Batman as an Allegory of the Bush Administration

A common political analysis of Batman by movie critics and movie-goers alike is that The Dark Knight was written as a parallel to the Bush Administration's war on terror.

Much like our society at any point in history, Gotham is laden with criminals and businessmen motivated by a seemingly insatiable greed for money. Then the Joker is introduced. A man who commits evils for the sake of anarchy, and has no desire for material rewards.

The Joker also films a murder of a Batman imitator and threatens to continue this cycle or murder until he gets what he wants. The Joker's evil for the sake of evil mentality, along with his filmed murder of Gotham city citizen creates a very convincing parallel between Osama Bin Laden, as well as the filmed beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl. Moreover, much like Gotham city officials at first, the Bush Administration at first refused to, then attempted to negotiate with terrorists. Eventually, however, both the officials of Gotham and the Bush Administration gave into using un-democratic means of dealing with the grave threats they faced after negotiation attempts failed.

The only person who has the power to defeat the Joker is Batman, a man who operates outside the law. Commissioner Gordon calls upon and works with Batman because he recognizes that sometimes the only way to protect a democracy is to use un-American measures. Even Harvey Dent, the moral center of Gotham, becomes convinced by the end of the film that terrorism cannot be fought within the boundaries of the law.

In the midst of the Guantanamo Bay reports during Bush's presidency, Americans split into three distinguishable groups. These groups were comprised of those who thought that the torture was inexcusable and the officials in charge should be put on trial for war crimes, those who thought torture was sometimes a necessary means to an end as long as Americans have government transparency in regards to it, and those who agreed torture was sometimes a necessary means to an end but wanted only to secretly acknowledge the use of such unlawful means.

American Innocence: Maintaining the Bliss of Ignorance
The citizens of Gotham city seem to be completely content and, until the end, thankful for the existence of Batman. They know that he uses illegitimate means to protect them, yet they choose to turn a blind eye because it works out in their favor. Batman tracking all phone communications, a complete legal violation of privacy, is never revealed to the public and is thus, portrayed by Christopher Nolan as a necessary means to fighting evil that the citizens don't need to know about.

Batman Begins, but Batman-related wisdom nonetheless

Although this works for the city of Gotham, its parallel in real life is extremely controversial, as gross violations of privacy, even for the sake of doing good, present an easily-corruptible slippery slope if put into the wrong hands. Moreover, with the lack of government transparency, American citizens would not know if the information was in the wrong hands.

The citizens of Gotham can be compared to the aforementioned third category of American citizens in wake of the torture reports of Guantanamo Bay. Much like the American citizens who agreed torture was sometimes necessary when fighting terrorism and were okay with it as long as they didn't have to know about it, the citizens of Gotham accept that sometimes unlawful means are necessary to fight evil but want to remain innocent and blissful with no in-depth knowledge of the acts being committed.