[…] « The Knight is Darkest […]

Mike,

Agreed this was a good movie — I had a few problems with it — like a hero being treated as a villain in the end of the movie — and villains being treated as good like you said. There was also the issue of Batman using surveillance equipment to spy on the phone communications of everyone in Gotham City. Lucius Fox an employee of the Wayne Company who assisted Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins also declares he has reservations against the surveillance plan and decides to resign because of it.

I saw the Dark Knight a few weeks back and aside from the issues you brought up and I did it was otherwise a great movie.

Agreed. The surveillance angle was a bit of commentary on our gov’t’s recent spying on us. Sometimes it’s necessary… but once the mission is accomplished, the surveillance should end.

I didn’t have too much trouble with Batman using that technology… after all, we know he’ll use it responsibly.

-Mike

I have always been opposed to the surveillance our own government is doing because unless a warrant is issued to wiretap someone’s phone spying on every person unless reasonable cause can be established is just wrong. It seems like in this movie they are trying to legitimize it as an okay thing to do but then again Lucius Fox even like I said and they showed him do decided to resign because of this.

Surveillance is fine if reasonable cause and/or legitimate warrants can be issued. However, the way it has been conducted by the Bush Administration and the National Security Agency it has been operated in an unconstitutional manner and the telecoms who participated did it entirely on a voluntary basis disrespecting their customer’s rights to privacy and failing to notify them in advance of what they were doing.

Nothing gives a President the power to do this in the U.S. Constitution — he has sought to usurp power from the Legislative Branch for the Executive and weaken the Legislative Branch’s ability to hold Administration officials in the Executive Branch responsible for misdeeds. President Bush unfortunately just got in the last month Congress to pass the FISA Amendments Act that legitimizes his unconstitutional surveillance program and provides immunity to telecoms who broke the law in participating in this program. If they were ordered to participate as part of a court order, and/or were presented with a warrant to tap a specific phone it would be alright.

Returning to the Dark Knight like I said besides these issues and the ones you raised it was otherwise a very good movie.

Not to get too political, but I don’t 100% agree with you. We are, technically, at war. Wartime does indeed grant a wider array of powers to the executive branch.

OTOH, I don’t find this war to be particularly perilous to Americans as a whole. To be sure, I don’t believe that any terrorist group (or even terrorists as a whole) can seriously threaten our existence or our way of life (at least not if we don’t let them). So, widespread wiretapping and other surveillance definitely seems to be excessive in this instance.

As well, the current bout of surveillance doesn’t seem to have really helped. Although, much of the findings are classified, so we may never know if they have prevented or thwarted any violent acts that were being planned.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “he who would give up liberty for the sake of security deserves neither liberty nor security.” I totally agree… but then, I’m a libertarian at heart.

George Washington once expressed his belief that there should be an armed revolt every 20 years or so. That may be a bit excessive, but it would definitely see to it that the will of the people is being upheld. These days, I fear that big business and big money are far more powerful than the voice of the populace.

I think the surveillance in The Dark Knight was a purposeful statement on the inherent evil in such an endeavor, but also a commentary on how sometimes things are necessary… but once said time has passed, those things should be set aside. There was also a specific need for Batman to do what he did: seeking the Joker. I see this as commentary that there needs to be SPECIFIC need for this type of behavior. As you say, warrants are required. Or at least should be.

-Mike