In ‘The Batman’ (2022), Compassion is the Cure Gotham Needs
‘There’s something in the way’…plays the epic soundtrack as we see Batman (played by former vampire, Robert Pattinson himself) race through the city streets on a remarkably nondescript motorcycle and into his low key Bat Cave. In many ways, the apathetic anthem from Nirvana summarizes the entire vibe of the movie. Apathy is evil.
In the ‘Dark Knight Rises’, Christopher Nolan did his best to explore evil and chaos, and came to his own conclusions. In ‘The Batman’, however, we see a similar cat and mouse game in session, only the villain at the heart of this mystery is not the like-able Heath Ledger performing his magnum opus. Instead, we have one truly sick, creepy cold blooded killer.
And yet, it’s not just the violence that makes the Riddler evil. He is, if anything, the product of a corrupt system. Raised in the orphanage of Gotham, he is left alone, discarded, and alone. He turns to riddles and codes to find meaning, eventually forming a small community of sick minded zealots to join him in his cause.
Despite his proclamations that he is doing all of this for some sort of just cause, the same as Batman just using different methods, there is no denying that the Riddler enjoys his killing. He is a true sadist. His apathy towards his fellow man, their families, and loves ones is what makes him truly evil, however. Just as it is the apathy of the DA, the Police Commissioner, even the crime syndicate boss that make all of them culpable in the web of lies that the Riddler seeks to unravel.
In the Batman, Vengeance isn’t Enough
In order to combat this apathy of the rich and powerful all around him, Bruce Wayne becomes the Batman. He gives up his life, renouncing it and even seeming to adopt a stoic creed, swearing away human connection and the burden it would place on him.
He embraces vengeance in order to overcome the evils of apathy. Ultimately, at his core, he is trying to avenge his parent’s death. However, simply avenging doesn’t seem to be working. Crime is at an all time high, even after two years of his caped crusade. He has sought to be the fear that would change the city. But in becoming vengeance, he has also become privy to another form of apathy – the apathy brought on by his own fear of loving and losing.
Ultimately, he has failed.
Redemption Comes at the Hands of a Victim
There are three key moments to the film, carefully spread out, one in each “act” of the story on which the entire movement of The Batman hinges. Each of these three key moments revolves around one orphan and an almost orphan – Bruce Wayne, and the son of the recently murdered Mayor of Gotham city, Don Mitchell.
Bruce first sees Mitchell’s son as he is investigating a crime scene as Batman. Fans who have seen “Batman Begins” will immediately be reminded of the scene in that movie where a young Bruce Wayne is comforted by a young Jim Gordon after his own parents being killed.
Obviously Batman is instantly reminded of that moment, as you can see the look of deep hurt and compassion on his face – shrouded by cape and cowl though it is. You feel as though he would like to do something to help the boy who is going through what he himself went through all those years ago and would be forever scarred by. But he can’t. Just like he can’t change his own past.
Although this moment seems small, almost inconsequential at first, it is echoed at a later part of the movie, and is the driving force that will inevitably shake The Batman from his own brand of apathy. At the mayor’s funeral, Bruce, this time as Bruce Wayne himself, comes face to face again with the son of the mayor. Only this time, the camera lingers on the look between himself and the son even longer. When a car comes careening into the church, Bruce’s only thought is to save the boy from getting hit. It’s as if he’s grateful for the chance to be able to do something to help the boy, even if he can’t change the fact that the Riddler took his father away from him forever.
Compassion Separates the Batman from the Villains
One of the things the Batman is famous for in any of his adaptations is the fact that he, unlike other, cleaner super heroes, is not afraid to get his hands dirty. In order to fight the most heinous of crimes, he himself has to become almost like a villain, breaking rules that a cop could not.
However, in The Batman, we see him struggling to find what it is that separates him from the bad guys. There is, of course, the fact that he does not use guns, and also his famous “no killing” rule. However, at a key moment at the end of the movie, the defeat of a villain’s henchman shocks Batman to his core. When asked who he is after being unmasked, the henchman simply says, “I’m Vengeance”, echoing Batman’s own words from his first fight of the movie.
Suddenly, it becomes clear that vengeance is not, and cannot, be the cure Gotham needs, nor can it heal Batman’s own wounds. He does not want to become like the cabal of colorful, evil villains he is tasked with defeating. He wants to be something more.
This change is forever cemented after a moment of great personal sacrifice, culminating in a nasty fall into the water. However, Batman pulls himself up, lights a flair, and goes searching the debris for those trapped. And, who is in that debris other than Mayor Mitchell’s son. He stares out helplessly from the rubble. Batman takes him by the hand, and leads him out. Suddenly, he is no longer the aloof, indifferent hand of vengeance. He is compassion, saving others at great personal cost.
It’s clear from the film that vengeance is not strong enough to save the day. However, compassion and the courage to sacrifice for what is right, can do more to stop crime and fight the inherent apathy of a corrupt system than simply beating up bad guys ever could.
This realization and insight is something that no other Batman before has ever come close to, and it makes you wonder just what great things are in store next for the caped crusader.
