1.8.12

When I occasionally talk about the impoverishment of critical vocabulary, this is exactly the sort of thing I mean:
The Dark Knight Rises has a fairly complex view of heroism and symbolism, recognizing that people need heroes while also realizing that the line between leadership and demagoguery is thin.
The film's view is in no way complex. First, the film's treatment of this theme can be adequately summarized in a sentence. The discussion captures the essence of the film's view: it omits examples, but no content. Second, one knows this about the film since there are a number of conversations within the movie itself that discuss exactly this point (sample question for discussion: does Bruce Wayne and Commissioner Gordon's treatment of Harvey Dent as an unimpeachable ideal ultimately help or hinder their attempt to bring justice?). Third, it in no way represents a 'complex' view of anything, but rather the fundamental starting principle of all comic books, and by extension comic-book movies: the presence of qualities that make one 'super' can be used to both good and bad ends. Heck, even Aristotle was clear enough on this point: to live outside the polis one needs to be a beast or a god.

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