You'll see a woman
hanging upside down
her features covered by her fallen gown
and all the lousy little poets
coming round
tryin' to sound like Charlie Manson
and the white man dancin'
Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St Paul
Give me Christ
or give me Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now
We don't like children anyhow
"If I were the parent who relented and took a 10-year-old child to see The Dark Knight, would I be sorry? Once again, you bet I would. It's different from other superhero films, as fans are quick to point out. Certainly, there are surprises in its swooping camera angles and darkened, ominous screen.
But the greatest surprise of all – even for me, after eight years spent working as a film critic – has been the sustained level of intensely sadistic brutality throughout the film.
I will attempt to confine my plot spoilers to the opening: the film begins with a heist carried out by men in sinister clown masks. As each clown completes a task, another shoots him point-blank in the head. The scene ends with a clown – The Joker – stuffing a bomb into a wounded bank employee's mouth.
After the murderous clown heist, things slip downhill. A man's face is filleted by a knife, and another's is burned half off. A man's eye is slammed into a pencil. A bomb can be seen crudely stitched inside another man's stomach, which subsequently explodes. A trussed-up man is bound to a chair and set alight atop a pile of banknotes.
A plainly terrorised child is threatened at gunpoint by a man with a melted face. It is all intensely realistic. Oh but don't worry, folks: there isn't any nudity. -- Jenny McCartney writing in 2008 in "Our attitude to violence is beyond a joke as new Batman film, The Dark Knight, shows
Title and article from Lawrence Auster @ We keep eating the fruit of the knowledge of evil, and guess what....
Posted by gerardvanderleun at July 20, 2012 1:14 PM
In answer to Auster's question, "Can we honestly say that people who go to see such movies are innocent? Can we honestly say that the people who were murdered while watching such a movie were merely innocent victims?"
They are the backsplash. What will be the backlash, I wonder.
Ah yes. Gun control and politics as usual.
Posted by: Jewel at July 20, 2012 2:35 PMBad people, bad culture. Bad culture, bad country. Bad country, bad government.
The government will remain bad, and the culture will remain bad, until the people stop being bad at heart.
There's only one Person who can change a heart from bad to good -- but nobody listens to Him anymore.
Posted by: B Lewis at July 20, 2012 3:38 PMDo you remember when Robocop was considered over the top?
It's down right comical by today's standards.
Posted by: pdwalker at July 20, 2012 11:13 PMI wonder at Cohen's inner inheritance. At times I think he bears a prophet's gift and burden, a Jeremiah. At times he's merely Balaam's Ass.
The gifts of God are given and not taken back. What we do with them hints at what was given, even when our heart goes whoring; even when it's just haunting the Doorway of deliverance with a mockery.
I do wonder.
Posted by: Joan of Argghh at July 22, 2012 2:49 PM"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated to combat spam and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.
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