Two links via ecmyers

[trinityvixen]

Batman's secret identity FOR REALZ: George W. Bush

Forget that the author appears to have entirely missed the authorial intent of Christopher Nolan et al. who wrote the thing. Forget that even Frank Miller, who writes a pretty authoritarian, near-fascist Batman, still makes the point that Batman is as much part of the problem as anything. Forget your sanity.

....WHAT

...!?!?!?!

This part just proves he isn't thinking this through clearly:

And when our artistic community is ready to show that sometimes men must kill in order to preserve life; that sometimes they must violate their values in order to maintain those values; and that while movie stars may strut in the bright light of our adulation for pretending to be heroes, true heroes often must slink in the shadows, slump-shouldered and despised -- then and only then will we be able to pay President Bush his due and make good and true films about the war on terror.

Gee, that sort of sounds familiar. Wait, I know. It sounds like the fucking Operative from Serenity. Except that "violate values to save them" sounds a fuckload better than "I'm a monster. What I do is evil. I have no illusions about it." Because it doesn't acknowledge that you become the monster if you try to fight monsters on their level. God no, we couldn't call Dubya a monster! (Even though he is, if this author would follow his thought through.)

I am pissed about such stupidity, but the fact that the stupidity is so staggering mollifies me a bit. Yes, people flocked to see The Dark Knight entirely out of the repressed love that dare not speak its name: love for George W. Bush. As opposed to a hundred of other more obvious reasons--it's part of a franchise that has been around almost as long as George H.W. Bush; almost every critic ever swooned about it and demanded people see it; it's featuring the film return of the most famous villain of all time; there's the morbid attraction of seeing a young, hot, dead starlet's last picture--which are clearly superficial reasons masking our deep nationalistic pride in and hot, slavery adoration of Dubya.

Yeah. Right.

The question I asked, as many did, was: would people have gone to see The Dark Knight if Heath Ledger had not died? Sad as it is to say it: probably not. Yes, sold out first weekend, but the sort of continued record-breaking, sold-out-shows, shows at 3 and 6 am (and IMAX movies starting at 2 am!?)? No, probably not. The performance as the Joker is there, but it has an edge to it because of the tragedy. I don't want to say the devoted theater-goers are ghouls, but there's a certain addiction to melancholy that suffuses people and involves them more in the movie if it has some real life catastrophe attached to it. We live in a celebrity-obsessed culture. Even when it's not death, we tend to pay more attention to movies that provoke scandals than not. (How many people went to see Mr. and Mrs. Smith to watch the future Jolie-Pitts flirting before the fact? You know those people aren't sparse on the ground.

And then there's this: Max Payne teaser poster I have the same half repulsed/half intrigued reaction to this as I did the trailer. Parts of it seem very right by the source material--the over the top angst, for instance. But wtf is up with the Angel in the background? It also doesn't even seem like a very good use of that melodramatic shadowing effect. The grittiness of the game's comic panels isn't there. It's too...too clean, and it looks weird and fakish as a result.

Comments

[arcane-the-sage.livejournal.com]

Now you see, I don't even have to click on that WSJ link to know it's likely full of BS. Hell I clicked on this gem and my lower jaw got bruised from how hard it hit the floor. To quote the article: "We have potentially hundreds of years of oil and natural gas and coal supplies in America alone, if Congress would only let us drill for it." .....and I'll have what ever it is he's smoking (ok half, I don't want to OD).

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

What is it about the WSJ? I guess the readership, being evil capitalists of the worst sort (as opposed to capitalists in general?) has bent it further in one direction than I ever remembered. Also, every time I open an article link there, Firefox freaks on me. Stupid paper.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

I avoid politics here at the office, because I'm sure some of my coworkers worship at the altar of Bushco. You should have heard my ex-boss going on about "HillaryCare".

Unrelated: Is that a chibi Daria icon?

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Indeed! In high school, I had someone convinced I was Daria. He had me quote dialogue in art class. (Hence my attempt at Halloween costume this year. I knew I should have gotten bigger glasses!)

[wellgull.livejournal.com]

I will join in admiring the chibi!Daria, but I think the chibi-IM is a wee bit over the top. Particularly with him being drunk...

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Dude, ChibiTony says lighten up!

[moonlightalice.livejournal.com]

What this guy failed to mention is the other theme of Dark Knight: namely, that people who take up the mantle of superheroes *create* supervillains. One of the Joker's shticks is that he wants to give Batman an enemy worth fighting.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

He clearly never bothered to see the first movie, where the character he quotes in the op-ed, Gordon, mentions the fact of escalation. And, like I pointed out, even Frank Miller drew a direct line between Batman's existence and the emergence of the Rogues Gallery. Without Batman, even the Joker falls into a lethargic, medicated stupor at Arkham. He comes back only when Batman does. I mentioned yesterday (http://trinityvixen.livejournal.com/532001.html) how strange the notion of villains creating heroes is in the Batman universe. In Metropolis, Lex Luthor did predate Superman. (Corporate corruption appears to arrive first; anarchic criminality comes later.) In Gotham, you have Batman then you have real problems.

Not to mention the example of Dent, who even Batman acknowledged was the real hero, was supposed to be the point of the movie. That we need people we can see who are brave enough to do the right thing even though it is dangerous because they don't have the comfort of being anonymous ninjas.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Ooo, perhaps we should talk about the effectiveness of torture in the movie, too! Batman beats the crap out of the Joker and gets...information that essentially sends him straight into a trap. The torture was worthless and Batman gets played.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

The really funny part about that is the Joker telling him the truth voluntarily. He doesn't do it because he's being beaten. He wants to tell it. Yeah, because then Batman is going to get trapped in a terrible choice, but still. The beating doesn't make him talk. Also, when the other cop gives in and starts beating on the Joker, the Joker is then able to negotiate with a hostage to make the phone call. Which gets him out of prison. So the lesson we get is that torture lets the bad guys escape.

[xannoside.livejournal.com]

Hilzoy tore a hole in this one very nicely.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/07/an-old-old-stor.html

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

That's about right. Because he doesn't follow through and he cherry-picks parts of a movie to prove a point that he gives up on halfway through. There are lots of things that you can abbreviate and get away with, but movies aren't usually as easy because people just remember them too well. (It's sad that they know them better than famous speeches and things of that nature, but still true.)

[wellgull.livejournal.com]

Wingnut wankfest.

Waste of my time to read it, though I did, alas. At least it's just the WSJ, so he's only preaching to the choir...

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I shouldn't have read it either. But it was good for a laugh.