"Attention: Gotham City", commentary by Cherry
Title: Attention: Gotham City
Vidder: cherryice
Fandom: Batman: The Dark Knight
Link to vid: here
Warnings: Spoilers, as one would assume. Some extended rambling, as those who know me well would assume. Decidedly not dial-up friendly.
This is a somewhat strange vid for me to provide commentary upon - I usually approach vids in one of two ways:
1) Connection-based, where I attempt to draw parallels or paint concepts in broad strokes,
2) Thesis-based, where I have an argument to make
Attention: Gotham City is neither of these. It's more of a rapid-fire pop quiz, a series of nested multiple choice questions.
(static)
We open with Gotham at night, a long pan that starts to stutter as a pirate signal breaks through the airwaves -
Attention: Gotham City
There is a war going on for your mind.
This is where we start -- what war? If there is a war, who's fighting? What's the prize, and who's to know who has won? The initial assumption is that it's Batman vs. Joker for the hearts and minds of the citizens, but there have to be other lines, other forces in play.
(strings)
Policemen stand at attention, reporters watch the situation develop, families sit at home in non-descript apartment buildings, waiting for the news to unfold, snipers are on guard (both the city's and the Joker's), and the database watches all of them, everywhere.
(strings)
"What gives you the right? What's the difference between you and me?"
"I'm not wearing hockey pads."
The heart of the matter is this: the hockey pads are the difference between them. Brian, whose real name is given to us only by the Joker, would probably rather not be running around in hockey pads. Unfortunately, he doesn't have Wayne Industries behind him. He probably has a family at home, and can't afford to travel the world for seven years. There's a much larger, broader argument about this, about the possessing the ability and right to fight, to protest, to participate but there's really no room to explore it fully within the vid.
There is a war going on for your mind
Media mavens mount surgical strikes from trapper keeper collages and online magazine racks
The fighting may be on the streets, but the war isn't. It is in the media, on the news, over public address systems. What better way is there to engage the populace, whose only really connections to these events, whose only explanations for these events, are obtained via the media, several degrees removed from the proceedings. Batman himself does not engage in this media war: he is present as a concept and most visible in his refusal to actively engage with this medium, preferring the brutality of the city’s streets and the use of other tools.
"He's a symbol that we don't have to be afraid of scum like you," Brian explains to the Joker. "If you want order in Gotham, Batman must take off his mask," the Joker proclaims. Harvey Dent and James Gordon are the ones engaging the Joker, are the ones engaging the citizens. Law and order versus chaos.
Cover girl cutouts throw up pop-up ads
It's not that Batman is unaware of the use of media - Bruce Wayne, his own 'cover girl cutout' uses it aptly as a shield. His political involvement originates not from ideological investment, but from the presence of Rachel Dawes. He becomes a backer, rather than a participant, avoiding linking Bruce Wayne to something deeper in Batman's domain.
Infecting victims with silicone shrapnel
The Joker, in contrast to this, does engage directly. However, he is a vector rather than the pathogen, a point of origin rather than the quake.
Worldwide passenger pigeons deploy paratroopers
Batman is our protagonist, but he's also a vigilante -- he has no need for reasonable doubt or extradition treaties. He's outside of and above the law, even though it needs and uses him. He inspires others to act similarly, though they are not treated to the same elevation. And that brings up that point again: who is able to fight? Who is permitted to do so and how? Who granted that right to Bruce and withheld it from Brian? The Joker cites Batman as the source of these disruptions - to have order in Gotham, Batman must take off his mask.
If the war is law and order versus chaos, where does Batman fit? Batman may be fighting for good, but in some ways he is as much an agent of chaos as the Joker.
They construct ransom letters from biblical passages and bleed mascara into holy water supplies
The Joker holds the city hostage for Batman's identity; Harvey steps forward and Bruce lets him. The Joker holds Rachel hostage, and Batman lets him escape. Rachel's had enough, the police need him more than ever. Small sacrifices start to build and bleed out into the population. Cracks work their way through the foundations of the peace and order they've worked for. Batman's actions continue to position him farther from his erstwhile allies.
Industry insiders slang test tube babies to corporate crackheads
This movie is strewn with scenes of people watching television, watching the news. The accountant Batman kidnapped, who Rachel is interrogating, is burning alive on the stack of money behind the Joker. It's an after thought.
The war is being carried out by and through the media, a cross section of the result of actions by a core group of people, whose moral centres are starting to slip.
