"Dark Knight' Kindles Joker's Judgment, Justifying
Satan's Sinister Soul Search"
By Ramesh
C.Reddy
Pittsburgh Standard
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
"The Dark Knight" (2008)
Picture and source from the site
http://www.imdb.com.
The movie is rated PG-13 for sequences of extreme violence! Run time is
152 minutes! Now playing in theaters as of July 18, 2008!
Maincast:
Christian Bale - Bruce Wayne/Batman
Heath Ledger - The Joker
Aaron Eckhart - Harvey Dent
Michael Caine - Alfred Pennyworth
WATCH TRAILER:
 "The
Dark Knight"
RECOMMENDATION:
WATCH THE MOVIE !!!
PLOT SYNOPSIS:
“The Dark Knight” is about Batman (played by Christian
Bale)
and District Attorney Harvey Dent (played by Aaron Eckhart) working
with Gotham’s crime unit to rid the city of its crime wave, especially
the Joker (played by Heath Ledger) who makes the citizens
of Gotham cringe in fear. To complicate matters Batman also has to deal
with Two-Face.
PLOT REVIEW:
“The Dark Knight” is an electrifying action-packed blockbuster
thriller that presents an unexpected Gospel centered message throughout
the movie and will keep you glued to your seat, making you want to watch
it over and over again. The script was very well written for the role
played by the Joker.
CONTENT REVIEW:
“The Dark Knight” is a dark movie filled with violence,
corruption, and sacrifice. It also addresses issues such as trust,
betrayal, loyalty, revenge, selflessness, compassion, death, sin, and
honor.
WHAT I LIKED ABOUT THE MOVIE:
(SPOILER ALERT)
Biblical Connection I:
They showed even the WHITE KNIGHT of Gotham City can be turned if
the circumstances in that person’s life were to change. This is exactly
what happened. The White Knight was Harvey Dent, the District Attorney
who was untouchable when it came to being corrupted by the criminals
through bribery or extortion until his only love was taken away from
him. Now, this White Knight became a vigilante killing anyone that was
responsible for what happened to his girl friend after being influenced
by the Joker who was responsible for the killing of his girl friend.
Eventually, it cost him his very life.
This showed me no matter how good we are seen by others even to the
point of being seen as a saint as Harvey Dent was, in our humanity we
are bound to fail when what we love the most is taken away from us
without having a relationship with Jesus Christ. Without that personal
relationship with Jesus Christ, we will be influenced by Satan and his
ways, the question is not if but when.
Dent was so moralistic in his actions but his morality was based on
the earthly love of his life and when that love was taken away, his
morality was shattered too when he let himself be influenced by the
Joker. The Joker is the one that put all the negative thoughts in him
polluting his mind. Instead of doing everything to get justice for the
citizens of Gotham, Dent resorted to retribution. The Joker succeeded in
his overall plan to corrupt Dent and take away the moralistic goodness
in him by taking away the love of his life because Dent was still
self-centered no matter how much good he wanted to do.
‘The Dark Knight’ shows the plight of humankind no matter how high of
a pedestal someone is put upon without having Jesus Christ in their
lives. Dent in his humanity could not bear the sight of losing the one
he loved and also losing half his face. He had set his mind on dealing
with corruption and putting away bad guys until he was personally
affected by the bad guys. Now, this made him go after those who were
actually good guys in the movie.
That is what Satan does in our lives too. In the movie, the Joker was
a personification of Satan. The Joker hated everything that was good and
wanted mayhem, destruction, death, and sorrow wherever he went. He
wanted the world to destroy itself including the people of Gotham. He
knew he had succeeded with Harvey Dent who became Two-Faced.
