2013/01/01 by Daniel Boscaljon · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Aesthetics #Art #Art history #Battle #Depiction #Ethics, Aesthetics, and Art #Face (sociological concept) #History #Knight #Law in Society and Culture #Literature #Metaphor #Mythology #Philosophy #Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism #Sociology #Variety (cybernetics) #Vision
paper · pdf · doi:10.17077/2168-569x.1412
openalex publication_date 2013/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
reviewing The Dark Knight, wrote that "[director Christopher] Nolan has a more subversive agenda. He wants viewers to stick their hands down the rat hole of evil and see if they get bitten." Corliss's focus on evil makes sense given both the variety of villains populating the movie and the depth of Heath Ledger's Academy Award winning depiction of The Joker. I contend, however, that buried within the varied villains of the movie is a rare and precious vision of the good. It is in moving past the battle between Batman and Joker to focus on Harvey Dent that one finds a more complex vision of the good than what the two dominant figures embody. Focusing on Two-Face, the villain who provides hope, allows viewers to escape the pain of the "rat hole of evil."