Conscious rappers and whistleblowers get stitches made of acupuncture needles and marionette strings
There is a war going on for your mind
The Joker is a chaos vector. He doesn't want to destroy Gotham - he wants it to destroy itself and what better way than by toppling its heroes? Is he toppling the city’s heroes to get the citizens to destroy themselves, or are the citizens being used as tools against the heroes they hold up?
Professional wrestlers and vice presidents want you to believe them
You can't fight a war - the war wins. Given crooked politicians and men in costumes and paint, who can you believe? All choices the Joker offers give him another foothold.
The desert sky is their blue screen
They superimpose explosions
They shout at you
Whatever conflict this is, whatever sides are fighting, it is a media war. It's an internal battle. Look at the lengths to which people have gone to fight the Joker, the invasions of personal rights they are committing. For the people, it's not about the Joker any more. The war is against themselves. They've lost the thread, the plot, and their only concern is survival.
"Pay no attention to the men behind the barbed curtain
Nor the craters beneath the draped flags"
Then there's Harvey, who's lost it all. His fiancé was murdered and a considerable portion of his body mass has been incinerated. He is quite literally insane with pain and grief - and yet even in the midst of his rampage, he is being absolutely equitable with regards to the twisted rules he has made. Insane, he has created and enforced a set of laws from which even he is not exempt. He puts the same gun to his own head and is prepared to pull the trigger.
"What's the difference between you and me?" In his mind, it's nothing.
Those hoods are there for your protection
And meteors these days are the size of corpses
There is a war going on for your mind
The crusader operating outside the law becomes an outlaw. The citizens make the 'morally right' choice by discarding the detonators -- only, if Batman had been a minute later, this would have resulted in all of their deaths. The truth about Harvey (and Rachel) is obscured - because people wouldn't have been able to handle it. Who decides what people candle handle? Who decides how much truth people are owed?
The majority of possible deaths were averted, the Joker jailed - but the question remains: who won? Where were the lines drawn? There are shades of grey between good and evil, order and chaos, and law and order are not necessarily mutual.
Jean Baudrillard. The gulf war did not take place. The movie ends, and the truth of what has happened is known only be a few. The war occurred in the media, and what the media has reported is not the truth. If millions believe a lie, does the story supplant the truth?
If there was a war, who fought it and who won?
Vidder: cherryice
Fandom: Batman: The Dark Knight
Link to vid: here
Warnings: Spoilers, as one would assume. Some extended rambling, as those who know me well would assume. Decidedly not dial-up friendly.
This is a somewhat strange vid for me to provide commentary upon - I usually approach vids in one of two ways:
1) Connection-based, where I attempt to draw parallels or paint concepts in broad strokes,
2) Thesis-based, where I have an argument to make
Attention: Gotham City is neither of these. It's more of a rapid-fire pop quiz, a series of nested multiple choice questions.
(static)
We open with Gotham at night, a long pan that starts to stutter as a pirate signal breaks through the airwaves -
Attention: Gotham City
There is a war going on for your mind.
This is where we start -- what war? If there is a war, who's fighting? What's the prize, and who's to know who has won? The initial assumption is that it's Batman vs. Joker for the hearts and minds of the citizens, but there have to be other lines, other forces in play.
(strings)
Policemen stand at attention, reporters watch the situation develop, families sit at home in non-descript apartment buildings, waiting for the news to unfold, snipers are on guard (both the city's and the Joker's), and the database watches all of them, everywhere.
(strings)
"What gives you the right? What's the difference between you and me?"
"I'm not wearing hockey pads."
The heart of the matter is this: the hockey pads are the difference between them. Brian, whose real name is given to us only by the Joker, would probably rather not be running around in hockey pads. Unfortunately, he doesn't have Wayne Industries behind him. He probably has a family at home, and can't afford to travel the world for seven years. There's a much larger, broader argument about this, about the possessing the ability and right to fight, to protest, to participate but there's really no room to explore it fully within the vid.
There is a war going on for your mind
Media mavens mount surgical strikes from trapper keeper collages and online magazine racks
The fighting may be on the streets, but the war isn't. It is in the media, on the news, over public address systems. What better way is there to engage the populace, whose only really connections to these events, whose only explanations for these events, are obtained via the media, several degrees removed from the proceedings. Batman himself does not engage in this media war: he is present as a concept and most visible in his refusal to actively engage with this medium, preferring the brutality of the city’s streets and the use of other tools.
