Noah Brand reveals his startled reaction to Batman’s latest foray into outright authoritarianism.
A note for clarity: I’m going to be using the words fascism and fascist a lot in this review. Since, as Orwell warned us, those terms have come to be used as synonyms for “stuff I don’t like”, I should pin down the sense in which I use them here. Fascism is a political ideology fixated on authoritarianism, militaristic imagery and action, and the use of authoritarian force against internal and external Others who are defined as threats to the continued existence of society. Fixations on nationalism and national or racial purity and unity are also common. Fascism is a phenomenon of the political right, and has always been fanatically anti-communist, communism being what happens when the political left gets equally douchey.
That said, there has always been an intrinsically fascist subtext to all superhero mythology. These stories, which I have grown up on and still love, are predicated on creating a situation of such exaggerated threat that fascist solutions, i.e. strongmen acting outside due process to restore order by violent force, become not only plausible but desirable. To put it another way, citizens of Metropolis might be uncomfortable with having a nearly-omnipotent alien living in their city, answerable to no authority but himself, but when a week can’t go by without a giant robot trying to level the city, you’ll accept the alien as preferable to the robots.
However, this is usually just subtext, and many superhero stories go out of their way to specifically eschew this reading. The Batman films of Christopher Nolan, however, embrace it, and never more explicitly than in the newest, The Dark Knight Rises.
SPOILER ALERT: Everything from here on in will ruin the last two Batman movies for you. On multiple levels.
Many people have read the previous Batman film, The Dark Knight, as an endorsement of the authoritarian, anti-civil-liberties policies of the Bush administration. (Policies that, dismayingly, the Obama administration has not reversed.) I wasn’t persuaded of this thesis until someone pointed out that one of the centerpieces of the film, one of Nolan’s superb action setpieces, is literally about the extraordinary rendition of a foreign national from his own country so he can be brought under American control for interrogation, and it didn’t have to be. That scene could have played just the same way in any skyscraper controlled by Bad Guys; the choice to make it legitimately sovereign foreign soil was deliberate, and creepy.
Even after that, I didn’t want to subscribe to a fascist reading of Nolanverse Batman, until I saw the new movie last night. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good movie in most respects. Severely weird structural problems, but each scene and line is skillfully and gracefully written in and of itself, and the cinematography is lovely. They’ve even fixed the unfollowable fight scenes of the previous two; the two major fights between Batman and Bane are gorgeous. This is probably the best overtly pro-fascist film I’ve seen since Leni Riefenstahl’s heyday. But whoa nelly, is it fascist.
The film opens eight years after the previous movie, eight years in which Batman has retired because there is no longer any serious crime in Gotham. After the events of The Dark Knight, the “Harvey Dent Act” was passed, which apparently authorized the police to lock up a thousand organized crime figures with no chance of parole… the details are deliberately vague (could the police not arrest people before?) but the expression is clear: Harvey Dent’s supposed martyrdom allowed passage of a law removing any restrictions on police authority, thus granting Gotham a crime-free golden age. Lest we miss the militarist undertones, characters go out of their way to specify that Commissioner Gordon is going to be forced out of his job because he was the right man for the “war”, but now it’s “peacetime.”
This entire time, Batman has been retired, and Bruce Wayne has become a recluse in Wayne Manor. In other words, mere ordinary fascist techniques have proven sufficient to handle the threat, and Batman’s super-fascism has not been necessary.
Now, however, a new threat has arisen, one mere normal fascism can’t handle. From some unspecified Other People part of the world comes Bane, a super-terrorist who has a number of clever and well-written connections to the mythos established in Batman Begins. He comes equipped with an army of “mercenaries” who turn out not to be mercenaries, in that they keep fighting after nobody is paying them, i.e. about halfway through the movie. This is a threat too great for the weaklings running the Gotham City Police Department, especially with strongman James Gordon in the hospital. The ultimate strongman, the Batman, must return to restore order.
Bane’s agenda is that of the Occupy movement as seen by people who don’t know anything about the Occupy movement. (Google “Dark Knight Rises” + “Occupy Wall Street” and prepare to sigh deeply.) He overcomes the current strongman of Gotham City and imprisons its police, thereby successfully taking over the city. This only makes any sense at all if we assume that government is solely comprised of a strongman and his enforcement apparatus, which… well, that’s a little fascist, isn’t it? The enforcement apparatus removed, the economic status quo is reversed, with rich people being turned out of their homes so the poor can take their stuff.
