The mistery over the Joker’s past is a big part of his aura, and it was paying respect to the comics, where his past was never fully expained. There is plenty of insight in The Dark Knight, it just happens it’s not over your face. And so what if the Joker was more like an archetype of evil? When people have to face and deal with such archetype, they end up revealing a lot about themselves. There are many libertarian aspects in Dark Knight empowering indivudal moral like Jim Gordon. And there non-libertarians aspects also. But God forbidden a movie having shades of gray!
I have very little interest in this thread, but Batman is neither libertarian nor an anarchist because he wantonly destroys public property trying to chase some bad guy he refuses to just shoot.
It’s not ethical to shoot the joker, but it is ethical to blow up half of Gotham chasing him around.
That’s something I have really noticed in the last year. All of the property destruction the “good guys” cause whether it is a comedy or a war flick. We’re desensitized to things being destroyed because it is always sold as a package deal. To stop evil, we must destroy things. To be funny, we must destroy things. Property destruction is not a market solution. The market alternative to conflict resolution is never offered.
Sure because it’s not your property. I imagine many guys who watch porn wouldn’t want to watch their mother, sister, or daughter on tape.
I suspect IRL you would not appreciate Batman blowing up your stuff. If you would, I can put on a mask and cape as fast as you can sign a release form. Lemme know. I’ll entertain the beejeezus out of you.
That is funny because that is exactly what I am thinking when I watch a movie. I wonder how much money it costs to catch the bad guy. Take a car chase scene, what happens when a cop slams into your car in pursuit of the bad guy? Who do you go to? Are you compensated for such things?
I am trying to explain that the Dark Knight mythology tries to portray evil for the sake of evil. The reason they do this is to transfer that mythology over to the real world. So that in the real world they can call people terrorists. This is harmful to liberty.
We should understand why people want to hurt us or anyone else.
They do. They are wholly uninteresting though and present no threat to liberty whatsoever. Psychotic people are very easy to spot and they don’t get any wealth or power. Unless they’re in the government.
I don’t see how that’s an argument against my case.
If we’re going to be recommending movies they should be libertarian and pro-freedom in their core.
Personally, I thought the Dark Knight was an endless sequence of corrupt and irrational people, and the whole thing was wrapped in a completely nonsensical plot that was filled with propaganda. One telling example was when someone tried to kill the mayor in court. He walks out of there and his girlfriend flutters something about a vacation. He points out his life was just in danger. And she responds by saying that if someone doesn’t try to kill you as major, you’re not doing a very good job. wtf? A complete disregard for life (by her). And this is the main girl in the movie that both the mayor AND batman are so hard to strive for and protect.
I am a person who’s always looking for positive things in movies, even if they’re very evil I usually find good things in them. I didn’t find any like that in this one. The fact that everybody loved it made me very sad that they didn’t see how devoid of positive value it was (and full of other things).
And I haven’t even touched on the fact that the guy killed himself, and that the whole movie crew let him slip away in darkness. And you think a virtuous movie comes from such a group?
The movie is quite bleak indeed. But there is still hope. There is Gordon, there is the whole scene of the two boats having to chose if they want to blow or be blown and both sides refuse to blow the other side, both sides refuse to play the Joker’s game and decide to take a moral stance instead of an utlitarian one, but you are completely ignoring this scene since it demolishes your point about the movie being devoived of “positive things” .
“A legal positivist’s rendition of justice” is the one idea that came to my mind when I watched the Dark Knight. I felt like I was being lectured by a LEO on ethics for over two and a half hours.
Yeah, but part of the reason for this list is Libertarian propaganda / help with conversion purposes - and the closer to a reflection of reality the better.
The Dark Knight has seen some great viewpoints.. I think something worth considering - is that if it’s not completely obvious what the message is… then that is at least one strike against it being on the list.
No doubt if you find it valuable, you can argue your case should you choose to show it to friends etc.. at least it was mentioned / highlighted in the thread as a possibility.
