"Hip, Nihilistic Tendencies" [Source]

That The Dark Knight – with its all-time record setting box-office performance and superlative critical reception – is the biggest movie of the new millennium is a notion that has quickly been accepted by the public consciousness.

The movie’s oppressively dark tone and moral ambiguity make this, to say the least, a surprising development. Yet, it may just be that it is this very dark tone that is the film’s claim to fame.

In his review of the film, New York Press film critic Armond White accuses the film of “hip, nihilistic tendencies” – White may or may not have realized that in his negative assessment of the film, he essentially hit upon the reason for its unprecedented success.

Dark Night Exceeds Expecations

The Dark Knight’s success does beg explanation. The film is a two and a half hour crime drama with a violence and intensity factor that pushes its PG-13 rating.

Although Heath Ledger’s high-profile death surely added to the curiosity for many viewers, the film does not feature any celebrities known for drawing record setting audiences. The tone is generally morbid, and “Batman” isn’t even in the title.

While most experts expected the film to do extremely well, by early 2008 few anticipated that it would out-gross even Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, much less break all-time records.

A Recent Trend in Critically Lauded Films

Armond White’s dismissive blurb may prove the key to the film’s success. What were almost certainly the most critically lauded films of 2007 – No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood – hint at a thirst for cynicism in the modern film-going audience that The Dark Knight satisfactorily quenches.

No Country for Old Men’s runaway success was due almost entirely to the character of Anton Chigurh, an inexplicable sociopathic killer whose destructive path cannot be swayed or dented by the forces of good, tradition, or even chance.

Eventually, he so molds the world around himself that an old-fashioned, kind-hearted Texas sheriff finds himself unable to recognize the world he grew up in.

There Will Be Blood goes even further – putting its entire focus on a grotesquely amoral symbol of individualism without a hint of a redemptive quality, and completely neglecting to find in any other active character, even for the sake of contrast, any significant sign of goodness.

What were arguably 2006’s critical kings – The Departed and Pan’s Labyrinth – bend in similar thematic directions.

While The Departed culminates in an almost comic massacre of all main characters, Pan’s Labyrinth concludes by heavily suggesting that the brave trials and efforts of the protagonist, which result in her death, were essentially in vain, and their meaning entirely in her head.

This heavily nihilistic approach is all but borrowed in last year’s genre horror film, The Orphanage, which was arguably the most critically well-received horror film since 2005’s The Descent.

The Trend Moves to the Mainstream

In light of this recent trend, what Christopher Nolan does with The Dark Knight is transplant these themes to the most commercially viable mainstream genre today: the superhero movie.

While No Country for Old Men’s and There Will Be Blood’s maddeningly inexplicable characters manage to project a sense of philosophical maturity and depth,

The Dark Knight’s Joker, who clearly explains himself in lines such as “I am an agent of chaos,” is somewhat simple in comparison.

This coupled with The Dark Knight’s level of success suggests that it is not only the sheer brilliance of these recent critically lauded films that earned them their status.

Today’s audience genuinely seems to associate the gloom and nihilism with a realistic insight into meaninglessness.

Surely, this mirrors the decline and eventual fall of the American empire. Faith in America's 'greatness' has diminished, along with its moral values.

This is no bad thing. America's might has been weakened. We can look forward to a long period of increasing decadence. Imagine how that will disturb the puritans!

The Joker Is Us [Source]

Superhero movies are supposed send messages of self-sacrifice, goodness in the face of evil, change, and endurance. With a lack of heroes in today’s world, it is nice to escape to a make-believe world and let the idealist in all of us become drunk with a reality that is too often hard to find.

That is the propaganda value of superhero comics and movies. But, suddenly things have changed. We need to look at why The Dark Knight is doing so well.

While I discounted the theory that says this movie is simply serving as a Heath Ledger memorial service, I do believe that the character he played is what is bringing people in - The Joker.

The Dark Knight was an extremely well written movie from beginning to end. The Batman was tremendous and represented all the characteristics we like to see in a superhero.

But the movie was not really about him. It was about the Batman and the Joker, and the focus to understand Batman was ployed by The Joker. In this, he became the central character of the movie. The focus of our attention.

The Joker was everything a villain is supposed to be. Evil, sadistic, ruthless, and cold. But there was something else. He had something that no other villain has. A characteristic which is an anti-characteristic.

In fact, the point of the Joker was that who he was made no sense. Why did he kill? Why was he bent on destruction? Why did he hate? What did he hate? Did he even hate? What is his motivation?

We know why Batman is who he is (the death of his parents at the hand of a thief), but we don’t have a history on file for The Joker. The movie leads you. It tricks you.

It turns you into the Worlds Greatest Detective in that you are seeking, along with Batman, to know why The Joker does what he does.

Once you think you have him figured out, once you have answered the “why?” question, you, along with Batman, find out that you took a wrong turn.

The Joker was not in the game for money, power, women, fame, or any other hope, good or bad, that you could pin on him. He was not seeking to “win.” There was no “deep down inside . . .” to figure out with him.

Each time death presented itself to him, he laughed as if it was simply a continuation of some adventure. In the end, the gruesome realization is that there is no reason why The Joker was who he was. And that was the point of the movie.

Fascinating. Dark. Frightening. A horror movie unlike any other. Some might even call this movie prophetic.

Prophetic in the sense that we are seeing what our future holds. Prophetic in the sense that this movie reveals with the most vivid illustration ever put on film what utter nothingness looks like.

In the character of The Joker, our culture looks into the mirror and sees what it is becoming. Nihilism is what it is sometimes called.

Nihilism is the anti-philosophy of a world that has no hope, no motives, no standards, and no values. The Joker is the Nihilist who believes in nothing, cares for nothing, and pursues nothing.

At one point The Jokers says, “I have no plans. I am like a dog chasing a car. I would not know what to do if I caught it.”

There is no rationalism because there is no such thing as order, reason, or ends that create purpose. It is just the moment, and the moment is ruled by randomness.

Our postmodern culture may see itself in the character of The Joker. Like a person who has not seen his face in many years, we are going to the mirror to take a look.

Is our culture nihilistic like The Joker? This is a good question that I cannot answer. What I can say is that we have been heading in that direction for quite some time.

John Hannah calls this age the “age of despair.” The Joker is the next step.

It is when the despair turns to apathy and we are what we are and we don’t care what we become.

With the deconstruction of morals, truth, knowledge, revelation, and the like, is it any surprise that so many people are going to look in the mirror?

The Dark Knight can be seen as a commentary on the trajectory of our culture. In a post-Christian society, and a postmodern one, Truth with a capitol “T” is becoming more in question, with an abundance of many lesser and subjective “truths.”

This is the primal fear of The Right [political and cultural] and the Evangelical movement. We are afflicted with the curse of relativism, where right and wrong no longer have any credence. It simply depends on your point of view.

As a postmodernist I celebrate relativism. It is the 'flaw' that will bring down western civilization. Hurrah!

tags: batman  dark knight  nihilism  decadence  

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