Fairfield County Culture Entry #3: Batman or Jesus?

Of the more recent superherofilms, by far the most epic could only be the Batman trilogy. Filled with suspense,action, and cool gadgets—the three ultimatums to bring guys to the theaters. Thehandsome Christian Bale with his heroic and rock hard abs aren’t too bad forthe ladies either. As Batman Begins,we learn that Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) is the son of one of the richest andmost influential men in Gotham City.

Howeverbeneath all those cool batarangs and roof tops that batman seems to enjoyleaping off, and all the money in his pockets, he’s able to not only portrayhis manliness and power but also his ideals.

BruceWayne, son of the man who’s basically a God-like symbol in Gotham City, whichis evident from the way that the many of the big towers and peering buildingsare named after him. Thomas Wayne, Batman’s father is like a God figure in themovie, making Batman his son, or in the Christian faith Jesus. This cannot be trueras we see the personality and actions of Batman. Of course, during the day,he’s billionaire bachelor Bruce Wayne, able to seduce any woman and obnoxiouslymake it rain, but during the night he’s a man who is a savior to the innocentcivilians of Gotham City from evil. Sounds a bit prophetic to me.

Eventhough the classic ironic theme of a selfless rich man is evident elsewhere insociety, but it is the most well known in Batman.

Here in FairfieldCounty, there lives a great wealth gap. When have we seen the uber cool Batmanlike individual, usually that Bill Gates type of man here in Fairfield Countyfighting crime and saving the lives of innocent civilians from the evil joker? Yeah,not many times before. But the idea of the wealthy actually not being heartlessdwellers in the county appear quite often. Batman acts upon his good naturerather than being a stuck up rich kid and becomes the hero to the people ofGotham, representing the Prophetic idea of how Jesus was looked upon as thegreatest and most influential savior.

Ultimately,we believe that the rich don’t usually “stoop to our level” and usually, albeitselfishly, box themselves into their own world. However, Batman reveals to usthat this theme was rampant and defined the actions of the villain whospecifically tried targeting the rich upper-class who forced those like catwoman to survive on stealing. However Bruce Wayne ironically defies this andshows that stereotypes are not all true and that you cannot simply judge a bookby its cover or a man by the mask he wears. Sometimes you have to walk a milein their shoes to know the difficulties they face.  Bruce’s contradictingcharacters represents something much more deeper, as a rich man his desirescenter around nice cars, beautiful woman, lavishly spending sprees and niceclothing, the society held idea of what any guy wants. However in Bruce’sworld, he does not hold any of these things as value, choosing to live in aprison in the dark crevices of Bhutan (Yea I didn’t know that was a countryeither). 

Bruce issomeone who puts his values above simple materialism, a trait that not manypeople have. 

Apartfrom this we see Batman struck by the words of the district attorney HarveyDent who tells Wayne that “you either a die a hero, or live long enough to seeyourself become a villain,” and for the trilogy this is a turning point. Afterthis, Batman sacrifices himself for the safety of the people of Gotham.

 If someone were to honestly analyze thesociety we all lived in, let’s say an alien, it would probably see a bunch ofmaterialistic bags of water only obsessed with the next Ellen DeGeneres show orthe next new apple product.  However this does not apply to everyone, andthere are plenty of people who value their beliefs over the tangible world,although none of them look uber-cool doing it like our dear Batman.  InBatman, the happy ending is when the villain is locked up and the people of Gothamare safe. Unfortunately Batman never has a happy ending; he is constantlyvigilant of defending the peace, never resting to protect the city--a type offoil character to various societal beliefs that are held in place today. Fromthe selfless rich man to the idealistic young bachelor who devotes his life tofighting crime. I would scoff at anyone who dared try finding anyone like thatin Fairfield County; it’s one of those things that only happen in movies.Although millionaires are galore in this part of America, not many of them makeheadlines devoting their money to good causes; Fairfield County is VERYstereotypical in that sense. But hey, you never know, there could be a Batmanlurking around and leaping off of roof taps with his batarangs.