Why Batman?
Published in El Mundo
(Spain) on 20 July 2012
by Luis Alemany (link to original)
Why ‘Batman?’ Trying to interpret the mental mechanisms of the person or persons responsible for the Denver attacks is very rash. However, a symbolic quality to their actions can already be sensed. In that case, what does ‘Batman’ have to do with this tragedy? Was it a coincidence, an opportunity, a setting, a mannerism? The first suspect arrested, according to initial reports, went to the scene of the crime wearing a character’s mask.
Two very intuitive thoughts: the overarching theme of ‘Batman’ (not of this film, but rather of the characters, since its origin) is psychopathy. The Joker is the great sadist of contemporary culture, a character who commits evil acts without the slightest need of political or philosophical justification. He is neither against the system nor a nihilist; neither someone seeking vengeance nor a traumatized man. In any case, he is an aesthete of evil (particularly when Jack Nicholson added histrionics to the character), according to the novelized vision of psychopathy, and little else.
And Batman himself? What is there to his biography? Quite frightening traumatic experiences in his life, a certain tendency toward self-confinement, and from the installment of ‘The Dark Knight’ that arrives in theaters in Spain today, a steep fall toward depression.
What is the psychiatric description of someone who decides to take justice into his own hands? An anti-social personality disorder? A professional would be needed to refine the diagnosis a bit more.
The other thought is political in nature. The complete series of Batman splits open a vast dystopia: Gotham City is a New York in which everything negative is carried out to the extreme. It is dark, humid, claustrophobic, and politically dysfunctional. The power in Gotham is corrupt and violent, and the residents are uncooperative and apathetic.
The film that premieres in Spain today assumes a twist in this political reading of Batman. In the almost three-hour film, the residents of Gotham live their French revolution. They say enough and then slip into Jacobin terror.
Two very intuitive thoughts: the overarching theme of ‘Batman’ (not of this film, but rather of the characters, since its origin) is psychopathy. The Joker is the great sadist of contemporary culture, a character who commits evil acts without the slightest need of political or philosophical justification. He is neither against the system nor a nihilist; neither someone seeking vengeance nor a traumatized man. In any case, he is an aesthete of evil (particularly when Jack Nicholson added histrionics to the character), according to the novelized vision of psychopathy, and little else.
And Batman himself? What is there to his biography? Quite frightening traumatic experiences in his life, a certain tendency toward self-confinement, and from the installment of ‘The Dark Knight’ that arrives in theaters in Spain today, a steep fall toward depression.
What is the psychiatric description of someone who decides to take justice into his own hands? An anti-social personality disorder? A professional would be needed to refine the diagnosis a bit more.
The other thought is political in nature. The complete series of Batman splits open a vast dystopia: Gotham City is a New York in which everything negative is carried out to the extreme. It is dark, humid, claustrophobic, and politically dysfunctional. The power in Gotham is corrupt and violent, and the residents are uncooperative and apathetic.
The film that premieres in Spain today assumes a twist in this political reading of Batman. In the almost three-hour film, the residents of Gotham live their French revolution. They say enough and then slip into Jacobin terror.