We all live on earth and Satan has made the earth his battleground to
influence humanity for destruction, revenge, and death. Satan only goes
after those who are seen as good by society to show others that he can
corrupt them too. He did exactly that to Dent by taking away who he
loves and what he loves through the Joker. Dent definitely fell through
because he did not have that personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
This reminded me of character from the Old Testament named Job. Job
was seen as a loving person who would never turn away from God. Satan
saw that and knew he could turn Job away from God if God were to allow
him to take away who Job loves and what Job loves. This is exactly what
happened to Job. He lost everything including his family and also his
body was decaying. But Job handled the situation differently than Dent
handled it.
Job did not let Satan influence him negatively or those who came as
friends. Instead, Job’s response was ‘The Lord
giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the Name of the Lord’.
Job had a wonderful relationship with God that Satan could not touch.
The Dark Knight showed me no matter how good people think I am,
without Christ I will be nothing and am nothing. Without Christ in my
life and my relationship with Him, I can be turned to the dark side too
by circumstances if those circumstances are not given to the Lord Jesus
but allowed Satan to influence through them.
So, the first biblical connection I took away from the ‘The Dark
Knight’ is that no human being apart from the Lord Jesus Christ in their
lives can be good at all. Their goodness becomes like filthy rags when
the right buttons are pushed. With Christ, as Job’s faith in the Lord
helped Him endure, we can too.
Negative things do scare me and it is that scared aspect or anything
we put above Christ is what Satan will love to use to bring us down. I
pray that I am always focused on Christ no matter what is happening
around me and my love for Christ can be genuine based on who He is and
why He came instead of what I can get out of Jesus.
I don’t want to be influenced by Satan no matter what is happening
around me as Dent was influenced by the personification of Satan through
the Joker. The Joker was not just eerie but plain evil as Satan is.
Dent only did what his human condition made it possible to do. The
human condition is governed by the sinful nature and that sinful nature
can be easily influenced for darkness by the dark side unless the Light
is turned on and the Light extinguishes the darkness.
Jesus said, ‘I am the Light of the world, if you
follow me, you won’t be stumbling through the darkness but living light
will flood your path!” (John 8:12, NIV)
Jesus wants to be the Light of our world and in our lives so we won’t
be stumbling through the darkness in our sinful condition because His
light can flood our path. For that to happen, we need to do what Job did
and have a personal relationship with God unlike Dent. For only through
Christ can we really be good because He will work in us and transform
our lives no matter what is happening around us.
I want that and so should you! I believe the Joker acting the role of
the personification of evil in the movie killed him in real life too. We
all need Jesus for only Jesus can help us and protect us from Spiritual
Warfare of the enemy.
We need to realize we cannot save ourselves but only Christ can save us
from the enemy.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his
mighty power.
Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against
the devil's schemes.
For our struggle is not against flesh and
blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the
powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in
the heavenly realms.
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that
when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and
after you have done everything, to stand.
Stand firm then, with
the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of
righteousness in place,
and with your feet fitted with the readiness
that comes from the gospel of peace.
In addition to all this, take up the shield of
faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil
one. Take
the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word
of God. And
pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and
requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all
the saints.” (Ephesians 6:10-18, NIV)
Biblical Connection II:
When Harvey Dent who was supposed to be the White Knight of Gotham
who could do no wrong was influenced by the Joker and became evil, his
sins were not exposed to the citizens of Gotham. Instead, the citizens
of Gotham were told to honor a fallen hero. This was because the
citizens of Gotham had put hope in a man who they believed could deliver
the city from corruption and destruction so the commissioner did not
want to disappoint because he knew all morality and what is good would
fall if who they saw as good actually became evil.
This again shows that when we put our faith and hope in mankind apart
from the Lord, mankind will only disappoint. Dent disappointed and so
will we apart from the Lord. Yet some people continue to want to put
their hope in mankind instead of on the Lord. That is what the
commissioner did. He still wanted people to believe that Dent was good
and died a hero when in fact he became evil and died by his own hand
which tried to kill a young child. If his hand and gun was not on the
child then he would have lived. To make Dent the good guy, Batman
actually took the blame. Now Batman’s actions have profound implications
biblically too.
