Green Energy
Oh, wait a minute. That's not a bat, actually. In fact, when you trace the outline with your finger, it looks kind of like . . . a "W."
And like W, Batman understands that there is no moral equivalence between a free society -- in which people sometimes make the wrong choices -- and a criminal sect bent on destruction. The former must be cherished even in its moments of folly; the latter must be hounded to the gates of Hell.
"The Dark Knight," then, is a conservative movie about the war on terror. And like another such film, last year's "300," "The Dark Knight" is making a fortune depicting the values and necessities that the Bush administration cannot seem to articulate for beans.
Conversely, time after time, left-wing films about the war on terror -- films like "In The Valley of Elah," "Rendition" and "Redacted" -- which preach moral equivalence and advocate surrender, that disrespect the military and their mission, that seem unable to distinguish the difference between America and Islamo-fascism, have bombed more spectacularly than Operation Shock and Awe.
Why is it then that left-wingers feel free to make their films direct and realistic, whereas Hollywood conservatives have to put on a mask in order to speak what they know to be the truth? Why is it, indeed, that the conservative values that power our defense -- values like morality, faith, self-sacrifice and the nobility of fighting for the right -- only appear in fantasy or comic-inspired films like "300," "Lord of the Rings," "Narnia," "Spiderman 3" and now "The Dark Knight"?
The answers to these questions seem to me to be embedded in the story of "The Dark Knight" itself: Doing what's right is hard, and speaking the truth is dangerous. Many have been abhorred for it, some killed, one crucified.
Leftists frequently complain that right-wing morality is simplistic. Morality is relative, they say; nuanced, complex. They're wrong, of course, even on their own terms.
Left and right, all Americans know that freedom is better than slavery, that love is better than hate, kindness better than cruelty, tolerance better than bigotry. We don't always know how we know these things, and yet mysteriously we know them nonetheless.
The true complexity arises when we must defend these values in a world that does not universally embrace them ...
- Frank Miller Interviewed About His Career
Miller was interviewed by Playboy prior to the premiere of the new movie sequel for Sin City, and he's got some interesting stuff to tell them about his past and present work, including Holy Terror, and what he thinks of Superman too. Some of the...
- How The Left-wing Changed Comics Post-war On Terror
US News & World Report wrote - pretty dishonestly, I might add - about how comics changed after 9-11: Captain America and Superman fight for truth and justice as they have for decades, but they've questioned the U.S. government more often since...
- Obama And The Aurora Massacre And Lowering The Flag To Half Mast
Does THIS speak volumes, or what? I nearly had a meltdown when I read the information below! With a hat tip to Maggie's Notebook:When 14 persons (one unborn), most of them military personnel on the base at Ft. Hood, Texas, were murdered by Islamic...
- Hollywood's Cry Of Being Money-driven Is A Lie To Cover An Increasingly Obvious Leftist Political Agenda
Whoa... I thought it was about money in the end. If not, if money and property (SUCCESS by the old, ancient american definition) are not the goals of Hollywood, then they are about as unamerican as you can get. Hollywood: Leftist Agenda Trumps Audience...
- Hollywood's Jihad Against America
Guest Commentary by Edward Cline: “During World War II Hollywood churned out combat pictures and home-front melodramas with the speed and efficiency that characterized so much war-time production. Those movies reflected a consensus that it was also...
Green Energy
Bush And Batman
“All great things must first wear terrifying and monstrous masks in order to inscribe themselves on the hearts of humanity.”
--- Nietzsche
An editorial on a subject near and dear to my heart, by a Hollywood screenwriter, published in today's Wall Street Journal:
A cry for help goes out from a city beleaguered by violence and fear: A beam of light flashed into the night sky, the dark symbol of a bat projected onto the surface of the racing clouds . . .
Oh, wait a minute. That's not a bat, actually. In fact, when you trace the outline with your finger, it looks kind of like . . . a "W."
There seems to me no question that the Batman film "The Dark Knight," currently breaking every box office record in history, is at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war. Like W, Batman is vilified and despised for confronting terrorists in the only terms they understand. Like W, Batman sometimes has to push the boundaries of civil rights to deal with an emergency, certain that he will re-establish those boundaries when the emergency is past.
And like W, Batman understands that there is no moral equivalence between a free society -- in which people sometimes make the wrong choices -- and a criminal sect bent on destruction. The former must be cherished even in its moments of folly; the latter must be hounded to the gates of Hell.
"The Dark Knight," then, is a conservative movie about the war on terror. And like another such film, last year's "300," "The Dark Knight" is making a fortune depicting the values and necessities that the Bush administration cannot seem to articulate for beans.
Conversely, time after time, left-wing films about the war on terror -- films like "In The Valley of Elah," "Rendition" and "Redacted" -- which preach moral equivalence and advocate surrender, that disrespect the military and their mission, that seem unable to distinguish the difference between America and Islamo-fascism, have bombed more spectacularly than Operation Shock and Awe.
Why is it then that left-wingers feel free to make their films direct and realistic, whereas Hollywood conservatives have to put on a mask in order to speak what they know to be the truth? Why is it, indeed, that the conservative values that power our defense -- values like morality, faith, self-sacrifice and the nobility of fighting for the right -- only appear in fantasy or comic-inspired films like "300," "Lord of the Rings," "Narnia," "Spiderman 3" and now "The Dark Knight"?
The moment filmmakers take on the problem of Islamic terrorism in realistic films, suddenly those values vanish. The good guys become indistinguishable from the bad guys, and we end up denigrating the very heroes who defend us. Why should this be?
The answers to these questions seem to me to be embedded in the story of "The Dark Knight" itself: Doing what's right is hard, and speaking the truth is dangerous. Many have been abhorred for it, some killed, one crucified.
Leftists frequently complain that right-wing morality is simplistic. Morality is relative, they say; nuanced, complex. They're wrong, of course, even on their own terms.
Left and right, all Americans know that freedom is better than slavery, that love is better than hate, kindness better than cruelty, tolerance better than bigotry. We don't always know how we know these things, and yet mysteriously we know them nonetheless.
The true complexity arises when we must defend these values in a world that does not universally embrace them ...
Go read the whole thing.
- Frank Miller Interviewed About His Career
Miller was interviewed by Playboy prior to the premiere of the new movie sequel for Sin City, and he's got some interesting stuff to tell them about his past and present work, including Holy Terror, and what he thinks of Superman too. Some of the...
- How The Left-wing Changed Comics Post-war On Terror
US News & World Report wrote - pretty dishonestly, I might add - about how comics changed after 9-11: Captain America and Superman fight for truth and justice as they have for decades, but they've questioned the U.S. government more often since...
- Obama And The Aurora Massacre And Lowering The Flag To Half Mast
Does THIS speak volumes, or what? I nearly had a meltdown when I read the information below! With a hat tip to Maggie's Notebook:When 14 persons (one unborn), most of them military personnel on the base at Ft. Hood, Texas, were murdered by Islamic...
- Hollywood's Cry Of Being Money-driven Is A Lie To Cover An Increasingly Obvious Leftist Political Agenda
Whoa... I thought it was about money in the end. If not, if money and property (SUCCESS by the old, ancient american definition) are not the goals of Hollywood, then they are about as unamerican as you can get. Hollywood: Leftist Agenda Trumps Audience...
- Hollywood's Jihad Against America
Guest Commentary by Edward Cline: “During World War II Hollywood churned out combat pictures and home-front melodramas with the speed and efficiency that characterized so much war-time production. Those movies reflected a consensus that it was also...