The Dark Knight–a cult classic!

A cult classic

Chris Nolan’s latest opus, ” The Dark Knight” might break the highest opening record to late–US$ 158 million–in just a few days from its worldwide premiere. 

Critics around the world praised the movie as the “greatest Batman movie ever made”, and I, along with my family, agrees with every word said about The Dark Knight. 

It’s a cult classic, the kind that you want to watch more than ten times. Yeah. It’s soo good that it made me cry. I’m waiting for the release of the original DVD and whatever the price of that one, i’ll gladly part my money just to have it.

Dark Knight succeeded where every Marvel superhero movie failed (especially the preachy Spiderman series)because it turned the age-old philosophical discussions about heroism upside down. It started a discussion by showing what happens when we don’t need heroes anymore because we ourselves, have become one. We just have’nt realized it yet.

It’s not preachy but it goes deep into people’s psyche. The intricately woven tale talks about our search for heroes every time we face difficulties, when all we need to do is look at ourselves. We just need to face challenges that directly affects our own lives. 

Dark Knight shatters the millennia-old philosophical discussion about messiahship. 

Our Reality

In fact, Nolan sparked a discussion. The entire movie is the discussion. Do we need one single person to save the world from evil? 

We have a penchant for leaving the dirty job of cleaning our lives to some group (government) or one individual (Jesus or Buddha or Prophet Muhammad) that we forgot that, within us, we can be heroes. 

We don’t need a Bat suit to become heroes. We just need to be reminded that, in extraordinary circumstances (such as that scene of people inside two ferries being made to decide who will flip the switch to cause the death of other people in the other side), where our very lives are at stake, decisions can be based not only on personal considerations, but on social justice and equity. 

When Detective Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent became successful in their anti-crime campaign, Batman suddenly found himself irrelevant. He felt that it’s time for him to retire his Bat suit, which was pierced by bullets the night before. That scene was symbolic of the soon-to-be transformation of Batman from a superhero to somebody, a human being out to become a real hero.

This has escaped the people’s attention because they always depend on Batman to clean up their city. Real heroism came into light when Batman, Gordon and Harvey Dent sacrificed their lives just to show people that heroism is not a monopoly of a few; rather an enterprise of the many. True heroism is shared responsibility. 

Sadly, the movie also showed what happens afterwards–the world always need someone to sacrifice himself just so the people would awake from their stupor. Batman sacrificed himself by bearing the weakness of Harvey Dent. 

The movie succeeds in using real-life imagery to make us realize these things. And mind you, if you’re expecting heroes, they’re everywhere. Even the Joker is a hero. He epitomizes the terrifying cancer that society created. 

Anyway, just watch the movie and see for yourself if you share the same thoughts and send me an email afterwards.