Finding Meaning in the Middle Ground:

Superheroes and the Resiliency of Ordinary People in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight 

By Joel Desmarais

Although Christopher Nolan is a widely respected director, his films are sometimes seen as having limited social impact, existing instead in the complicated and abstract worlds of Nolan’s imagination. However, his film The Dark Knight consciously evokes the images of the 9/11 terrorist attack, and his heroes engage in torture and widespread surveillance in order to stop the antagonist, the Joker, from plunging Gotham City into anarchy. While Nolan avoids an explicit condemnation or endorsement of these tactics, he does show how dangerously close the heroes come to creating a totalitarian police state. The film also draws on Roman history and Greek political philosophy to demonstrate the unsustainability of placing the burden of protecting Gotham on one man. Although Batman’s actions throughout the film are largely portrayed as heroic, this dependence on superheroes seems unnecessary considering the courage displayed by the people of Gotham in the face of the Joker’s most trying schemes. Nolan thus praises the heroism of ordinary people in lieu of a didactic statement on Bush-era counterterrorism tactics, which is an inspiring message in the uncertain times following the 9/11 attack.