![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
How the new Batman movie should have ended.
SPOILERS BELOW HERE
(apparently the feed ignores cuts, right.
The mayor holds a press conference, with the new Commissioner standing behind him. And says, "Yesterday, the Joker tried to defeat the people of Gotham by having us do his work for him. Instead, we showed him that we are better than that. We showed him that any average citizen of Gotham City - that even the *very worst of us* - can stand up in courage and do great deeds. We showed him - and we showed the world - that we don't need one man to stand up and be our hero, we don't need a shining knight - because we know, now, that when we stand *together* against the darkest evils, when we stand together as a city of many people, we are stronger and we are braver and we are greater than *any* single hero. Because we are all heroes. And we proved that on the darkest night of all."
...but no, of course it had to be all about the shining knight heroes in the end, because that's how we roll in America.
I will note that this isn't specifically a complaint against Dark Knight. It's an issue that I've had with a *lot* of what would otherwise be my favorite stories lately. And, yes, in *part* it's a weakness of the genres I like - if I'm going to be reading stories about awesome heroes, of course it's going to be all about the hero.
But it's not an *inherent* weakness of the genre, is the thing. Because the *story* can be all about the hero, without having to make *everything* about him. The reason it did so much to ruin Dark Knight Returns it because that ending would have *worked*. It wouldn't have changed the emotional arc really at all, because the city would've still needed Batman to remind them that they're heroes too (because that is really the only thing that justifies Batman's existence in the end, which the makers of these movies *know*), but he still would've had to get no credit and go off all mopey and dark because, you know, to keep the attention in the right place the policiticians would have had to malign the single hero, and any time when the white guy hero doesn't get all the attention and acclaim he deserves is a *tragedy*, obvs.
So basically, the emotional impact of that ending was based around the idea that they couldn't afford to tell the truth. And I simply don't buy that the people who made the right choices in those ferries couldn't have heard the truth and been made better by it, or that the man who never the doubted the ferries wouldn't *know* he could trust them.
In other words, I don't buy that that ending is necessary to tell a good story, not even a good hero story. And, again, it's not just this movie but comes up *over* and *over*, and more and more lately, where they try to show the hero inspiring the people, but then refuse to let the people actually act inspired, because everything must be on the hero's shoulders; I've tried to right this post several times in the past year, but DKR finally pushed me over. It's that we've been *conditioned* to beleive that it's the only good story, because as long as we believe that only Magic Man In The Sky can save us, we'll keep waiting for him instead of *actually being inspired* and doing useful stuff to help.
It's like how they never show accurate bomb-making in movies, not because accurate bombs are bad storytelling, but because if you showed people in the movies how bombs really work, they might learn from it, and that would be dangerous. We don't dare let our stories teach people how leadership and change actually work, because then they might actually learn how to effectively create change. And that would be dangerous! No, no, we need more Tinkerbell Space Jesus instead.
Though I'm specially pissed off at Dark Knight Returns *because* the ferry scenes were so well done, because I expected from the beginning that they'd blow, and yet every step toward the end was absolutely believable, and absolutely might have happened, and I could have *cheered* when they sat down to pray in their circle, because *yes*. Because people in groups can do very stupid, very evil things. But all it takes is one - or two - or three good people willing stand firm in the crowd, to be leaders rather than heroes - and people can do amazingly amazing things too. That's why I like Bruce Wayne better than Batman, and Clark Kent better than Superman, and why Tony Stark is braver than Batman - because the philanthropist and the crusading reporter, and the CEO who follows his principles and takes his people with him; the black man who leads a corporation in the light, and the policeman rebuilding a force - they stand firm in a crowd, and make people help themselves, and force the choices, in ways that real people can do, too, if someone would just tell them that they can, and how.
But there's nothing in our pop culture's stories, as they're currently told, to teach people that that's what works.
Other than that, the only thing wrong with the movie was too many action scenes, and too little Bruce Wayne hanging around in jeans and a Henley, snarking at Alfred and doing engineer-y and CEO-y stuff. So I should probably just go see Iron Man already.
Also someone needs to come up with an excuse to get Lucius Fox in an Iron Man suit.
