In this nano-second world of beyond-real-time, July 19th is ancient and the newest Batman is OLD news, I know. But bear with me for just a second.
Saw The Dark Knight the day after it came out. Waited on my son, who was returning from Guatemala. Enjoyed the film. It's in the top five category for me.
Saw it again tonight ( I loved contributing to the film's immense treasury...)
Tonight, though, gave me a chance to screen the film through some different lenses: the ancient story lense, the parable story lense, the successful Hollywood story lense...and then the Jesus story lense. Say what? Yeah, yeah, just listen up for a tiny bit before dismissing the thought...
I could lay out what I saw, this second time around, but here's a clearer presentation that Christopher Lyon at PlanetWisdom posted:
"We could spend way too many words talking about all the worldview issues skimmed and explored in "Dark Knight." Nolan and co. intend to provoke viewers to wrestle with big ideas during and after this film. We'll tackle a couple of them.
The Joker is often identified as a terrorist, a madman and, eventually, almost a kind of devil. His only identifiable objective is to bring confusion, destruction, and fear. In short, he is evil. And I like that Nolan's story takes that evil seriously enough to keep it from being a joke or containing a spark of nobility.
As with all irrational evil, the Joker serves as a test of the goodness of "good men." Harvey Dent's heroic goodness, when tested by evil, snaps. He becomes consumed with bitterness and enraged with the unfairness of it all. He commits himself to fate. "In a cruel world, the only morality is chance," he says before flipping his coin to decide whether or not to kill his victims.
Batman disagrees, insisting that Dent is making his own choices. As God's Word also teaches, Bruce believes people are personally responsible for their actions2 Corinthians 5:10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad., even when the worst happens. To blame our choices on God or chance or our upbringing is self-destructive lie.
But are human beings basically good or naturally self-serving? "Knight" asks that question with a version of the old values-clarification exercise about a life raft and not enough room and who would you throw overboard first. I won't give the specifics away, but the film's answer is surprising: Nolan's representative humans argue, insist, demand and then make the most positive moral choice available to them.
It's DK's least dark moment, and it resolves a kind of unspoken bet between Batman and the Joker on the nature of man. Batman believes humans will sacrifice themselves for the good of others. The Joker believes the opposite. Observe the world for long, and you'll see arguments for both sides. God's Word ultimately holds closer to the Joker's view that true human goodness is an illusionIsaiah 64:6
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away., in spite of the fact that sinful humans made in God's image will sometimes do good thingsRomans 5:7
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die..
According to the Bible, it's that lack of goodnessRomans 3:23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, in us that creates our need for a SaviorRomans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a] Christ Jesus our Lord.. Batman also believes that people need a savior and a hero. But at the end of the story, he's willing to sacrifice his role as hero to be their savior. That's exactly what Jesus did when crowds recognized his power and were ready to make Him the King and follow Him as their hero into battle against the enemy. He refused and willingly became a criminal in their minds so He could save us allRomans 5:8-11
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! 10For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation..
Thanks Uncle Den! It was a blast, Im looking forward to it.
This is a great way to look at it. You really did see this in the movie. Interesting, did they mean to have it interpreted in this way? I think they may.
Posted by: Andrew Rampenthal | August 06, 2008 at 12:34 AM