"He's a symbol that we don't have to be afraid of scum like you," Brian explains to the Joker. "If you want order in Gotham, Batman must take off his mask," the Joker proclaims. Harvey Dent and James Gordon are the ones engaging the Joker, are the ones engaging the citizens. Law and order versus chaos.
Cover girl cutouts throw up pop-up ads
It's not that Batman is unaware of the use of media - Bruce Wayne, his own 'cover girl cutout' uses it aptly as a shield. His political involvement originates not from ideological investment, but from the presence of Rachel Dawes. He becomes a backer, rather than a participant, avoiding linking Bruce Wayne to something deeper in Batman's domain.
Infecting victims with silicone shrapnel
The Joker, in contrast to this, does engage directly. However, he is a vector rather than the pathogen, a point of origin rather than the quake.
Worldwide passenger pigeons deploy paratroopers
Batman is our protagonist, but he's also a vigilante -- he has no need for reasonable doubt or extradition treaties. He's outside of and above the law, even though it needs and uses him. He inspires others to act similarly, though they are not treated to the same elevation. And that brings up that point again: who is able to fight? Who is permitted to do so and how? Who granted that right to Bruce and withheld it from Brian? The Joker cites Batman as the source of these disruptions - to have order in Gotham, Batman must take off his mask.
If the war is law and order versus chaos, where does Batman fit? Batman may be fighting for good, but in some ways he is as much an agent of chaos as the Joker.
They construct ransom letters from biblical passages and bleed mascara into holy water supplies
The Joker holds the city hostage for Batman's identity; Harvey steps forward and Bruce lets him. The Joker holds Rachel hostage, and Batman lets him escape. Rachel's had enough, the police need him more than ever. Small sacrifices start to build and bleed out into the population. Cracks work their way through the foundations of the peace and order they've worked for. Batman's actions continue to position him farther from his erstwhile allies.
Industry insiders slang test tube babies to corporate crackheads
This movie is strewn with scenes of people watching television, watching the news. The accountant Batman kidnapped, who Rachel is interrogating, is burning alive on the stack of money behind the Joker. It's an after thought.
The war is being carried out by and through the media, a cross section of the result of actions by a core group of people, whose moral centres are starting to slip.
Conscious rappers and whistleblowers get stitches made of acupuncture needles and marionette strings
There is a war going on for your mind
The Joker is a chaos vector. He doesn't want to destroy Gotham - he wants it to destroy itself and what better way than by toppling its heroes? Is he toppling the city’s heroes to get the citizens to destroy themselves, or are the citizens being used as tools against the heroes they hold up?
Professional wrestlers and vice presidents want you to believe them
You can't fight a war - the war wins. Given crooked politicians and men in costumes and paint, who can you believe? All choices the Joker offers give him another foothold.
The desert sky is their blue screen
They superimpose explosions
They shout at you
Whatever conflict this is, whatever sides are fighting, it is a media war. It's an internal battle. Look at the lengths to which people have gone to fight the Joker, the invasions of personal rights they are committing. For the people, it's not about the Joker any more. The war is against themselves. They've lost the thread, the plot, and their only concern is survival.
"Pay no attention to the men behind the barbed curtain
Nor the craters beneath the draped flags"
Then there's Harvey, who's lost it all. His fiancé was murdered and a considerable portion of his body mass has been incinerated. He is quite literally insane with pain and grief - and yet even in the midst of his rampage, he is being absolutely equitable with regards to the twisted rules he has made. Insane, he has created and enforced a set of laws from which even he is not exempt. He puts the same gun to his own head and is prepared to pull the trigger.
"What's the difference between you and me?" In his mind, it's nothing.
Those hoods are there for your protection
And meteors these days are the size of corpses
There is a war going on for your mind
The crusader operating outside the law becomes an outlaw. The citizens make the 'morally right' choice by discarding the detonators -- only, if Batman had been a minute later, this would have resulted in all of their deaths. The truth about Harvey (and Rachel) is obscured - because people wouldn't have been able to handle it. Who decides what people candle handle? Who decides how much truth people are owed?
The majority of possible deaths were averted, the Joker jailed - but the question remains: who won? Where were the lines drawn? There are shades of grey between good and evil, order and chaos, and law and order are not necessarily mutual.
Jean Baudrillard. The gulf war did not take place. The movie ends, and the truth of what has happened is known only be a few. The war occurred in the media, and what the media has reported is not the truth. If millions believe a lie, does the story supplant the truth?
If there was a war, who fought it and who won?