And Katie Holmes looks way too much like Princess Leia.
(apparently the feed ignores cuts, right.
The mayor holds a press conference, with the new Commissioner standing behind him. And says, "Yesterday, the Joker tried to defeat the people of Gotham by having us do his work for him. Instead, we showed him that we are better than that. We showed him that any average citizen of Gotham City - that even the *very worst of us* - can stand up in courage and do great deeds. We showed him - and we showed the world - that we don't need one man to stand up and be our hero, we don't need a shining knight - because we know, now, that when we stand *together* against the darkest evils, when we stand together as a city of many people, we are stronger and we are braver and we are greater than *any* single hero. Because we are all heroes. And we proved that on the darkest night of all."
...but no, of course it had to be all about the shining knight heroes in the end, because that's how we roll in America.
I will note that this isn't specifically a complaint against Dark Knight. It's an issue that I've had with a *lot* of what would otherwise be my favorite stories lately. And, yes, in *part* it's a weakness of the genres I like - if I'm going to be reading stories about awesome heroes, of course it's going to be all about the hero.
But it's not an *inherent* weakness of the genre, is the thing. Because the *story* can be all about the hero, without having to make *everything* about him. The reason it did so much to ruin Dark Knight Returns it because that ending would have *worked*. It wouldn't have changed the emotional arc really at all, because the city would've still needed Batman to remind them that they're heroes too (because that is really the only thing that justifies Batman's existence in the end, which the makers of these movies *know*), but he still would've had to get no credit and go off all mopey and dark because, you know, to keep the attention in the right place the policiticians would have had to malign the single hero, and any time when the white guy hero doesn't get all the attention and acclaim he deserves is a *tragedy*, obvs.
So basically, the emotional impact of that ending was based around the idea that they couldn't afford to tell the truth. And I simply don't buy that the people who made the right choices in those ferries couldn't have heard the truth and been made better by it, or that the man who never the doubted the ferries wouldn't *know* he could trust them.
In other words, I don't buy that that ending is necessary to tell a good story, not even a good hero story. And, again, it's not just this movie but comes up *over* and *over*, and more and more lately, where they try to show the hero inspiring the people, but then refuse to let the people actually act inspired, because everything must be on the hero's shoulders; I've tried to right this post several times in the past year, but DKR finally pushed me over. It's that we've been *conditioned* to beleive that it's the only good story, because as long as we believe that only Magic Man In The Sky can save us, we'll keep waiting for him instead of *actually being inspired* and doing useful stuff to help.
It's like how they never show accurate bomb-making in movies, not because accurate bombs are bad storytelling, but because if you showed people in the movies how bombs really work, they might learn from it, and that would be dangerous. We don't dare let our stories teach people how leadership and change actually work, because then they might actually learn how to effectively create change. And that would be dangerous! No, no, we need more Tinkerbell Space Jesus instead.
Though I'm specially pissed off at Dark Knight Returns *because* the ferry scenes were so well done, because I expected from the beginning that they'd blow, and yet every step toward the end was absolutely believable, and absolutely might have happened, and I could have *cheered* when they sat down to pray in their circle, because *yes*. Because people in groups can do very stupid, very evil things. But all it takes is one - or two - or three good people willing stand firm in the crowd, to be leaders rather than heroes - and people can do amazingly amazing things too. That's why I like Bruce Wayne better than Batman, and Clark Kent better than Superman, and why Tony Stark is braver than Batman - because the philanthropist and the crusading reporter, and the CEO who follows his principles and takes his people with him; the black man who leads a corporation in the light, and the policeman rebuilding a force - they stand firm in a crowd, and make people help themselves, and force the choices, in ways that real people can do, too, if someone would just tell them that they can, and how.
But there's nothing in our pop culture's stories, as they're currently told, to teach people that that's what works.
Other than that, the only thing wrong with the movie was too many action scenes, and too little Bruce Wayne hanging around in jeans and a Henley, snarking at Alfred and doing engineer-y and CEO-y stuff. So I should probably just go see Iron Man already.
Also someone needs to come up with an excuse to get Lucius Fox in an Iron Man suit.
And Katie Holmes looks way too much like Princess Leia.