I typically don't like topical posts, and if you suffer through this one I promise there won't be many more.
In the book of Job, God and Satan have an interesting debate over the heart of Job. God insisting that he's a good man, and Satan assuring God that he could get Job to sin if he wanted to. But first let's talk Batman.
This weekend will see droves of people, probably record breaking numbers of people, storming theaters everywhere to see the conclusion to the Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. The big question being tossed around is if Batman will actually die in the movie.
That's not usually a typical question for a superhero movie. We tend to watch those kinds of films with an ingrained assurance that our hero/heroine will be standing at the end. To put it another way; The excitement isn't if Iron Man will live or die, it's in watching how he goes about saving the world.
However, in this impressively dark world Nolan has created, everyone planning on seeing this movie seems to be carrying with them a certain trepidation that Batman may actually not make it out alive.
Christoper Nolan's brother weighs in on the topic here.
http://entertainment.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/27/12420329-why-batman-needs-to-die-in-dark-knight-rises?lite
You'll see from the article there's several inherent problems with tossing around the idea of killing a superhero. Batman (or any other hero/heroine) seems to embody hope, justice, truth, and a willingness to place those things above ones self. In the world of film many people feel that if you kill Batman you symbolically kill off the hope, justice, and truth he stood for. Leaving Gotham, and in a sense us, void of those things.
An unfair weight to put on the shoulders of the filmmakers? Sure. Fair or not, it's there and you can be sure the post-movie conversations around the country will center around the Batman dying/living topic.
There is actually a interesting loophole for the director here. A way he can kill Batman without killing the things he stands for, and it rests with the people of Gotham.
If you kill the caped crusader you need to show the people of the city banding together themselves, somehow making the point that the citizens will now carry the banner Batman can no longer carry. That way truth, justice, and hope don't die, but are instead carried by the very people who were meant to carry them all along, the Gotham citizens.
This could be the best possible solution, considering that these films have always been about the heart of the people, the goodness or evilness of the people of Gotham. In Batman Begins we see Liam Neeson make several speeches claiming that Gotham does not deserve to exist due to how evil the people have become.
Remember in the Dark Knight Joker and Batman arguing over the heart of the people? Joker had rigged a test to see if Gotham citizens on one ferry boat would blow up citizens on another ferry boat in order to save themselves. Joker assuring Batman that he could get the people to work great evil, and Batman assuring Joker that the people of Gotham were inherently good. Right at the climax of the movie, the hero and villain having their own Job debate.
Rest assured, Bane (Batman's newest villain) will be no different. Just like Ra's Al Ghul and Joker, Bane will insist that the chaos he brings is intentional, and nothing less than what the city deserves.
That's the hidden dynamic that really makes these stories resonate with us. Are the people of Gotham (i.e. us) at the end of the day good, or evil?
At some point, this writer would like to see the people of Gotham become the bearers of truth and light and for that to happen Batman has to leave, one way or another.
In John 16 Jesus tells his followers that it's actually going to be good for him to leave. In fact he's got to. Unless he leaves, they won't get his spirit.
Sometimes the superhero has to leave in order for us to realize it is in fact, up to us.
Batman has, over and over again, showed great faith in the people of Gotham. If he leaves the city, or the world, it will be with the belief that the people can, in the end, be exactly what they need to be. Jesus also has great faith in his followers, as his leaving was the ultimate expression of passing the torch to the people who will now carry his way of life forward.
Now that he's set the example of what's important and what's not, he can leave the people to carry on what he showed them.
In effect, Batman being gone is a message to all of Gotham, "Get your cape".
The hero many of us follow carried a cross rather than a cape, and now that he's physically gone, our goal becomes clear.
Get your cross.
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