Comments on: Well, if Dick Cheney is the penguin…

By: [extra points] | dansolomon.com

[extra points] | dansolomon.com — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 17:36:14 +0000

[...] he’s still perceived as better on this because of the (R) next to his name. It’s why those dopey pundits were so keen to link Batman to their brand, to claim that keeping people safe from dangerous bad [...]

By: Andrew Klavan Misses the Point: Why The Dark Knight is Not Allegory for the Bush Administration « Voice from the Depths of the Cultural Coil

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:27:51 +0000

[...] to see what people say about the rest, I suggest going to see MightyGodKing’s post “Well, if Dick Cheney’s the penguin…” Matt Yglesias responded to the article as a whole [...]

By: W.E.B. Adamant

W.E.B. Adamant — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:53:06 +0000

This was the first I heard of the article by Klavan. I agree. He is pretty batshit. While you took on the rhetorical questions, I tried to take on the rest of that godawful article. Could he have whined a bit more at the end there?

Anyway, here’s mine:

http://adamanthenes.blogspot.com/2008/07/andrew-klavan-misses-point-why-dark.html

Thought you might like to see what you inspired.

By: Gauldar

Gauldar — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:06:19 +0000

I totally agree with what I am reading that Harvey Dent is the representation of religous-right values, and not so much conservative because he actualy believes what he says. He first walks a road of good intentions which eventual winds into revenge, and when in difficult situations leaves too much up to faith/chance with his coin.

By: TalKaline

TalKaline — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:21:14 +0000

You know, the funny thing is, looking at the Dark Knight, I was always kind of unnerved by Harvey Dent even from the start.

Maybe it’s because I knew he’d turn into Two-Face, but still, looking at his Caesar discussion and willingness to arrest people when he doesn’t have evidence to convict, because it’ll get them off the streets for a while? Creepy as hell.

Maybe it’s just me, because everyone else seems to think he was a stand-up joe.

By: The Imp

The Imp — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 07:04:38 +0000

A particularly cynical comedian once commented on the Protestant/Catholic violence in Ireland as follows:

“In the absence of Jews, Blacks and Mexicans, humanity will improvise.”

I don’t think faith is a uniting or dividing. I think that humans are just lazy, egoist creatures that fear things unlike themselves. If it wasn’t faith, or god, or tasty bacon, it’d be skin and eye colour, or geographic origin.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 05:51:23 +0000

And if you have to ask why the idea that “faith” helps to “power [ones] defense” only appears in fantasy, then you’re probably living in one.

Dunno. Things like faith seem awfully uniting and dividing. Easy to make it an us/them thing when they call God a different name and don’t eat delicious bacon or something. Heck, even when God’s got the same name there’s plenty of stuff to fight about.

Appeals to religious beliefs might not work as well as they used to, but the world isn’t 110% atheist yet.

By: Rob Brown

Rob Brown — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 01:12:45 +0000

Rawrasaur, I like the middle-aged guy with the glasses in that video.

By: Joysweeper

Joysweeper — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:48:24 +0000

Trying to find deep allegorical meaning in movies always makes my head hurt, because there tend to be all kinds of other interpretations that are contrary to the stated ones. And what you said too. Guh.

… I really need to go see that movie.

By: John Seavey

John Seavey — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:26:40 +0000

It’s funny, because the whole time I was reading this, I was thinking, “If there’s any conservative analogy in ‘The Dark Knight’, it’s Harvey Dent, the guy who starts out as a stand-up law-and-order type guy, but who goes gradually and progressively batshit insane the longer he has to fight the terrorists, until by the end he’s threatening to shoot little kids and fighting Batman, while letting the Joker go when he has him right there.”

And then, Bam! That’s where you went at the end. Not sure if we’re both geniuses, or if it’s just blatantly obvious to anyone who isn’t a right-wing nutjob.

By: Ken Lowery

Ken Lowery — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:20:08 +0000

I bet Christopher and Jonathan Nolan would be surprised to find out they were writing about conservative values.

By: MarvinAndroid

MarvinAndroid — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:15:36 +0000

I do love the idea that “morality, faith, and self-sacrifice” are purely conservative values. And then they try to claim Lord of the Rings (Gandalf represents the magic of supply-side economics) and Spider-Man 3 (Spider-Man represents Reagan, who fought Venom (communism) even when the Daily Bugle (liberals) tried to label him a criminal (Iran-Contra scandal). Also, Reagan had spider-sense (Alzheimers)) as conservative films. It reminds me of the National Review’s “Top 50 Conservative Rock Songs,” in which the National Review claimed that being anti-authoritarian was a conservative value, so therefore The Clash, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Bob Dylan (He’s on the list like four times), The Offspring, Aerosmith (They claimed that “Janie’s Got A Gun” was a pro-gun rights song), and a variety of others were conservative rockers.

If the Republican administration, and specifically George, is Two-Face, does that make 9/11 their transformation scene, when a horrific event drives them to become insane and irrational, yet still convinced of their rightness?

By: Rawrasaur

Rawrasaur — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:07:59 +0000

This seems oddly appropriate. Who said it, Batman or Bush? http://youtube.com/watch?v=XPugAcQILRY

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:26:20 +0000

Yes, the message of The Dark Knight is that Batman's methods are liek totally awesoem against terrorist threats that replace old mafia-style criminals in response to his vigilante methods, and that we should never ever trust the brown people in the orange Gitmo jumpsuits. FULL OF WIN

By: Skemono

Skemono — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:09:22 +0000

the conservative values that power our defense — values like morality, faith, self-sacrifice and the nobility of fighting for the right Since when was self-sacrifice something that the Bush administration valued? The most he's sacrificed was having to give up golf. And if you have to ask why the idea that "faith" helps to "power [ones] defense" only appears in fantasy, then you're probably living in one.