photo credit Den Of Geek
I love Christopher Nolan. I remember proclaiming this on the mountain tops of Facebook years ago after viewing the amazing trilogy he composed with Christian Bale dawning the dark cape. Nolan captures characters in the key essence of themselves. Nolan is an idealist I would say. He has an idea and forwards it through a character, resurrecting a character in the process and I love this about his style! Before the latest remake of Superman in Man of Steel Nolan brought glory to Batman with three excellent films. Here in this blog I want to break down a beautiful overarching story of a man's journey to being a hero which involved a self journey of him understanding love, commitment, and duty in all its dimensions. Yes, Batman can love and he loves hard with a fist of teeth breaking justice!Batman Begins - Love is an Action
"Its not who I am underneath. But it's what I do that defines me." Ok so I have to admit that when I first heard this line in Batman begins I did not like it. Sirens went off in my mind of "legalism" and "works based faith" and yadda yadda yadda. But as I revisit the film years later I have to say that I love the quote, it is the essence and motif of the first movie. Bruce Wayne in the first film is portrayed as a man, like many of us, controlled by emotions of rage and anger due to the death of his parents and is thus ultimately paralyzed by fear. He wants to be good. He wants to somehow vindicate his parent's death, yet he can't control his emotions. As the film progresses he finds himself a drifter and in prison. The prison is a place of transformation and a metaphorical cocoon in which Bruce learns upon leaving it that fear is a powerful agent and can be dangerous if not controlled. Bruce learns to control his emotion and learns to act on act alone and not in emotional burst. This scene of "prison" is revisited again in the third movie as another place of final transformation. However, after this first prison transformation Batman is born. A being of act and supreme control over emotion. A true superhero in that feat alone, since emotion is so paralyzing to many of us. Batman is now able to free the people of Gotham who are enslaved to fear by his power over it himself. He is able to show acts of love without really feeling any true sense of love at all. Basically, fear is his greatest weapon.
I love the Book of Mark. It is full of many things awesome about Jesus but two things that I see as concurrent themes are the constant verbs of action in Mark and and the call by Jesus to not fear. "...do not be afraid, just believe." (Mark 5:36). Mark seems to emphasis that Jesus was a man that wanted to hush our fear with action. In fact Mark is the only gospel that has the unique phrasing of "and immediately" written over and over to show that action was taken place to hush our fear of doubt. We are supposed to be a people that love not in emotion alone but also in action. "for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control" 2 Tim 1:7. Do you love with emotion as your guide or action? How did Christ show ultimate love for the Church, for humans in the world? His death, which is an action.
The Dark Knight - To Love The Church alone.
photo credit Letterboxd
"Where's Rachel!?" We know this scene all too well if you are a fan. The Joker, a diabolical moral ambiguous nut job, constructs an ingenious plot to make Batman really choose if he in deed loves Gotham with truth in action or not. We know that Batman fails here and chooses the girl and loses her anyway. This is an epic blow to Batman's psyche and proves even wounding in the final film of the trilogy. But the question the Joker forces Batman to choose is: "do you love Gotham or yourself?" Action based faith is not enough, simply because we are in our core emotional, we have a "heart" and we have to love God with all of it. "..Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done." Luke 22:42. Jesus was also faced with this same choice. "Do you really love Me, to your heart or is there another?" We all have had our Rachel, those beautiful distractions that take us away from the call of true love, the love of sacrificing for what is good. Batman as a man failed but Christ in the Gospels showed Himself to be worthy here of high praise in his sacrifice. His love of action was indeed a love to the core, to die for us His Church and Gotham. Did Jesus feel love here or show love? Both? What is more lasting, His feeling or His action on the cross?The Dark Knight Rises - Where Action Love Meets Emotion.
