Nolan's Dark Knight Batman Trilogy and Existentialist Thought

Brian

The Dark Knight Batman Trilogy Christopher Nolan is without a doubt my favorite film franchise in the fantasy / superhero / action / and adventure genres. In fact, The Dark Knight might just be my favorite film overall. Actually it probably is to be totally honest.

It seems to me there are a lot of existentialist themes in TDK Trilogy (henceforth TDK3). Some are very explicit, some less so.

One theme that is expressly stated in the first film of the trilogy, "Batman Begins," can be summed up by the quote from Rachel Dawes, "It's not who you are underneath, but what you do that defines you." This, I think, is one of the most important core tenets of any philosophy that could be classified as existentialist.

This line is given special emphasis in the film. Not only does Rachael say it, but Batman repeats it back to her as his way of revealing tp her that he's Bruce Wayne, because she remembers that she had said this exact phrase to Bruce at an earlier time.

I think this existentialist viewpoint runs throughout all the films, albeit less explicitly. For the people of Nolan's Gotham, you are what you do, not what you profess yourself to be through thought, but rather whom you reveal yourself to be through the concrete actions that you take. I think you can especially see this playing out in characters like Harvey Dent, James Gordon, Seline Kyle, and even The Joker.

So I raise a few questions:

1. Does TDK3 qualify as an existentialist set of films, or, at the very least, is Batman Begins an existentialist work?

2. Does the trilogy do a good job of executing this philosophical viewpoint - contra, for example, Kant - that the only thing that really matters is action with practical implications rather one's mere thoughts, beliefs, ideals, etc?

3. Is there anything in particular that would disqualify one or all of the films from being considered works of existentialist film?

Hope to hear your thoughts!

TimeLine

I think this existentialist viewpoint runs throughout all the films, albeit less explicitly. — Brian

There certainly is an existential theme and I think primarily on the subject of fear, certainly in the case of Batman Begins (the first half) and his transformation in the Chinese monastery. I have a strong affiliation to that deeper search for subjective peace in the name of objective righteousness and justice.

What you really fear is inside yourself. You fear your own power. You fear your anger, the drive to do great or terrible things.

When he was building his lair, the whole idea of embracing his greatest fear by being near it, as though learning to walk upright while a thorn stabs the side of your ribs, that genuinely resonates with me. There is a certain power that integrity enables.

Brian

There certainly is an existential theme and I think primarily on the subject of fear, certainly in the case of Batman Begins (the first half) and his transformation in the Chinese monastery. I have a strong affiliation to that deeper search for subjective peace in the name of objective righteousness and justice.

What you really fear is inside yourself. You fear your own power. You fear your anger, the drive to do great or terrible things.

When he was building his lair, the whole idea of embracing his greatest fear by being near it, as though learning to walk upright while a thorn stabs the side of your ribs, that genuinely resonates with me. There is a certain power that integrity enables. — TimeLine

Timeline thanks for your response! Yes, I wasn't even thinking about the film's thematic of fear, which is so essential to Batman Begins and to the early development of the character of Bruce Wayne.

So often the choices we make are choices we make because we are afraid, and we escape it by trying to keep the thing we are afraid of: death, poverty, boredom, violent harm, another Transformers film - at bay.

Bruce does the opposite. He chooses, with the guidance of Ducard, to embrace his fear and to build his world from our of his fear, even becoming his fear to overcome his fear.

These are two extremely different ways of experiencing and responding to our deepest fears.

To get a little more psychological about Bruce's fear of bats, I think it was very much rooted in his fear of abandonment. Abandonment being, of course, another very Heidggerian and Sartrean existentialist theme.

When young Bruce was attacked by the bats, he had fallen, and he suddenly found himself in a strange dark world all by himself without any of the people whom were most important to him - thinking specifically of his parents, Rachael Dawes, and Alfred. Of course, by the third film, when Alfred quits and leaves, Bruce's fear is actually realized to an extent - though Alfred's absence lack the finality of death. He is then attacked by hostile enemies.

Young Bruce's fears turn out to be very justified when Chill murders his parents, leaving Bruce alone and abandoned to the world where such evil can happen. And yet, as you say, he transforms the fear into a force of good, of justice, of integrity, to stop similar events from occurring to other people such that they have their own worst fears realized.

Hopefully something I said in there made sense and was somehow a little bit illuminating. I hope you have more to say I am enjoying this discussion of my favorite film franchise. : )

TimeLine

leaving Bruce alone and abandoned to the world where such evil can happen. And yet, as you say, he transforms the fear into a force of good, of justice, of integrity, to stop similar events from occurring to other people such that they have their own worst fears realized. — Brian

That is the power of an autonomous will, the notion that if you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, you become something else entirely that enables you to transcend such fears, fears that prevents one from leaving the herd to form their own identity. There is nothing greater in my opinion than a person who is devoted to their principles.

For me, however, I have a likeness to Evie from V for Vendetta, that it is actually love that can put an end to the very same fears. When I found that, which was not too long ago, I was finally able to say 'no' and you would need to watch the movie to understand that.

Nolan's Dark Knight Batman Trilogy and Existentialist Thought

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