This is a key point: Bane keeps talking about The People, but the people of Gotham City do not appear in this film.
The People are entirely absent. Everyone we see dragging rich folks out of their homes, everyone we see freeing the men imprisoned under the Harvey Dent Act, everyone we see fighting the police in the big authority-vs.-rebellion showdown at the end, they’re all Bane’s staff members. The only character with a speaking part who expresses any support for Bane’s agenda and isn’t a known supervillain or paid-up member of the League of Shadows is Selina Kyle’s girlfriend Holly. It’s one of her three lines. Nobody got a SAG card playing a Gotham citizen in this movie; their only role was to cheer Batman in crowd scenes.
This is important: if the people of Gotham are present, then when the enforcement mechanism of the current power structure is removed, the people immediately rise up and overthrow the system. This would imply that Gotham citizens are so oppressed that only brutal enforcement keeps them from naturally rising against this oppression, which makes Bane the good guy. However, the people are not present; only Bane’s thugs rise against the rich. The people are so absent from this movie that, in every single vehicle scene, there are no civilian vehicles on the road. Everything on the road in every scene belongs to either Batman, the cops, or Bane, resulting in some rather odd-looking chase scenes down completely unused urban streets.
This point is inadvertently underscored toward the end, when Commissioner Gordon realizes Batman’s secret identity, a moment that should be powerful and instead is comical, because he is, at that point, literally the only significant character who didn’t already know Batman’s real name. He ends up coming off as the last kid to get the joke.
Bane’s “power to the nonexistent people” schtick is designed to echo vague impressions of Soviet communism, with its empty stores, kangaroo courts, and a lingering shot of a breadline, something American audiences have been conditioned to believe was solely a Soviet phenomenon. A similarly lingering shot of a tattered and torn American flag under Bane’s regime is there for people too slow to pick up on the other symbols.
In the end, of course, the police and the Batman triumph and order is restored by force, thus freeing the nonexistent people of Gotham to enjoy their existing system where the police can lock you up without parole at will.
All this would not be too bad, except for the little matter of cultural context.
Americans live in a society right now where fascism is trendy. We are more militarized, by money spent, than the entire rest of the world put together, and one of the men running for president has promised to increase that spending. We have more people imprisoned per capita, than any society in human history, including China, apartheid-era South Africa, and the Soviet Union. These are facts. They reflect a status quo in which fascist solutions for society’s ills are considered good ones by a portion of the populace, and it is to that demographic, the American political right, that The Dark Knight Rises is explicitly pitched. The entire film is peppered with conceptual catchphrases, like “peacetime”, “appeasement strategy”, “those who have too much”, and so on, designed to appeal to the worldview of people who think Fox News does journalism. A deliberate caricature of the imagined opposition is created, and then duly punched into submission in accordance with superheroic genre convention.
Some will argue, and have argued, that the film is more even-handed than it is, that it presents a moral dilemma between fascism and anarchy that Batman must resolve via a middle ground. It doesn’t. There is no anarchy, merely a choice of two dictatorships, and Batman doesn’t resolve it, he comes down very squarely on the pro-fascist side. Commissioner Gordon is presented as having doubts about the Harvey Dent Act, but he never speaks out against it, his words against it are stolen by bad guy Bane, and he is put in his place by new good guy John Blake, who dismisses his attempt to remain morally good as useless.
Again, in case the red meat for the right wing is too subtle for some, the film explicitly casts “sustainable energy” as a doomsday weapon. Nolan clearly didn’t want us to miss his point, so I feel it would be bad manners to pretend I did.
Fascism may not always be palatable or pleasant, the film tells us, but it is necessary and it works. At no point in the movie do fascist solutions fail, except in cases where they are not fascist enough. The strongmen who Do What Must Be Done, the classic excuse of the fascist, are always right. When the Gotham police are led into a trap, it is under the command of Gordon’s successor, who is shown to be a cowardly quisling who only redeems himself by putting on a uniform and shooting scruffy people.
In short, The Dark Knight Rises posits a conflict between the form of fascism some Americans currently favor, and a strawman version of their imagined opponents, and places the center of moral good firmly on the pro-fascist side. This isn’t even subtext, it’s just text in context. I’m sorry if this ruins the movie for anyone.
