Batman: Part One

I recently lectured for a freshman class here at Wheaton on the newest Batman movie: the Dark Knight. Here is a basic summary of what I said. The lecture actually involved a lot of discussion, so I'll fill some of the places where I had students articulate my points for me. The primary point of the lecture was to raise questions. Much of learning is not learning the answers: it is learning how to ask the proper questions. My goal was not for them to know the answers on Batman; I wanted them to know what kind of questions to ask of all movies. And if you have not seen the movie yet, I do tell the ending. Be warned.

Movies affect us in a variety of ways, but for simplicity we'll look at two categories: directly and indirectly.
Movies affect us directly when they have an explicit point. The Jesus movie and Al Gore's film on the environment are clear examples of this: the director wants you to immediately go do something as a result of watching the film, and so the message of the movie is very clear. Many views have messages, but most are not as clear as this. The prevalent message in American movies is what some have called the American myth or the Wizard of Oz syndrome. In the Wizard of Oz, the central character (along with a few friends to help) gets to the destination, but realizes at the end that the "higher power" or the "other" character is a sham. What is important is what the central character herself does: one should not wait for others to do something for you, but you need to take your destiny into your own hands and make something of yourself. The broad category of American myth includes both "male" and "female" versions, in a sense. The "male" versions tend to be one man taking on the world to make it better or to fulfill their dream (Rambo, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, etc.). The "female" are usually some kind of romantic comedy, where the woman gets the "right" man in the end. A common (necessary?) feature of American myth movies is a happy ending: things must end well. The hero conquers evil, succeeds at their dream. The key is that they must trust in themselves and pull themselves along. A great example of this is Hellboy. The plot of Hellboy centers around a demon called to his world by the Nazis to do evil, but who then decides to do good and kill the bad guys striving to mess up our world. The ending voiceover of the movie is as follows: (roughly, anyway) "What makes a man a man? His origins? The way he comes to life? I don't think so. It's the choices he makes. Not how he starts things, but how he decides to end them." Notice the key: the choices he makes. It is all up to him to decide how things will go. Hellboy is an extreme example of the myth: even a demon can be a good man when he makes good choices. The message of the myth: make good choices, work really hard, and things will go well for you.
How do we as Christians think of the American myth? There are many positive aspects: for example, hard work is certainly a part of the Christian life. But the myth is fundamentally flawed from a Christian worldview, in my opinion. It is highly anthropocentric (puts humans and the "I") at the middle of reality. It denies the pervasive power of sin to ruin things. The incessant happy endings are based on a lie: this is not how life works. We can take parts of the myth, but must beware of it as a package.

The other way movies shape us is by presenting us with a "map of reality." While not offering a direct message, it gives a story world that operates as a map: it shows us how the world works and how we can act in the world we live in. This map of reality is usually more powerful than the direct message, in my opinion. The traditional Christian critique of movies focuses on part of this map: swearing, violence and sex. That is, does this map of reality shape us to be accustomed to violence and swearing? But I think that other parts of the map are just as if not more important than these. For example, is violence portrayed as the right way to fix problems (see almost any action movie)? It doesn't really matter in this case if violence is shown or not: it matters to shape us how to solve problems. Does it glorify evil in some way (such as theft in Ocean's 11)? Does it present an overly optimistic view of life? Every movie has a map of reality, and we need to watch movies thinking about what that map of reality is and how it fits with a Christian worldview. In a sense, the Godfather is a very Christian movie. While it has multiple scenes of violence, sex, and swearing, the overall map of reality is close at times to a Christian worldview. What I am thinking of in particular is the effect of sin on a persons life: it messes up your entire life. The tragic ending of the third movie reflects this truth: while Al Pacino has worked so hard to get out of the mob, his prior life and all of its sin has caught up to him and ruined his present life. This is what sin does, and the Godfather trilogy is practically a gospel tract in the sense of showing us why we need a savior. What is lacking, of course, is any hope. It could be compared to the final three chapters of Judges, which epitomizes the downward spiral of sin and what kind of effect it has on people. Movies do not really teach us new facts, but they shape in us the importance or the seriousness of these facts. That is, we know before watching the Godfather and reading Judges 19-21 that sin has bad effects. But after those two activities we "know," we "feel" the depth of the pit that sin sends us into. This is the power of movies, literature, and many of the arts. It explains why so much of the OT was written in narrative. And it reminds us of how we need to be careful when watching a film. It is not just the sex, violence, and swearing which can shape us, but the entire worldview, which means that many childrens films are potentially very hazardous. Do we want our kids to think that all they need to do is just be themselves and work harder?

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