since it’s release, i’ve seen The Dark Knight twice. i loved the movie and believe it will be the best movie i see all year. it’s not a perfect movie by any means, but everything it does it does extremely well and is a very fine piece of art in all aspects.

but the thing i loved most about the movie was what it had to say. i usually don’t expect big summer blockbuster superhero films to be message films, but this one definitely was. i found it to be a profound, clear cry out for the gospel by a dark world, a world, as the posters say, without rules.

now, with that said, i’ve been a bit confused at some Christians’ responses to the film. a post from a prominent blog had this to say, “In fact, it comes down to a lie of human idealization being passed off on the public because they’re supposed to be better off thinking the lie. That violates everything I believe. I learned nothing. I was not enriched in any way.”

in praise of this particular post, an even more prominent blog had this to say, “But when we are supposedly deeply moved by something that, at its core, isn’t deeply moving, isn’t redemptive, isn’t part of the grand story, but is just a vast, pretentious, technologically overwhelming retelling of the worst kind of human story, I want to have the backbone to say so.”

both of these posts point to a gigantic problem in Christian circles. that problem is the failure of the church to seriously, honestly, and redemptively engage with what the wider culture is producing and telling us. if i’m allowed to broad-brush a little bit, when it comes to art (visual art, music, film, whatever), Christians would rather have Thomas Kinkade than Jackson Pollock. FFH rather than Bob Dylan. Facing the Giants rather than The Dark Knight. why? because, despite being patently bad and vacuous art, all the former examples are neat, tidy, and safe. they’re comforting. they’re unchallenging. they don’t cause us to face the fact that we live in a deeply complex world. a messy world. a fallen world.

that is not the case with The Dark Knight, or any of the above latter examples. quite appropriately, The Dark Knight is dark. it’s menacing. it’s uncomfortable. it shows us the depth of human depravity by portraying a city living in absolute fear. fear of unpredictable violence. fear of unpredictable death.

but there is hope. a caped crusader keeps watch over the city at night, protecting its citizens from a madman with no moral standards. a madman who has capitalized on the city’s fear and turned the city against itself. this crusader sacrifices everything for the good of others. time and time again he is tested by the madman. tested, seemingly beyond human limits, to break his one rule. to fall and become like the madman himself. but the crusader holds firm. despite all he has sacrificed, despite all that has been taken away from him, he does not fall. he is the true hero. he is the true hope.

but the people place their faith in another. the great white hope for the city is a bright, ambitious district attorney. a virtuous man who promises to rid the city of violence, restoring peace and tranquility to its streets. however, he too faces loss and testing. but unlike the caped crusader, this district attorney, the one the people have put their trust, faith, and hope in, falls. he becomes a madman himself. a cold murderer with no other conscience than the arbitrary flip of a coin. he represents the stark reality of what happens when we place our faith in another mere human. when we don’t look outside of ourselves to something bigger.

and that’s what Batman represents. Batman is bigger than humanity. he is outside humanity. he is the only one that can bring true peace, true hope to Gotham City. but the people will not recognize their need of him. instead they look to elsewhere for their salvation. how true is this of all of us? how many other places do we look, whether to entertainment, money, dare i say…politicians…to provide for us the hope and comfort that we so deeply long for? all the while looking past the one thing that can provide us sure hope, sure peace, sure salvation: faith in Christ.

and so Batman is a sort of Christ-figure for the city of Gotham. or, you could say that Christ is a sort of “dark knight” in this fallen world. the people do not recognize their need for him, and so they turn elsewhere for their hope. when the one they’ve placed their hope in fails and proves himself to be just another sinner in need of grace, Batman takes upon himself the sins of the young district attorney. why? because, as Commissioner Gordon says, “he can take it.” that is his role. he will be reviled, hunted, scorned, murdered in the hearts of all the citizens of Gotham until they recognize how deeply they need him. how hopeless their situation is without him. until they come to a point where they realize that it was him all along who was protecting them. who was taking away the darkness. and in that day they will repent of their hatred toward him and embrace him as the only one that can bring them true peace and true hope.

i said at the beginning that the film wasn’t a perfect one. there is a great monologue at the end by Commissioner Gordon that i absolutely love. however, it’s ever so slightly off. Gordon says of Batman, “he’s the hero we deserve, but not the hero we need right now.” i say “off,” because Batman is the hero that Gotham needs, though they don’t know it. the hero they deserve, that all of us deserve, is Harvey Dent, the fallen district attorney. we don’t deserve Batman. we don’t deserve the hope, the grace, the redemption that Batman represents to “a world without rules.” yet it is freely, unconditionally offered to us. however, we remain blind to it until our eyes are opened and we see past the felt needs and false hopes of anti-Batmans and anti-Christs, only to see the true need of God’s grace and mercy and salvation, the only means of true hope and peace in this world.

to “learn nothing,” to not be “enriched in any way,” to see The Dark Knight as unmoving and non-redemptive, is a failure to deeply engage with one of the loudest cries for the gospel that hollywood has produced.