Biblical Connection III:
To absolve Two-Face of his evil status and guilt when he died, Batman
decided to take the crimes of Two-Face upon himself so Two-Face could
still be seen as good by society as Harvey Dent. Now Batman faced the
punishment for all the crimes that Dent had committed when Dent was
influenced by the Joker. Now the commissioner and everyone hunted Batman
down.
This reminded me of what Jesus Christ did for us while we were yet
sinners. To absolve us of all our sin, Jesus Christ went to the cross
and took all of our sin’s punishment upon Himself even though we were
the ones influenced by Satan. Our sinful acts were taken by Jesus so He
could forgive us and give us hope, so when God looks at us, God does not
see the sin in us but the hope we have in Jesus Christ who cleansed us
by His precious cleansing blood as we turn to Him.
Harvey Dent was seen as the good guy by the citizens of Gotham not
because he was good on his own but because Batman took the blame for all
the evil and made Dent be the good guy.
In the same way, when we are seen as good, it is not because we are
good but because of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. Jesus
loves us so much that Jesus went to the cross, taking the shame of our
sin upon Himself, was crucified on the cross as His precious cleansing
blood wiped away all our sin, was buried on the third day, and came back
to life to save when we turn to Him.
Biblical Connection IV:
When Batman took the blame for Two-Faced, we see the same people that
loved Batman turned against him and used a hammer to break the sign of
Batman that shone bright in the sky.
This reminded me of what the people of Jerusalem did to Jesus when
they used a hammer to crucify Jesus on the cross. Those same people were
the ones that loved Jesus and shouting, 'Hosanna',
Hosanna, Hosanna' but later turned against Jesus. Jesus had taken the
blame for humanity’s sins and paid the price with His life. Jesus is
still the Light of the world and no hammer can take that away.
Biblical Connection V:
’The Dark Knight’ showed me that all of us have a Two-Faced in
us. We can be seen as good by the world but yet bad by the Lord because
the world’s standards are different from God’s standards. There is a
reason God says, ‘all your good works are like filthy rags’. That is a
profound statement and it shows that God’s standards are so high that we
cannot reach them apart from the good work of Christ in us.
It is by grace we have been saved through faith
and not of any good works lest we boast.
Jesus came to take our Two-Faced nature and restore us to what we
should be, a whole person being transformed by the power of the Holy
Spirit to do good works through Him who works in us. Jesus came to give
us Salvation.
Biblical Connection VI:
There were officers on the force who were trusted by the commissioner
but they betrayed that trust for a little money. They were influenced by
the Joker to turn in Harvey Dent and his girl friend to him. According
to them, they just brought them to a place and did not think anything
would happen to them. Yet, there greed for money and betrayal cost both
of them dearly. Those who were trusted caused the greatest harm because
they opened the door of their heart to a little evil.
This reminded me no matter how many good things we do it only takes
one betrayal of trust to destroy everything that was built. In other
words, if we even allow a small temptation to fester in us and give into
it, it will affect the whole of us. This is what happened to the two
detectives who were the most trusted. They allowed a little temptation
of extra money from the Joker to cloud their judgment and turn in two
people fighting to save Gotham.
We will be no different than them no matter how trusted people see us
if we allow Satan’s temptation no matter how trivial it seems to get to
us and give in. When we give in to Satan who is the absolute
personification of evil there is, we have put ourselves in such a bind
that as it caused the death of those two detectives, it could cost our
own death too. The death may not necessarily be physical but it could be
spiritual. To ensure that does not happen we need to be influenced by
Christ and His ways and not of the devil. Jesus alone can help us in
that.
Biblical Connection VII:
The Joker wanted human beings to destroy each other and he
figured he could make that happen so he planted bombs in two boats that
were across the sea. Now, he told each of the crew that there is a
detonator available that they can use before midnight to blow up the
other boat so they can be saved. The twist in all this was that one boat
had supposedly innocent civilians in it and the other boat had hardened
criminals in it. Either of the crew had the opportunity to blow up the
other crew.
