I have already illustrated how the media has attempted to
solidify the concept of the “hero” through film, television, and other ways.
But how do these identities, especially the fictional ones become what they
are. I have continued my pursuit of the “hero” idea and delved deep into the realm
of philosophy, politics, and morality of three very different, fictional
heroes. I used Batman from the hit film The
Dark Knight, V from the film V for
Vendetta, and finally Altaïr from the video game Assassin’s Creed. Beyond the great entertainment value of each of
these titles, they also contain many political and philosophical motifs which
sometimes are dilemmas which people face in their everyday lives. Is terrorism
a legitimate way to fight against a government? After 9/11 most Americans would
never agree to it, but V for Vendetta makes
a strong case in favor of it. In Assassin’s
Creed the player is faced with the idea whether violence is a viable way to
create peace and stability in a region. And in The Dark Knight, Batman struggles with maintaining his moral ideals
whilst fighting the constant crime in Gotham City. On another side, all of
these titles contain political motifs which mirror reality. The fascist regime
in V for Vendetta is similar to the
Third Reich in Germany. The Dark Knight
has many parallels to the Bush administration. And Assassin’s Creed the manhunt for Osama Bin Laden is imitated by
Altaïr’s quests to end the lives of various political figures. Video games and
films often contain much more than simple good versus evil plots. They explore
complex philosophies and politics which have importance in reality.
The idea of a hero is very abstract, with its definition
dependent on the person evaluating the term. Heroes have existed from the
beginning of time, with mythical stories passed down from generation to
generation beginning with stories of creation and gods of ancient civilizations.
In modern times, heroes in movies, television shows, video games, comics, and
books all serve to represent various ideas. These ideas range from political
motifs to morality. Stories, old and new, are used to present ideas to the
masses in all available forums. The protagonists of these stories are often
used by the authors to develop an idea or represent an idea that is popular
among the people. The theoretical concept of a hero is constantly in flux as
time progresses and it meets the demands of those who are in existence. They
struggle with the politics of the time, morality, and the idea of justice. The
linking of politics and fictional stories is omnipresent throughout written and
spoken history, whether it by hypothetical regimes or existing politics. This
concept of connecting entertainment and philosophy took strong root in the
American comics which grew in popularity in the late 1930’s. One of the most
basic links between superheroes and politics is the increased popularity of the
fictional characters during times of duress, such as World War II, the Vietnam
War, and most recently the terrorist attacks on 9/11. During times of struggle
and uncertainty, people often turn to these superheroes as a way to escape
reality in hopes of better circumstances. Often times the stories about these
extraordinary people go beyond simply providing an escape for the masses and
are used to present political ideals to the general population who might not
want to face the music. The moral identities of the heroes of modern times
allow the audiences to think about philosophical ideas which they might never
acknowledge. Jeff Jensen presents the idea that the current sets of heroes are
“lost” and unsure of their self and position in society. The hero in the 21st century
America has developed a new personality and reflects the current generations’
concepts of morality and politics in their stories, actions, and thoughts.
Christopher Nolan’s popular film, The Dark Knight, is a prime example of the link between superheroes
and politics. The symbolism between the movie and the Bush-era politics are
present throughout the entire film. The film is a way that the general
population can witness actual, although possibly controversial, tactics that
the government may be using in its never ending fight for peace. In this movie,
Batman/Bruce Wayne uses his abilities to fight crime syndicates along with the
help of the Police Commissioner James Gordon and the District Attorney Harvey
Dent. The antagonist, the Joker, is a terrorist who will do anything in his
ability in order to create mass panic, chaos, and hysteria. In Ron Briley’s
article, “The Dark Knight: An
Allegory of America in the Age of Bush”, many similarities are illustrated
between the film and the Bush administration. The comparison of the Joker to
Osama Bin Laden is such that the Joker in the movie is a terrorist whose one
goal is to concoct mayhem among Gotham City. Batman, the police force, and Dent
represent America in their attempts to neutralize the threat. On the journey to
capture and remove the Joker as a threat, Batman is forced to resort to
interrogation and surveillance techniques which call morality into question. Batman’s
use of torture parallels the Bush administration’s use of torture in attempts
to acquire information out of captives to save lives. The film illustrates both
the advantages and disadvantages of torture because although the Joker gives up
information which will save a life, he (the Joker) lies about who is where,
which causes the death of Batman’s love interest. Torture may be able to save
lives, but there are often times in which people are willing to say anything in
order to save themselves. Towards the end of the film, Batman uses the cell phones
of the entire population of Gotham City in order to find the Joker and try to
stop the impending terrorism. This pulls in the question of how far can the
government invade the privacy of individuals in order to complete a mission and
keep its citizens safe. The moral Dent represents the idea that crime can be
fought within the confines of the law until he witnesses how terrorism doesn’t
play by similar rules. This causes Dent to re-evaluate his ideas and eventually
take the law into his own hands. Jake Coyle sums up the possibility that there
is doubt whether or not the government can win the war on terror while staying
within the limits of national and international law. The Bush administration
may be viewed as violating various morally gray areas, but its endeavors have
kept America relatively safe and maintained the strength of the country as a
whole. (Coyle)
The movie V for
Vendetta was adapted from David Lloyd’s graphic novel and is about the
protagonist V’s attempt to start a revolution in a futuristic, despotic Britain.
