Ana Huete Galera.

ID:201140279

Batman, The Dark Knight

Introduction
In this essay I will analyse Batman, The Dark Knight, the second movie in the saga of
Christopher Nolan. I will relate the content of this film with the current phenomenon of
terrorism and the measures taken to combat it, which if not limited can lead to serious
violations of human rights.
The Dark Knight, critique of society
The whole saga of Batman is a critique of modern society order, which reflects how
government actions can be justified and described as '' legitimate '' although they are not
always good or moral. The film is set in 'Gotham City', where corruption, social
inequality, inefficiency of the political authorities, the supremacy of money and
appearances existence of any real links, is a profound critique of contemporary society.1
In the second film, Batman is a character who acts outside the law and he is allowed
because he restores peace and social order. It is a kind of dictator who does what he
thinks is expedient for the good of people.
- Natascha: Im talking about the kind of city that idolizes a masked vigilante
-Harvey: Gotham City is proud of an ordinary citizen standing up for whats
right.
-Natascha: Gotham needs heroes like you, elected officials, not a man who
thinks hes above the law. This is a democracy.
-Harvey: When their enemies were at the gates the Romans would suspend
democracy and appoint one man to protect the city. It wasnt considered an
honor, it was a public service.
-Rachel: Harvey, the last man that they appointed to protect the Republic was
named Caesar and he never gave up his power.

In this dialog Natascha suggests that in a democracy is not tolerable that a person is
acting outside the law to establish the social order because it leads to a dictatorship.
The Dark Knight and the terrorism
Furthermore, this film also reflects how in desperate situations such as terrorism,
governments can establish measures that violate human rights. For example, in the
1 Alberto Fuentes Cecereu, Cuando la sociedad desciende: La metfora de Batman (2012)
http://sitiocero.net/2012/cuando-la-sociedad-desciende-la-metafora-de-batman/

scene where Batman torture one of the mafia members to get information about the
Joker, or in scenes that Batman destroys buildings or does not respect the traffic law to
catch someone. We can see Batman acting outside the law and violating certain civil
liberties to fight terrorism.
But as seen in the film, not only governments can establish measures that violate human
rights to fight terrorism, but it proves that through fear civilians are able to lose all
morality and collapse all democratic values. The Joker wants to show how civilized
people can be corrupted and justify violence against other social groups, relying on the
democratic vote to justify the terrible act of killing other humans2. At the scene of ship
and prisoners, some people did not hesitate to blow up the other side to save their life.
But although in the end neither side betrays the other side, it reflects how people can be
corrupted by fear generated by terrorism.
Nowadays a similar phenomenon is currently happening. The terrorist group 'ISIS' is
creating panic and is affecting not only to governments but to the entire society. We can
see in social networks some manipulated videos that sow hatred against Muslims
because some people link the self-proclaimed Islamic State with all this social group.
We see how the authorities resort to profiling to capture terrorists, in other words, they
focus on all Muslims before any other European citizen because they are associated
with ISIS. This is something very dangerous, because apart from being discriminatory
promotes that community relations could be harmed by the inappropriate use of
counterterrorism powers. All this happens because at the time when sowing panic
people lose their common sense.
Conclusion
Batman is an excellent film to reflect on counter-terrorism, it criticizes governments
skip the law and sometimes even violate the most basic human rights such as the right to
life of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR ), or the right to
physical and mental integrity and the prohibition of torture in Article 3 of the ECHR3, to
combat terrorism. That is why, following the historical consequences of counterterrorism, there have been created several agreements and international conventions
such as the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment4, which prohibits without Except torture or other
inhuman and degrading treatment. But it is important for States plus sign these
conventions, to implement them in practice when a state of emergency is declared.
2 Yhorman Kerrvin, Anlisis de la pelcula "Batman. El caballero de la noche / The dark
knight."http://analisis-de-peliculas.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/analisis-pelicula-Batman-Dark-Knight.html

3 European Convention on Human Rights, Article 2 and 3 (1950)

4 United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment (1984)

The Dark Knight is a perfect mirror of the society that is seeing: a society so divided
on the issues of terrorism and how to combat it, for the first time in decades, there is no
longer an American mainstream.5
At its heart, however, is a long and tedious discussion about how individuals and
society must never abandon the rule of law in struggling against the forces of
lawlessness. In fighting monsters, we must be careful not to become monsters - that sort
of thing. The film champions the antiwar coalitions claim that, in having a war on
terror, you create the conditions for more terror6.

5 Benjamin Kerstein, Batman's War on Terror, (Azure) (2008)

6 Landesman, Cosmo The Dark Knight - the Sunday Times review.( The Sunday Times)
(2008)