In today's society we value things like technology and equality but realistically speaking we weren't always this great. I mean, there was a time when Tim Burton was directing batman movies for christ sake. today we'll be looking at the ideologies around the movies Batman(1989) and The Dark Knight(2008).
with the rise of new technologies in the 80's it was becoming more and more apparent that we need to bring the cape crusader into the times, lest he be lost forever. In a valiant(and fairly successful) attempt to bring the Batman out of the dark ages of adam west and disco we turned to none other than the eccentric Tim Burton to create a universe of mystery and darkness where you fear for your life all the time. and what we got was Batman. Batman was an interesting title in that MICHAEL FREAKING KEATON was cast as Bruce wayne. Guys i don't think you understand, MR. MOM WAS CAST TO PLAY BATMAN. Anyway the movie was enough of a success but what was Tim Burton going for?
Upon my first watch i noticed a few important details Harvey Dent was black and bruce wayne was clark kent. The movie is riddled with just enough Black people to get my attention especially considering that there were few other minorities. it's almost as if the movie was saying"hey guys we're not racist we just wanted to make a batman movie.." As far as Bruce himself, he was a good guy, like , a really good guy and so when he acted sleazy and jerkish (the scene where he told viki he was gonna be out of town) he seemed really out of character. But Then there's viki the thing a noticed the most from this movie was the crazy amount of misogyny in the plot. viki wasn't so much a character as she was an item to be won.it's funny because the joker (played by Jack Nicholson) got mad at his former employer for having him killed "over a woman" and then he proceeds to try to kill batman over a woman.and that's the thing, everyone wants viki so they all have dick measuring contests amongst themselve to win her. in the end batman wins her because he's the main character and all is well. if i had to guess the ideology in one sentence i'd say "You'll win the girl if you're the main character"
This was by no means the case in the dark knight. the dark knight is about a little more than the romantic life of bruce wayne. Though that life does play a more important and tasteful role in this movie.But first and foremost the movie is about Batman, Harvey, and the joker. three men who have or will be tested mentally.honestly this is the best writing for a batman movie you'll ever see. it starts as the typical saturday morning heist cartoon and quickly grows into a thriller involving gang politics, romance, loss betrayal and most importantly a guy in his mid thirties running around dressed as a large anthropomorphic bat.... seriously though this movie is the culmination of bruce's years of depression, dent's quest for justice gone horribly wrong and the joker's wish for who know's what! and at the end of this movie you find yourself wondering who got what they wanted. the answer is nobody and if i had to guess this movie's ideology in one sentence it would be "there are no heroes, just people that try and sometimes fail."
overall both movies are great even if i gave Batman(1989) a lot of crap for it literally revolving around a woman that Bruce seems to only kinda like and the joker is just infatuated with her because he can be. the movies are in many ways mirrors to modern society and that is something i not only enjoy but respect.
