If only we had a real life Batman to straighten out society’s justice problems.
From the famed pages of DC comics comes Batman Begins, an insightful, fun movie that investigates the complex decisions that led Bruce Wayne to become the infamous hero.
At the heart of Batman is dissatisfaction with the judicial system. “I seek the means to fight injustice,” Bruce says during his training with the League of Shadows. He echoes what many feel, namely, that justice is not doing what we think it should.
The script pays acute attention to detail bringing seemingly obscure items (like Bruce giving his coat away to a homeless man, or a scene where he finds a particular stone as a child) back into the story. It provides us with two critical ingredients that make for a great movie: a character with whom we can identify, and an issue (justice): is it right to take the law into our own hands? What role should Christians play in society’s view of crime and punishment? What if the system doesn’t work? Is it okay to be a vigilante?
Granted, Batman is not a vigilante per se. He’s devoted to an ideal, not bent on revenge. District Attorney Rachel Dawes explains that vigilantes are about revenge and that justice is about harmony. “Your system is broken,” Bruce replies. And he’s right.
Bruce Wayne abandons his silver spoon and leaves Wayne Enterprises behind to learn about the desperation of criminals. He believes he needs this knowledge to fight them, and remarks at one point on his journey that he “lost many assumptions about the simple nature of right and wrong.”
The film investigates major themes. Bruce feels responsible for his parents’ death. He is fearful of bats. He is bitter over the court’s decision in releasing his parents’ murder. He struggles to discover whether he is the heir to Wayne Enterprises or a borderline vigilante. Guilt, fear, injustice, and identity weave throughout the film to create a character who invites us to examine how these issues affect us as much as they do the hero on the screen.
Ducard, Bruce Wayne’s mentor in the mastery of physical and mental disciplines, leads the searching Bruce down a darker path. “Become one with the darkness…embrace your fear,” he says, giving viewers clues about his true nature. Fear prevents us from doing the courageous and right thing. “What chance does Gotham have when the good people do nothing?” Dawes asks. Later, Batman tells her, “It’s what I do that defines me,” showing that he has turned his fear into action.
Perhaps Batman’s best trait is his intolerance of society’s tolerance of evil. “People need dramatic [events] to shake them out of apathy,” he says. He seems to have the courage to see society and crime for what it is.
I wonder if we could say the same of Canadian Christians in a society where Karla Homolka gives interviews, where a “young offender” murders and is out on parole in three years or less, where repeat offenders are commonplace. We’re unclear about the line between justice and grace.
So would a real life Batman be enough to change the justice system? Maybe he would be catalyst for action. But the issue isn’t just catching criminals. It’s about what happens to them when they’re tried. Even hundreds of Batmans wouldn’t be able to change laws.
That’s up to us.
Paul H. Boge is the author of The Chicago Healer and Father to the Fatherless.