The innocent civilians wanted to blow up the crew that had hardened
criminals in it because they felt they were better than the criminals
but the criminals were not as eager to blow up the civilian crew yet
some of them were. As the minutes ticked and midnight was approaching
soon, each of the crew knew they might die and be blown up by the other.
I thought it was so profound what happened next.
One of the criminals went to the detonator and threw the detonator
away in the water so none of the other criminals could get their hands
on it and blow up the innocent civilians. He made a comment that this
should have been done a long time ago. He realized that it was not up to
him or them to take the lives of those in the other boat.
This reminded me of the Thief on the cross. The thief on the cross
realized that he was there for crimes that he had committed but Jesus
had done no harm or crime. The thief acknowledged his sinfulness before
Jesus and Jesus accepted him into paradise.
In the movie, the criminal acknowledged that he was a criminal and
had no right to take the life of others seen as good so he was willing
to have his own life and the others on his boat to be taken away by
midnight by the innocent civilian crew. He realized his own sinfulness
and when he did that, the power of Satan or Joker’s wish decimated.
Now the innocent civilian boat was saved from destruction. But while
all this was happening in the criminal’s boat the people of the innocent
civilian crew did not know whether the criminals will detonate the
trigger or not by midnight. The innocent civilians by a greater majority
were willing to blow up the criminals boat before they are blown but no
one wanted to pull the trigger so one man said, ‘if no one wants to get
their hands dirty then I will’ and went to the trigger. As he was about
to detonate the trigger, he had second thoughts and put it away.
This reminded me of Jesus’ interaction with an adulterous woman and
the Pharisees. The Pharisees wanted the women to be stoned to death
because of her sin. They were about to stone her but when
Jesus said,
‘He who has no sin cast the first stone’ then all of them slowly left
one by one. She was alone with Jesus and Jesus asked her has no one has
condemned you? She replied, ‘Yes’. Then Jesus said, ‘Neither do I; Go
and sin no more.’
After midnight struck none of the boats blew up and the Joker saw
that his plan to have human beings destroy themselves failed so he took
it upon himself to make the lives of those citizens miserable and
destructive but Batman intervened and saved both crews. The Joker had
failed.
This also showed that neither boat crews saw themselves as the good
guys but realized they had their own sins and could not become the judge
of others. This is the first step in becoming right with God is to
acknowledge what a sinner we are and that we cannot save ourselves. Only
God can save us! Both crews on the boats did not try to save themselves
but the saving came from an outside force.
Batman defeated the Joker to save humanity on both boats. This
reminds me of what Jesus Christ did to save me and others when we gave
our lives to Christ acknowledging we are sinners in need of a Savior.
Jesus became our Savior and also our Lord when we turned to Him asking
Him to be in control of our lives.
If not for Christ who came to save and if not for our dependence on
Him, we will give into Satan’s attacks. So, we need to always be focused
on Christ and what He can do for us for in Christ we can do what is
right and battle the forces of evil defeating Satan. Jesus defeated
Satan by going to the cross to save us. The day will come when Satan
will completely be defeated as prophesized in the Book of Revelation.
I shared only 7 Biblical connections I saw but there are more in the
movie that I hope you will share with me.
Questions to Ponder:
1. What did you like most about the
movie and why ?
2. How is the Joker a personification of evil
similar to Satan?
3. What are the things the Joker did that
remind you of how Satan operates and how can you avoid Satan’s operation
in your life?
4. Why do you think Harvey Dent the White
Knight became evil and what could have prevented that?
5. Why do you think Batman took the blame for Harvey Dent’s evil actions
and how does that remind you of what Jesus did?
6. What was your reaction to the two boat
scenes in the end and why?
7. How can you battle Satan, the personification of evil as you live
your life?
Express Your View
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picture to read my dad's memoriam:
Nov 01, 1941 - Dec 17, 2007
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