The main political motif in this movie is the debate whether or not terror and
or protest should be seen as a legitimate way to dispose of a current form of
government in order to create change. Another motif is that there can be
similarities drawn between the fictional totalitarian governments in the movie
to governments of the past. The story produces a compelling argument in favor
of the legitimacy of terror and protest. The story follows two protagonists,
the masked hero/terrorist V and Evey Hammond as V plans to start a revolution.
Evey struggles with this idea because she is held by V because the despotic
government is searching for him and she is n0t sure she believes in the means
through which V desires to inspire change. One of the most symbolic quotes of
the movie is when V says “People should not be afraid of their government. The
government should be afraid of their people”. This idea exemplifies the idea
the government should receive the right to rule from its citizens and if the
citizens think the government is not acting the way it should, then they have
the power to take the power away and start over. The concept of this idea is based on the
thoughts of Enlightenment philosophers such as Voltaire, Locke, and Rousseau.
Towards the finale of the film, V states, “Beneath this mask there is an idea,
Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof.” By saying this, V is symbolically
saying that as long as an idea is out amongst the public, it cannot be
contained. Ideas can be infectious and instate change across the globe, as seen
in the Arab Spring in 2011. In the end, V and Evey are successful in their plot
to inspire a political revolution in Britain, with the final scene being a mass
of people watching the old parliament building being demolished. There are many
corresponding features between the film and the Nazi regime with extreme
control of personal freedom in return for promises of security (Williams). V
rejects these ideas and wishes to inspire a rebellion spurred on by the hopes
of freedom, whether it is for gay rights, women’s rights, creativity, or racial
freedom. By the end of the movie, Evey is the one who pulls the lever which
dooms the fate of the parliament building after V is killed fulfilling V’s
notion that “ideas are bulletproof”. This is an attempt to create a revolution
which will go beyond simple politics, but culture as well. Similarly to V for Vendetta, the video game Assassin’s Creed also challenges
traditional political ideas through the lens of a vigilante hero.
Ubisoft’s massively popular video game Assassin’s Creed tells the story of an
assassin named Altaïr who initially lost himself in personal glory and
cockiness. He then is granted the opportunity to be “reborn” and is forced to
re-learn every skill and climb the ranks again learning the errors of his past
ways becoming a Master Assassin once more. The political motifs of this game
revolve around schemes of assassinating various targets for political purposes.
In the game, Altaïr must assassinate corrupt high-level members of both Islamic
and Christian regimes in a vast struggle to inspire peace. The paradox of using
murder as a weapon to inspire peace is presented and forces Altaïr to
re-evaluate his motives. It seems to be counter-productive to kill people in
order to achieve a level of relative peace but it can be seen in politics
today. For over a decade, the United States military were on a manhunt for
Osama Bin Laden in order to eliminate the threat that the leader of the
terrorist organization Al Qaida had the power to inspire terror across the
globe. Along his journey, Altaïr discovers for himself that everything is how
one perceives it and nothing can be taken on face value, including religion, leadership,
and governments. Assassin’s Creed
also highlights the concept of control and where should governments get the
right to rule over their people. The question whether the masses should be
controlled by a group of people and by what means plagues Altaïr throughout the
story. He sees that if governments use strict controlling techniques, there is
a possibility for peace, but then people lack free will to act on their own and
are enslaved to their governments. Yet on the other hand, Altaïr observes that
if people are given complete freedom, anarchy ensues and peace again might not
be achieved. He decides for himself that the people should have the free will
to choose how they live and the governments don’t have the right to control
every aspect of their people’s lives. Rather, the governments should be
overseers of the citizens and maintain a structure which allows the people
freedom while keeping them from taking control over one another. The political
motifs that are present throughout the stories of the heroes demonstrate the
views of the people and the eras in which they are created. In the early 21st
century, many of these heroes, whether they are acting in past, present, or
futuristic times, struggle with the politics similarly to how many people in
reality are beginning to question the actions of governments and politics in
general.
In many early forms of entertainment, the lines between
good and evil juxtaposed each other as well as black and white. Unfortunately
reality isn’t the same way and films and video games have begun to develop
protagonists who struggle with the concept of morality. They are forced to
cross lines and discover themselves in a continual process. The main characters
in Assassin’s Creed, The Dark Knight, and V for Vendetta all are faced with these
ethical/morality problems and deal with them in their own ways.
