In/Sane

How can the sane rise up in a insane society?

Ito ay isa sa mga tanong na ibinigay ni Tracy sa kanyang report sa kalse ni Dr. Timbreza. Noong nakita ko ang tanong na ito sa kanyang ibinigay na paper copy sa amin, naalala ko ang column ni Jessica Zafra, ang Emotinoal Weather Report, sa The Philippine Star noong araw na iyon. Eto ang kopya ng column na sinasabi ko:

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The unbearable darkness of becoming
EMOTIONAL WEATHER REPORT By Jessica Zafra
Friday, July 18, 2008

First, the city would have to be in chaos. The rule of law should have broken down. Anarchy must reign in the streets. The criminal syndicates would have control of the economy. A small, embattled police force must defend the citizens against the gang lords and against their own cops.

Fortunately I am not describing Manila but Gotham, a city so sick that it needs a mysterious vigilante in a bat costume to patrol its streets at night. A society gets the heroes it deserves, and this hero is a freak. His freakiness has been laid out in the comics and at the movies: as a boy he witnessed the murder of his parents; as an adult he leads a double life as billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne and as Batman.

The TV cartoons and the campy ‘60s series starring Adam West emphasized the absurdity of his situation: a man who has everything walks the streets wearing tights, accompanied by a young male in a mask. Batman surfing in shorts! Kapow! The Tim Burton movies kept the absurdity and added schizophrenia: Michael Keaton as Batman was a divided personality. His conflict with The Joker (Jack Nicholson) was that of Creator vs. Creature: as a young hood, The Joker “made” Batman by shooting his parents; many years later Batman accidentally “made” The Joker in a chemical factory explosion. Later, Batman had a thing with Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer), another schizophrenic, and battled The Penguin (Danny DeVito), an outcast who was born a freak. We will not speak of the Joel Schumacher abominations, which portrayed Batman as a disco queen.

It was the graphic novelist Frank Miller who took the Batman franchise into dark, fetid places. Yes, Batman is a freak, but in a twisted society, so is everyone. If everyone is a freak, who’s the real freak? A tired and bitter Batman is cast out by the very people he is trying to protect. This is the hero’s lot: to take upon himself the burden of his people’s rage, fear and revulsion so that they may live.

So we come to The Dark Knight, the new film written and directed by Christopher Nolan. If the over-praised Batman Begins was a walk on the gloomy side, The Dark Knight is a flying leap into the abyss. In this movie, the battle between good and evil is never simple. To be good is to struggle constantly against the apparent wisdom of doing wrong, even if it saves lives. “What is morality, anyway?” asks The Joker, throwing game theory into the discussion. In a world in chaos, the only morality is chance.

Returning as Batman is Christian Bale, himself a kind of Hollywood aberration: an actor who refuses to be a star. By insisting on a private life, one so private that it’s practically a secret identity, he is free to play as many disparate roles as he cares to. And he does. A friend of mine pointed out that established actors who take superhero roles usually have a condescending attitude: I’m a serious thespian, but I need to do blockbusters. Christian Bale makes no such distinctions; he gives all his roles the same level of dignity and respect. The Dark Knight reminds us that this superhero does not have superpowers — Bruce Wayne’s body is covered in bruises and scars. Batman’s greatest weapon is his intelligence, and you can see the mental calculations going on behind the actor’s eyes.

Gotham’s citizens have a new hero in District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), who bravely, almost singlehandedly goes after the crime lords. They have a new villain — The Joker (Heath Ledger), a criminal so insane, he may be the sanest man in Gotham. In a world gone bonkers, who is the real psycho? Too many people have died because of Batman. Bruce Wayne starts allowing himself to hope that with the emergence of a real hero (Dent), Batman may no longer be necessary. The Joker will not allow that: a supervillain needs a worthy adversary. The Joker argues that he and Batman are the same; in one brilliantly loony moment, he looks at Batman and says, “You complete me.” To prove his point, he sets about turning Dent into a villain.

The film is full of terrific performances, notably from Maggie Gyllenhaal as Assistant District Attorney Rachel Dawes, the woman who is loved by both Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent. Maggie Gyllenhaal probably has the best entrance, exit and gaze in the movies today. Much has been written about the effect that playing The Joker had on Heath Ledger’s mental health and accidental death by overdose. We cannot presume to know what went on inside his head, but I can tell you that this is an amazing performance. This Joker is not a psychopath in clown makeup, but a true agent of Chaos. Some may regard him as a victim of method acting, but Heath Ledger had a choice. He took the most dangerous one: he looked into the abyss, and he became the abyss.

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