Batman: Occupy Gotham

By on December 20, 2011 in News 8

Don’t you love it when pop culture reflects real life? From the Wall Street Journal:

In addition to the morally ambiguous Catwoman and the enhanced strongman Bane, it appears the new Batman movie will tackle income inequality, according to the below trailer.

In the clip, a whispering Anne Hathaway (Catwoman) can be seen telling Bruce Wayne, Batman’s billionaire alter-ego: “There’s a storm coming, Mr. Wayne… when it hits, you’re all going to wonder how you ever thought you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us.”…

[continues in the Wall Street Journal]

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  • Gioscolase

    Ows is satan and batman is the hero nice one hollywood

  • Eldritch

    Not exactly, Bane is just what would happen to the OWS if they were to become a violent instead of peaceful movement. The “bad guy” has a moral reason to do what he does.

  • Eldritch

    And as JFK himself said, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”

  • Will

    Even when I was a kid reading comics in the sixties, Bat Man came off as a manic depressive maniac. But a cool manic depressive maniac.

  • Gregory Wyrdmaven

    This has been one of the issues with Batman that has been pointed out…that he can be distilled down to an impossibly rich person who uses his wealth to buy toys for himself so he can go beat up mentally ill people so he doesn’t go into a fetal position each night crying “Daddeeeee….MOOOMMMMeeeee.” 

    Which is why it was awesome to see in Dark Knight Wayne try to promote Harvey Dent (of course he shouldn’t have believed in him as Two-Face was just waiting to come out of Dent…all he needed was a push) so he could essentially clean up Gotham so Wayne could have a girlfriend.  Of course the lesson of Dark Knight that in Gotham only Wayne, Lucius Fox and Gordon have the moral courage to do what is necessary and not come out damaged.  When Batman rigs his ubersonar devise, Fox realizes it is wrong, in the same way Fox News and the Uhmurkan public didn’t recognize unwarranted phone and internet tapping is wrong, but Batman only used the tool for one purpose and then he was done.  Because the circumstances warranted it…however, pretty much everything Batman does is against the law.  The question is what is the Greater Good and is Batman someone who understands that?  I’ve always thought so, as much as a man can.

    However, Gotham in the comics, despite what is now a small army of Bat-persons, is still depicted as a lousy, corrupt place, despite the second thoughts anyone in Gotham should have about committing a crime.  In a more realistic universe…as Grant Morrison briefly attempted in the books with his Batman Incorporated idea, in which Bruce Wayne claims to be the one sponsoring Batman and expands his Bat-army into a world-wide peace-keeping force.  And as we can see, the police are in the pocket of the 1% and are no longer to be trusted, so that makes sense.  If we’re under martial law, then it might as well be cool.

    But why doesn’t Wayne use his wealth in such a way in the comics to produce real change…well the answer is simple…if Gotham is cleaned up, the books will be boring.  With a movie trilogy that harmonizes with the book but is also it’s own tale (an Elseworlds story in which “what if” etc etc) the legend of Batman can “Begin,” have it’s middle period where he becomes the Dark Knight where he all but eradicates the mob and finally bests a very mentally ill person while taking the fall so Gotham can have hope for the future.  What Batman doesn’t realize in the movies is he is really the hope of Gotham.  This I believe is why the 3rd film is called Dark Knight Rises.  Because he hasn’t quite yet.  And it is when Batman becomes what Gotham needs and also what Gotham realizes it needed…that his legend can end.  The Heroic Journey often ends with the hero dying, often as a self-sacrifice, but then reaching his apotheosis as a result…so in a sense…the legend doesn’t end…that’s when it begins.

    Bruce Wayne’s wealth is justified if he uses it to really save Gotham, really save it.  To be the symbol and terrible thought…the flapping of leathery justice in the night, the dread of divine retribution for evil, the black spot, the fetish that was put in your sock drawer while you were sleeping…etc.  Why does Batman have to be this?  Is the ONLY rich person in Gotham?  No.  But sadly, as we see…powerful, wealthy people are often distanced from the rest of humanity and power and wealth often lead to the desire to attain more of the same, at the expense of others.  Crime is basically this:  a person wants power over you and wants your wealth without really having to earn it.  Of course in our more fascist age, those with wealth and power seek very personal control over the 99%, so a lot more things are crimes now.  Recently a 14 year old girl was tasered by a cop and her crime appeared to be that she was walking in the street.  You must buckle your seat belt.  You can’t advertise that product on TV, etc.  Violence is good but sex and especially nudiy is bad so full frontal eviscerations will get you an R but full frontal peen gets you NC-17 (death is okay, the reproductive organs of the body are bad).  The list goes on. 

    In short…the idea that it would have to take someone like Batman to make a difference shows the abject failure of democracy and capitalism.  Democracy requires the involvement of the populace and Capitalism requires personal responsiblity.  America no longer, if ever, demonstrated these virtues.  Why can’t you pay your mortgage now?  It’s the bank’s fault for tricking me.  Why didn’t you pay your bill on time?  I didn’t get the bill.  Why were you speeding?  I didn’t notice the speed limit sign.  Why do you think Obama was born in Kenya?  Someone else told me so.  Etc etc etc.  It is in the absence of the engagement of the populace and the lack of personal responsiblity that America is declining and ha been for a long while now.  Meanwhile, the richest and most powerful of us (which also includes extremely overpaid celebrities) continue to herd us like sheep to be shaved for our wool and butchered for our meat. 

    Bruce Wayne saw his parents die and that drove him to try and make a difference.  People across the world and in America are dying and suffering because of the mentally ill, backward, imperialistic, militant monster that America has become because the powerful/wealthy want it that way.  The 1% are a superstitious and cowardly lot…I shall become…a Human Being.

    fiat lux   

  • Gioscolase

    you don’t get the sarcasm do you? besides truly what BullShit news always do is satanize every protest so the cititzens can reasure in fake dream, and then they give a fake hero that solved everything, now they can obviously budget a huge production that inconsiously tells you the same, protesters are the bad guys, good guys are the rich and powerful ones. Dude Frank Miller is a whore. Awake!

  • Butter Knife

    Is it just me… or does the clip linked not at all match the description? I see what appears to be a riot converging on several camo-painted Nolan Batmobiles (the tank-car things). While that is pretty spiffy, there is no sign of Catwoman, or Batman, or meaningful political statement that I can see in the clip (though, admittedly, all three might be present, and I simply failed to spot them).

    The fuck?

  • Elmyr23

    how i wish america was london