Batman

It is not a strange thing that Batman--The Black Knight has generated so much interest. It is a well crafted movie with lots of cool special effects, fascinating characters and an exciting plot line. What is strange is that the writers might think they are saying something new about man. The Joker, a psychotic anarchist who has no real ambition except to throw everyone into turmoil and destroy moral character (or at least reveal the depravity of man) is no more surprising a character than we find penetrating the opening scenes of Genesis. And Batman, who straddles the moral fence between pure at heart good guy and moral relativist swashbuckler has his own counterpart in 1 and 2 Samuel. Both Batman and David glide above the law and are beaten into submission to it by the evil disobedience brings. Batman lost his Rachel, David his Absalom. When given ultimate moral choices, neither could stand and neither would fall. Both David and Batman were playboys without the stomach for it and neither could avoid fighting the giant. If there is a weakness to the movie, it is that it cries out for a Savior but settles for a Black Knight. The movie masterfully depicts the generational lines of sin but cannot come to grips with the ultimate question, “How do we end it?” Joker remains suspended between Heaven and Earth and Batman faces a lifetime running from police dogs, staying one step ahead of unmasking. “Is that all there is”, we sang when we were young, and The Black Knight trails with the same harmony. Sin is not broken by a Batman or a David. Only the perfect man/God can change anything permanently. The ferries may not blow up every once in a while but the same forces that pushed decent people toward an Armageddon are still out there because the Joker lives in us all. The tension wire is not strung from the Joker to Batman; it is between Two Face and Two Face. The makers of Batman cannot write in a true Savior because they either intuitively or experientially know there can never be one…unless you write in God.