In both Assassin’s
Creed and The Dark Knight, the
protagonists are faced with Judith Thomson’s variation of Philippa Foot’s
classic Trolley Problem. The hypothetical situation is that there is a trolley,
whose brakes are disabled, directed at a group of five workers on a track. But
a bystander is standing near a switch which would divert the trolley onto a
different track with only one worker; therefore, the bystander has the option
to either let five workmen die or kill the solo worker (Thomson 360-361).[1] Both
Batman and Altaïr are faced with this ethical dilemma, albeit on larger scales,
and are forced to make their own decisions. Batman is given opportunities to
kill the Joker throughout the movie, yet he refrains from doing so. He argues
that by killing the Joker, he will become exactly what he is trying to
eliminate. Altaïr on the other hand chooses to assassinate the one person in
order to save the masses. He believes that the killing of the one is
justifiable because it allows even more people to live. Batman and Altaïr have
valid reasons through which they try to rationalize their actions. These two
opposing outlooks show how heroes are faced with very troubling catch-22’s on
their journeys.
In Assassin’s Creed,
the members of the Brotherhood of the Assassins are presented with a maxim and three
paradoxes. The maxim is that "Nothing is true, everything is permitted".
And the three paradoxes are that they seek to promote peace, but commit murder;
they seek to open the minds of men, but require obedience to rules; and they
seek to reveal the danger of blind faith, yet practice it themselves. These four
ideas are discovered by Altaïr while regaining his position as a Master
Assassin as he begins to question what the leader of the Assassins is telling
him to do. The first paradox was illustrated above with the example of the
trolley. Regarding the second paradox, it is saying that even though the
Assassins are trying to promote freedom of thought and exercise, they are bound
by rules that are set forth by the Brotherhood. And the third paradox leads
into the maxim that he discovers. The idea of blind faith surrounds the world,
most people believing nearly everything they hear. This maxim thus demonstrates
the wisdom that Altaïr acquires while on his journey. Nearly everything is
manmade, from science to religion to government. He argues that there is no
divine power which gives anyone the right to rule, a certain idea to worship,
or truth; therefore, everything is arbitrary, so a person has to define these
things for him or herself. These philosophical dilemmas are presented to anyone
playing the game and can cause a person to seriously reflect on their own
values and beliefs.
The two films and the video game share the central idea
of the legitimacy of vigilantism. The main characters in each example act as a
person who acts according to their own rules in order to achieve their goals. They
often fight outside the accepted concepts of the law as presented by the
government to accomplish their objectives. All the heroes attempt to justify
their actions by rationalizing their deeds, but how far can they go in order to
do what they do. Do extraordinary abilities enable people to exercise outside
of given boundaries? Or should these people be held up to the same expectations
as every other citizen. In V for Vendetta
and Assassin’s Creed the protagonists
are fighting against existing government structures in order to promote
peace/stability. Their respective governments see Altaïr and V as threats and
try to neutralize them. On the other hand, Batman works in association with the
law enforcement in Gotham City to accomplish his tasks; therefore, he is not
hunted down until the end of the movie where he takes the fall to preserve the
identity of the slain Dent. Each of these heroes fits the five criteria for a
vigilante set up by Les Johnston, a criminologist. The five elements he
proposes include; premeditation/organization; violence or the threat of
violence; this is performed by autonomous citizens; it is a reaction to a
breach or a potential breach of values; and it is to control/prevent deviant
acts and to offer greater peace of mind to the members of the relevant social
order” (qtd. in Dumsday 50). Travis Dumsday then goes on to propose four
situations where vigilantism would be permissible and each of the three heroes
falls into a category. They are: “1The state has enacted good laws
but is failing to enforce them; 2The state has failed to enact
certain good laws; 3The state has enacted evil laws; 4The
state has enacted good laws and is enforcing them” (Dumsday 58). Batman falls
into the first category of this setup. It is permissible for him to act as a
vigilante in this idea because the police are corrupt, and Batman is acting in
self-defense of the citizens of Gotham, protecting them from the crime
syndicates. Assassin’s Creed does not
fit any of these groupings at first glance, but in the end, Altaïr can be put
into the second category. The people that he kills are threatening to the
citizens of their towns and they [the people being assassinated] are working a
secret agenda, contrary to the visible function of the government they are a
part of. And finally, V from V for
Vendetta should be put in the third category because he is fighting against
a government which impedes its citizen’s rights. V shows Evey how the
government eliminates all threats, does not allow freedom of expression, and is
even willing to kill its own people in order to increase its hold over the
people; consequently, all the characters that have been analyzed throughout
this paper have acted morally correct as vigilantes.
Despite the obvious entertainment values that Assassin’s Creed, The Dark Knight, and V for
Vendetta possess, these stories hold more than what meets the eye. They
delve into very complex philosophical and political concepts which most people
may be unfamiliar with. The hero has evolved from folk icons such as Daniel
Boone and Davy Crockett into masked avengers who continue the never-ending
struggle against evil. These three vigilantes show through their thoughts,
actions, and adventures, various ideas and parallels that mirror reality. It is
necessary to look at everything and try to see all the aspects of it. The hero
is not just some glorified person like Superman. It is a complex character who
struggles with philosophical ideas which have no clear answer and need to make
their own decisions.
Wow. You had just started working on this when I was in New York. It turned out great! You really pulled it off nicely--deep thoughts that are well written. Impressive!
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