Moral Systems And Philosophical Ideas In The Dark Knight
1606 Words7 Pages
Christopher Nolan, writer and director, has worked on some of the biggest blockbuster movies ever made. These include the Batman series, Inception, The Prestige, and Interstellar. What make his movies attractive are not only the cinematic effects but also his ability to present philosophical questions throughout them. The second movie in his adaptation of The Batman series is The Dark Knight, and this movie holds up to Nolan’s reputation in films. The Dark Knight is host to many thought-provoking characters and situations that last beyond the length of the film. In this paper I will discuss the moral systems and philosophical ideas developed through a moral dilemma in the movie, The Dark Knight, and show how they relate to real life application.…show more content… Batman believes that people are intrinsically good and lives out of a sense of duty to right and wrong so he sees that generally the rest of humanity does too. The Joker on the other hand believes that people will abandon all moral codes and decency when it is in their self-interest to. During a conversation with Batman he says, “See, their morals, their code, it’s a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They’re only as good as the world allows them to be. I will show you, when the chips are down, these civilized people, they’ll eat each other.” This statement reveals that he believes that their morality is contingent upon their situations and personal convenience. All bets are off when the façade falls. Joker plays the role of an agent of chaos throughout the movie in attempt to reveal the people’s natural state by bringing it out in them through acts of