Dark Knight Stereotypes

The Dark Knight (2008) is a movie directed by Christopher Nolan. Serving as the second installment to the Dark Knight trilogy, this oversees Batman as he tries to protect the residents of Gotham city from a new villain named the Joker. While Dark Knight is a superhero film, it provides distinct, underlying interpretations around the risk communication of terrorism. Specifically, The Dark Knight functions as propaganda for the “War on Terror” through the social othering of its core characters, its hyperreal and brutalized aesthetics, alongside depiction of countermeasures used to tackle real-world terrorism.

“War on Terror” can be traced back to the Bush administration. Following the 9/11 attack, former United States President George W.

Social othering refers to the tendency to classify individuals and/ or groups as “Others.” To elaborate on this further, it arises among individuals who align themselves with a particular social group where, as a result, their values and norms are consistent with said group’s identity. Individuals in this social group would subconsciously identify themselves as the known in-group. At the same time, there are also individuals who may have differing values and norms that may go against this social group’s identity. As a result, these individuals who deviate from the expectations of the social group would be classified as this unknown outgroup (by members of said social

This information allows the audience viewers to gain a multidimensional, in-depth understanding of the Batman. They are able to identify with his emerging emotions, thoughts, and desires. And so, this makes it easier to situate Batman within the in-group and someone we know. When it comes to the Joker, he serves as the film’s central antagonist. Yet, the film audience barely learns anything about him. They have no details about his life before becoming the “Joker,” the people he cares about, or what made the “Joker.” With this, it is hard to familarize yourself with the Joker on a personal level. His visual appearance--between his worn-out and starking clothing to his face makeup--captures him as a clown gone berserk. He does not conform to the expected physical appearances of the everyday person. It also does not help the fact that the Joker’s actions and decisions within the film blatantly step outside our moral understanding of how to operate in society. He is actively going out of his way to hurt others. These discrepancies with the social identity of the film-goers, tied in with the limited information beyond what he says and does in the film, make it extremely easy to label the