The Dark Knight

I have personally always thought that the Dark Knight was an exceptional movie. I usually am not into the superhero movies, although I do fondly remember that my first PG-13 movie was Spiderman. I remember that when the Dark Knight came out in theaters a few years ago, I saw it the first weekend and ended up purchasing it when it came out on DVD because I enjoyed it so much. The screenplay, the actors, the incredible points of action and suspense, I'm all about it!
Tood McGowan's article, called "The Exceptional Darkness of the Dark Knight", was really interesting to me. Well, the parts that I could understand. He opens up with saying " the mask that superheros wear indicates their complex reaction to the law". I found this statement with such truth, because the reasons superheros wear their masks is because the actions they are doing are against the law, and they want to hide their identity to the public and/or  enforcers of the law. McGowan goes onto explain a German philosopher's, by the name of G. W. F. Hegel, view on superheros and thier uneasyness by saying that he sees them as "antithetical". Hegel also rejects the idea of a modern hero. This surprises me, but at the same time makes sense becuase of Hegel's views on superheros. McGowan then explains the movie in further depth, focusing on Batman and the Joker. The joker was actually one of my favorite characters in this film, even though he was technically the bad guy. McGowan states, "Both are figures who devote themselves to an ethical principle and follow it to its endpoint. For Batman, this is fighting injustice, and for the Joker, it is creating chaos." I think this is a great example of how ethics is involved in these types of superhero stories.
Another great quote I got out of the article was that "the problem of evil isn't the extreme criminal but the way that evil insinuates itself in even our good acts." This aspect of the movie and the one of hiding of the identities can be applied to our lives today I believe. Yes, these are superhero movies, but we can read much more into it. McGowan also points out the differences of the concealing identities of Batman versus the Joker. Batman conceals his identity by a mask so that people cannot tell who he is. On the other hand, the Joker is just wearing makeup, so it doesn't conceal who he is, but rather shows the absence of an identity altogether. This was such an interesting way to look at the two characters in a way I haven't before! This movie is primarily about heroism and evil, but by reading McGowan's article, I can really see more things that one can take away from it, that it almost makes me want to watch it all over again.