Oh, and Catwoman is in the film as well, but since she’s not called Catwoman and the plot wouldn’t be even slightly different if she were absent, I have omitted her in a failed attempt at brevity. Which is a shame, since she’s the best thing about the movie.
About Noah Brand
No, this critique hasn’t ruined the Batman movies for me; quite without any rancour, all I see when I read this is someone trapped in his own idealism. Left-wing feminist thinking can be as much a cult as any other ideology; if I have one overall reaction to your piece, it’s that you need to deprogram yourself a few notches. The world’s more complex than your philosophy allows.
My take on the Batman movies is this. All stories are part of the human attempt to create mythology, to make sense of the world around them in a way that is, in the most basic possible sense, comforting. Something that fits into how they know things work. Your reading of this movie is an attempt to fit it into your personal mythology, which seems to be that of social justice, but I question whether that’s really where it comes from as a creative work. Since its reinvention as a “dark” comic, Batman has been deeply involved with examining the forces that act, interact and conflict within the human psyche – and it’s done that well. It’s become an enduring and popular mythology because it speaks to a lot of people: on that deep-down gut level, it feels real.
Bane, in that light, isn’t a literal terrorist and anarchist in the sense you’re reading him. The people of Gotham don’t show up in this movie because nations, cities, the People, don’t exist within the human mind. Bane is that force within the psyche that seeks to respond to hideous situations with absolute destruction, without regard for discipline or control. Batman, throughout the darker mythos in both comics and movies, is a force which is no less dominant and dangerous, but which seeks to harness destruction rather than to be subsumed in it – to use it only as far as it must be used to restore peace and safety that can be used to rebuild. Batman is disciplined rage; controlled destruction. Rage, as a part of the soul, is anathema to many left-wing thinkers – but it is real. We all have it within us, and especially as men we all have to seek to come to terms with it in our society.
New Batman is a dark and gritty myth because the reality of force and conflict is unpleasant whether it’s internal or external: full of grey areas, hard questions of responsibility, and life situations that make the right choice impossible sometimes. Bane is a character who comes from a world of absolute need and brutality. For him, his choice could even be construed as correct. Batman is a different being and reacts to the same situation in a different way: he is no hero in the bright and thoughtless original vein of comic books, his hands are bloody and his conscience stained. But he chooses to act to pull his own existence closer to the side of light than it was before – he maintains hope. He even becomes the conscience to Selina Kyle, an equally damaged soul, and gives her hope, the will to be unselfish, where there was none before.
I’m beginning to think that the difference between right-wing and left-wing politics is that right-wing people are deeply, inherently unable to respond to change with anything but fear; and left-wing people approach it with optimism and hope. The fascism you’re seeing in this film is nothing more than that basic fear writ large – but there’s more of your own hope and idealism in Batman than you’re willing to admit, I feel.
“Americans live in a society right now where fascism is trendy. ”
Please, if only.
“Fixations on nationalism and national or racial purity and unity are also common.”
I would really be interested to hear how you envisage a non-nationalist fascism would work. It’s never happened, and while I concede that it could theoretically be possible, I certainly can’t picture it.
Hmm, food for thought.
I didn’t get that reaction from the last two Batman movies, but I DID see clearly fascistic themes in the recent _Green Lantern_ movie. I think it’s a much better example. All that simultaneous raising of fists, chanting together, being part of a powerful, elite class of people who have the mandate to do whatever they want to, and all of it powered by “the will.” The movie is literally about the “Triumph of the Will.” Not to mention the subsuming of the rugged individual behind the collective will of the powerful group that runs the galaxy. Modern militarized societies just love the myth of the heroic fighter pilot, of which Hal Jordan is one of many examples.
Oh, and of course once Ryan Reynolds becomes his fully-fledged superior being, his eyes turn blue, instead of that ugly, untermenschen brown. [Yes, I’m brown-eyed, and yes I’m overly sensitive to this. Notice how in the recent Planet of the Apes movie the chimps who become "more human" change eye color from brown to blue? How convenient….]
There’s been black-shirted fascism and brown-shirted fascism and “Red Fascism,” so why not “green fascism”?
When I was in high school I was shown “The Birth of a Nation.” Afterwards the teachers and students had a long discussion about it. In college I watched “Triumph of the Will” followed by a similar discussion. The Dark Knight rises is not, in my opinion, a Pro-Facist film.
