Batman Context and Critical Reception

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Turner, P. 2013. Dark Knight, Dark Ideas. The Media Magazine. 44(2), pp. 37-41.

Significant Event in Politics / Society	Details	Relevance to The Dark Knight
2000 election,	republican george bush. Al gore won the votes but did not have the victoral votes to be president. Bush stopped the recount. Missile defence system. Oil and stem cell kyoto environmental carbon emission protocol. Tax cut to stimulate the economy.
9/11in the trades centre, In 2001. al qaeda terrorist attack.	Shared trauma, terrorists targeted because “we like freedom, and they don’t.” civil liberties?the bush doctrine, no distinction between the countries and their terrorists, afghan air strike, taliban osama bin laden,iran iraq and north korea, terrorist.	The fear of terriorism on society.
Patriotic act	Can be spied on because of the act. Warentless enhanced interrogation legal, but considered torture in other countries. Prison camps.	The way Batman attacks the joker when he is finally caught, torturing and being physical, eventually using sy equipment.”ecoming the evil he was trying to defeat”
Response to hurricane katrina.	Wealth, class divide. Financial crisis. The poor are poor. New orleans needed recovery and bush not

In the early 2000’s America began its “War on Terrorism” where many tragic events shaped TV and Film. Many socio-political issues such as the 2000 and 2004 Amerian election when George W. Bush was elected shaped and redefinded the superhero genre.

 

“just as The Dark Knight was a touching tribute
to an embattled George W. Bush, who chose
to be seen as a villain in order to be the hero,
Rises is a love letter to an imperfect America
that in the end always does the right thing.”

“Bruce Wayne became the terrorist and
Batman became both torturer and operator
of a mass surveillance system; it was exactly
the point that in fighting the villain, he
became the villain.”

“America is the vigilante that has to free
itself of the shackles of international laws
in order to fight evil wherever it finds it,
and mete out its own brand of justice and
revenge for the 9/11 attacks.”

 

Pan’s Labyrinth Context Research.

As a class we put together a slideshow of  different types of context seen in Pan’s Labyrinth, this included, historical, artistic and cultural, as well as critical reception. All of these are important in understanding films because it helps to convey hidden messages as well as themes. Pan’s Labyrinth uses many different types of context from around the world (Spanish history, Japanese myths and legends, Renaissance art, with Tim Burton styled scenery and props). When looking deeply into films it is important to look at context because the information that is embedded, that is not fully told to the audience by the film, can help to convey messages and ideas. Context that links films from the directors together is also important because audience members can follow the pattern that previous films followed.