by author ANDREW KLAVAN
tarkberg
In a city shrouded in violence and panic, there was a cry for help: a beam of light was thrown into the night sky, and a sign symbolizing bats was rolling by. Surface of clouds. . .
But wait a minute. This is not actually a bat. In fact, if you trace the shape of this logo with your fingers, you will find that it looks like it. . . A W.
To me, the Batman movie "The Dark Knight", which is currently breaking various box office records, is to some extent a tribute to George W. Bush, praising him for what he has shown in this age of terror and war. Perseverance and moral strength. Like W, Batman is accused and cast aside for attacking them in a way that terrorists understand. Like W, Batman sometimes has to destroy civil rights in order to deal with emergencies, although he will restore these rights after the crisis has passed.
Like W, Batman understands that in a free country-where people sometimes make the wrong choice-there is no moral equality between criminals who aim to sabotage. Even if the former has its stupidity, it still must be protected; while the latter must be thrown into the fire pit of hell.
Therefore, "The Dark Knight" is a conservative film about the war on terrorism. Like the similar "300 Warriors" released last year, "The Dark Knight" won a lot of money because it revealed the values and necessary methods that the Bush administration was unable to articulate.
The opposite is the left-wing movies about the war on terrorism—for example, "The Battle of Elagu", “Extradition Suspect”, and “Excerpted Revision”—these films support moral equality, support surrender, and they despise the army and military operations. , They seem to be unable to distinguish between American and Islamic fascists, and the battle scenes in these movies are definitely more spectacular than the Shock and Awe operation.
So why do left-wing filmmakers feel that making their films direct and realistic is a natural thing, while Hollywood conservatives must wear masks in order to speak their truth? Indeed, those protections Our conservative values—for example, the sense of morality, belief, self-sacrifice, and the honor of fighting for rights—will only appear in "300 Warriors", "Lord of the Rings", "The Chronicles of Narnia", "Spiders" What about the fantasy or the movies based on comics like "Hero 3" and the current "Dark Knight"?
When the filmmakers decided to discuss the issue of Islamic terrorists in a realistic film, these values disappeared in a blink of an eye. Good people and bad people become indistinguishable, and as a result, we have to condemn the heroes who protect us. Why is this so? In my opinion, the answer to these questions lies in The Dark Knight: it is always difficult to do the right thing, and it is always dangerous to tell the truth. Many people were hated because of it, some people were killed because of it, and one person was crucified because of it.
People on the left often say that the morality of the right is simplistic. They say that morality is relative; they are very complex and have subtle differences. Of course, they were wrong, even by their own standards.
Whether they are on the left or the right, all Americans know that freedom is better than slavery, love is better than hate, kindness is more noble than cruelty, and tolerance is commendable than hostility. We don't know why we have these conclusions, but we still know all of this a little unbelievably.
When we try to defend these values in a world where not everyone believes in them, the real trouble comes-when we must be intolerant in order to defend the value of tolerance, when we must defend the value of benevolence. When we must be unkind, when we must hate in order to defend the value of love.
When heroes who act in order to protect these values appear, we often want to betray them and accuse them in order to maintain our apparent justice. We prosecute or curse those violent fighters or cruel interrogators. The purpose of this is to show that we are the supporters of the peace values, and it is precisely those who are prosecuted and cursed by us that maintain these values. As the police officer Gordon, played by Gary Oldman, said, Batman must be hated and hunted down, "He must run-because we must hunt him down."
This is the real moral complexity. When our artists are ready to show us, sometimes people have to kill in order to maintain their lives; sometimes people have to destroy these values in order to maintain their values; when movie stars strutting, acting as heroes, and accepting our flattery, The true hero must be silent in the dark, helplessly depressed, and cast aside-when and only then will we truly respect what President Bush has done, and produce a high profile about the war on terrorism. Quality and authentic film.
Perhaps only at that time will the conservatives in Hollywood remove their masks and speak their truth in broad daylight.
Annotation: A very interesting little article. Although Zizek has not yet discussed the darkly knight, it can still be read in comparison with his review of "300 Warriors", "The Real Hollywood Left". http://www.lacan.com/zizhollywood.htm
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