photo credit Business Insider
Batman begins this film wounded. He has a limp. The limp is a metaphor for his heart, the heart the Joker stole from him when he had The Dark Knight choose Rachel over Gotham. Batman's failing in that dreaded night brought him to a dark state, a state wishing for death. His emotion was there but dead. Batman spent most of his existence controlling emotion yet it is emotion that is his key in this final film to defeating the villain Bane. In his first encounter with Bane The Dark Knight is beaten an inch from his life. Alfred helps him realize that he is a shell of a man and wishes for death. Batman though purged of emotion is enslaved to guilt and brokenness and wishes for Bane to kill him, to free him from his pain and longing for Rachel, for his own passions. However, a letter remains to be given that tells the truth that Rachel chose to not love him after all. Alfred shows this letter to Batman. It is the first of two steps of unlocking emotion in Bruce's heart. Emotion that he would need to defeat Bane. However, Batman again finds himself in prison. Yet, this time he must embrace passion in order to jump the wall and escape. As Bruce leaps over the wall with all the passion in his heart he is now truly free, a man in love with Gotham in action as well as passion, and a man ready to defeat Bane. Do you love this way? Jesus showed this love not only in action but in passion. Jesus did do an action of going to the cross but HE did so willingly, from His heart. He loves us.I have to admit. I almost cried when Batman met Bane again and began punching Bane with all his heart, with this time punches of an emotional love for Gotham. I saw it as a beautiful metaphor of Jesus in this action of passion, redemption, love, and justice. The Dark Knight is a man and hero that took a truly epic life journey of pain, loss, fear, confusion, understanding, clarity, and peace which culminates in Bruce Wayne becoming Batman, a man that finally understands love as more than an emotional temporary infatuation but that love is also an action. Look, I know we all get the origin story of Batman on the surface, but Christopher Nolan dusts off the old story that we all love, took a hard look at it, and reprised something that is richer, deeper, fuller, and more satisfying with his Dark Knight Trilogy. The way Batman grows to love his city is a love that requires the stuff that every good epic story, relationship, marriage, etc. requires; love and action, love with action, love through action. God desires us to love this way with friends, our families, fellow co-workers, in everything.
"...do you love Me..?" John 21:16.
Often times I see the life and story of Jesus in so many of the superheroes that are mainstream and iconic. Why? Is it because sacrifice, being called to something higher than yourself, hating evil, fighting for justice, protecting the weak and oppressed, standing for truth no matter the cost, sacrificing yourself and paying the highest cost, and more, are not just simply the things Jesus did but things that we therefore need constantly in our culture? They are timeless needs. He is the timeless hero. And so we create heroes to fill the need that so constantly is shown wanting. Batman's journey is a dark twisted human tale of how light, love, and redemption can come from the darkest of pain, loss, and depravity. Who doesn't need a hero like that? I know I do, every single day. I just keep thinking back to the final scene of The Dark Knight as Batman limps towards the light. The imagery is so powerful and triggers imagery of Jesus ascending from the grave, caring with Him the World's sin and brokenness, caring my sin also. Remember that Batman was made lamed by an ugly two faced individual with a split personality. What better way to personify sin than by Two Face in this scene? In this moment Lt. Gordon says:
"He's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we'll hunt him. Because he can take it. Because he's not our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. A dark knight."- Lt. James Gordon
Humanity spat on Christ, beat Him, mocked Him, and killed Him. Yet Christ loved all the way through it all, for us. He limped to the light. He showed love perfectly in action. He is the Hero we do not deserve. He is the light that shines brightest in darkest darkness. He is The Dark Knight. Enjoy revisiting Christopher Nolan's rendition of Batman again some time yourself. Also, if you want to listen to a masterful composition of all The Batman theme songs called "Batman Evolution" rendered in classical genre via The Piano Guys, click here. Its fantastic! Like I said at the beginning, I love Christopher Nolan. Nolan gives us more substance in this trilogy than we deserved, like with all his films.
I like writing stuff about current issues, movies, sports and culture with a theological twist. Follow me at @howardlee58 or @ibleedtitanblue on Twitter for more content.
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