Morality (The Dark Knight)

And as long as we are on morality, let me talk about a movie. I was very pleasantly surprised by this movie last year, which dealt with morality very intensely. "The Dark Knight", though based upon comic book characters (The Batman Franchise), came up with a brilliant premise, well-sketched characters, and of course the usual commercial elements...but the inter-play of morality and values was simple outstanding. It was, indeed, the best thing about the movie. The last movie of the franchise, "Batman Begins", also had a theme about morality and ends-and-means, and I've got to say, I have become quite a fan of Director Christopher Nolan.

The movie revolves around 3 characters, in a way, the 3 shades of human character - Black, Grey and White :-

a) The Joker - Amazingly portrayed by the Late Heath Ledger, the Joker inspires fear and awe in one at the same time. He is the self-proclaimed "agent of chaos", and he is different from every other criminal the world has seen. He is not interested in money or any other material thing. As Alfred puts it, he is the kind of person who "just wants to watch the world burn". No ideologies, no honour, no fear, no desire, no strings attached - just a guy who enjoys what he does. In short - pure, unadulterated evil. He is a curious observer of humanity, and notices, quite profoundly that the people who are considered good, are "only as good as the world allows them to be". He is more interested in finding out who Batman the do-gooder is, than killing him. He knows that Batman plays by the rules, and he wants him to break his rules. He knows that Batman always makes a choice for the good, and so he, very cruelly, presents him with the choice of saving either Harvey or Rachel, trying to make him fall from grace. He wants nothing but to prove that the world is as sick, people as fickle as he imagines. During the last part of the movie, as he wreaks havoc on the city, he conducts a social experiment, playing a game with people's mind - kill others or get killed yourself. He fails in that game, but succeeds in converting Harvey Dent to Two-Face. The Joker, with all his tricks, is truly a masterpiece!

b) Harvey Dent/ Two-Face - This is the most interesting character of the tale. Harvey Dent is a man who wants to do good, to restore law & order in Gotham city and to lock up the city's criminals...and he does it without a mask (with a little help from Batman of course!). He represents the common man who wants to get rid of the bad. He is brave, and "makes his own luck", leaving nothing to chance, as shown by his coin. He is also ready to make sacrifices, and puts himself in the line of danger, claiming to be Batman, so that the Joker can be caught. But his weak point is his love for Rachel, and he cannot bear the manner and tragedy of her death. He has suffered a great personal loss (although he was always at a risk for that), and wants things to be fair. He flips out, tosses all his original values out the window, and after a conversation with Joker at the hospital, starts believing in Chance. He lets Joker go, and starts killing and sparing people randomly. In the last sequence, he makes some powerful statements - "You (Batman) thought we could be decent men in an indecent time"...."The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world is chance - unbiased, unprejudiced, fair". Truly amazing, this transition from Harvey Dent to Two-Face...very emotional, very natural, and very human.

3) The Batman - "You truly are incorruptible, aren't you?", says the Joker. And he is absolutely right. Batman faces adversity, hostility, pain, great personal loss in the form of Rachel (who he believes wanted to be with him)...and yet he refuses to budge from what he has held sacred - The good of Gotham City. He has dedicated his life to it, sacrificed everything, and to top it all, doesn't even want glory or popularity. He doesn't kill Joker out of "a misplaced sense of self-rigteousness", as according to Joker. He believes in the means rather than the end...and so he wants to bring Joker to the book, rather than avenge his own personal loss. In the last sequence, he knows and understands Harvey's pain, but advises him to stop goin down the road he is going. He says "You're the one pointing the gun, Harvey", which means that Harvey has a Choice. In the end, he is shown ready to be hated, so that Gotham keeps its faith in the idea that was Harvey Dent. He is "Not a hero, but a silent guardian, a watchful protector...a Dark Knight".

The two bold things that the movie brings before us is Chance and Choice. Two-Face is right when he says that the world is cruel. As in earlier posts, I maintain that things in the world are random...or at the least rate, ordered in a very very large time-frame, one happening over many generations. Bad things happen to good people and vice-versa. Those who walk the line of good and ideal suffer the most, while those who walk the other line get away with all the spoils. Is it fair? Absolutely not!...and that is why most of the good people turn away from goodness - Chance, or Circumstance, is biased and prejudiced. And as Joker says, "Madness is like gravity, all it needs is a little push". It is the case with common people everywhere. An honest person becomes corrupt under pressure, a person wronged turns to terrorism and a person hurt in love becomes a Devdas. One stops caring about what is right and what is wrong - one just wants to bring some kind of peace, some kind of sense and some kind of balance in his/her life. The one question everyone asks is - "Why Me? What did I do wrong? Why should I suffer?"....Hence, the selfishness, the lack of regard for others and the turning to wrong. Chance truly can corrupt.

But there is that second thing - Choice. As the Batman indicates, even when we are seething with anger and frustration and pain, there is always a choice - a choice to do the right thing, to keep walking the same line one has been walking. Yes, it hurts...and it is guaranteed that it will hurt in the future. One may lose everything - name, fame, money, love, family and even life - in this battle between the good and the bad. But the important is not the things you have lost, the important thing is the way you have led your life. If you don't let the circumstances get to you, don't let life dictate terms to you...then you have won the battle, even if you have lost everything that seemed important.

98% of the people in this world are Two-Face, 1.5% are the Joker...and only 0.5% are Batman. Does that shake one's faith in humanity? It does. But be sure that it is that 0.5% who will rise, and keep rising generation upon generation, to bring dawn upon the darkness that prevails in our times. How do I know this? I don't. But I rely on one thing, and one thing only - Hope...