After The Dark Knight Christopher Nolan began work on the Inception which hit theaters in July of 2010. It was in late October of that year when the official title “The Dark Knight Rises was announced.
I find it unlikely that “The Dark Knight Rises” references the Occupy movement directly. The occupation of Wall street took place last summer. Could “The Dark Knight Rises” have been written, cast, shot, and edited in a year while working around the Wall Street protestors? It seems unlikely to me. If anyone can provide some information that would be helpful.
Also consider that people were, excuse my language, pissed off at the hubris of Wall Street before the film was in production. I can see Mr. Nolan incorporating that rage into his script.
In TDKR there was no leaderless movement with “working groups,” general assemblies and drum circles. In the film I saw a chaotic crowd of conned pawns manipulated by someone committed to fulfill the “destiny” of someone else.
The themes I’ve seen in all 3 of Christopher Nolan’s Batman series includes, justice versus revenge, Justice being defined in Batman Begins in the scene after the man who killed Bruce Waynes parents is assassinated:
WAYNE: Maybe I should thank them.
RACHEL: You don’t mean that.
WAYNE- What if I do, Rachel? My parents deserved justice.
RACHEL – You’re not talking about justice. You’re talking about revenge.
WAYNE- Sometimes, they’re the same.
RACHEL: – No, they’re never the same.
Justice is about harmony. Revenge is about you making yourself feel better.
And with those words from the public defender Rachel Dawes I feel I see Mr. Nolans perspective on revenge; it’s selfish.
Another theme is service and ones personal mission in life and service to others.
In Batman Begins –
DUCARD: Why are you here?
WAYNE: To strike fear in those who prey on the fearful.
And in TDK –
WAYNE AS BATMAN: It’s not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me.
Then there’s the very sticky questions concerning human nature.
The Jokers “social experiment” involving 2 boats., one with criminals the other with civilians, each with the power and motivation to kill the other.
If the Batman series is about Fascism perhaps it’s about laying out to the audience the questions one should ask so as to know what to do when the authoritarian voice takes the megaphone to his lips and says that he’s set you free.
One final point before I boil some water for a pot of tea. I see 2 distinctions between The Batman films and superhero movies in general.
In Nolans world one doesn’t need to be from another planet, be bitten by a radioactive arachnid or have a destiny to fulfill while learning how to wield a magic wand. In the last words from Batman in TDKR, “A hero can be anybody.”
Excellent review, couldn’t have put it to words better myself.
I spoke too soon.
Weather The Dark Knight Rises is facist may depend less on my opinion then
on what it inspires.
Back in the mid 1990′s I attended a party that in attendence had a few men who
were members of the White Power movement.
On the TV was a collection of clips edited together as a kind of recruitment tool.
The frist clip I saw was the Jeraldo Rivera Show episode with Nazi’s as guests
and where violence broke out.
Another clip was a group of young white, blond haired, blue eyed young men
singing a song called “Tomorrow Belongs to Me.” It was a scene from the film Cabaret.
If the Dark Knight Rises is indeed fascist propaganda there will be brisk sales
of the DVD among white racialists. If not…
Now I’m going to watch “The Sound of Music.”
Wow! I JUST finished watching the last half of that movie and the same thing crossed my mind, In fact I found this site by typing “Batman film Pro fascist”
I find it funny how liberal progressives (actually read regressives) throw around the left and right terms. One of the liberal demigods, Woodrow Wilson, thought fascism was great. Conservatives believe in our country as constituted. We righted our original wrongs but are always conscious of too much government. Don’t confuse conservatives with Republicans. We believe the Constitution limits government. The Republican party is just demonrat lite. B. Hussein Obama is more of a fascist than any president since Wilson and FDR.
Matt,
If you believe Obama, Wilson, and FDR are fascists, I believe you MIGHT just not know the meaning of the word… May I suggest a dictionary? But then again, if you believe Republicans aren’t conservatives, then may have bigger problems, specifically in recognizing reality, haha.
Of course Nolan’s Batman films are fascist. They’re despicable. The real question is why human beings, and teens, so readily lap up fascism, or why human beings seem innately fond of the fascist.
You have no idea how much this has cheered me up. I’ve felt like the little kid in ” The Emperor’s New Clothes” since seeing it.