "No more dead soldiers!". The audience cheers, so it's obvious the opinion the public has toward Batman at this moment.

Bruce Wayne returns to his headquarters, comforted by Alfred:

Bruce: What would you have me do?
Alfred: Endure. You can be the outcast. You can be the one to make the hard choice. The right choice.

The President can take the bad press, the opposition, simply, like Batman, he has the power to do so. He can keep moving when nobody else can keep up. This is what Bush has been doing all along, for our sake, for the whole world's sake. Disposing of the tyrant Saddam, who had been mass-murdering Kurdish villiagers, probably would have occurred whether or not 9/11 happened, because of the 1998 plan that had begun under Clinton. The larger-scale war is the stablilization of Iraq, which Al-Qaeda has declared "the central battlefield" for Islamic extremism. Likewise, the Joker killings needed to be endured while Batman pursued the Joker himself.

Arguably, the case can be made that Commissioner Gordon is the commander (a Gen. Petraeus-like figure) of the military fighting in Iraq (Gotham's cops and service personnel).

Obviously, not every scene can be put into the context of today's political climate. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. I really want to stress that. There are themes from the movie, though, and clues in the screenplay that are undeniably referring to the situation we have today. That's all I'm saying. And that's all that really needs to be said.



EDIT: I left "Part 1" in the title just in case I have anything to add later, after my mind is cleared a bit. I'm sure there's other things I haven't thought of yet; I just need some time to know what they are.