The biggest message that I took from the movie was that a true hero puts himself last, even unjustly (to himself), for the good of others. Because I think that selfishness is at the root of all the world’s problems, this message, at least to me, outweighs any others the film was sending, and I think that alone makes it more morally worthy than any other movie I’ve seen in a long time.

Some people argue that Batman’s character is and has always been dark by nature, and (they point at this in these latest movies) that he’s just a vigilante - but his character points out the obvious and often overlooked fact that some things are higher and more important than man-made law.

And that’s my two cents.

The message the movie sent to me was that at bottom, the world is meaningless and amoral. That’s the truth of the matter. But in the movie’s view, “sometimes, truth isn’t good enough.” the last part of the line, about people needing their faith to be rewarded every now and then, reminds me of a lot of things.

Such as Plato’s endorsement of religion purely as a way to foster social cohesion, law, and order. For Plato, it seemed, the truth of a religion didn’t matter so much as it’s usefulness.

The film seems to suggest moral ideals are of a similar sort. Perhaps it doesn’t matter whether they are true or not. Maybe, the film seems to suggest, it only matters how useful they are.

That said, I don’t really know if I agree with the message or not. I value truth highly, no matter how unpleasant. To throw out a desire for truth in exchange for a faith which is useful but untrue seems a bad idea in the long run.

We can create moral codes, sure. But we shouldn’t kid ourselves. Our codes are arbitrary. Of course, we still need moral codes. We just shouldn’t pretend they are indestructable, or some sort of eternal edict.

“Sometimes, truth isn’t good enough, sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded.”

To me, this means “The Joker’s view and Two Face’s view, when you get right down to it, cannot be refuted by rational means. Indeed, at the bottom of things, they’re right, because the world IS meaningless. But people deserve meaning.”

Why should we think this way? That’s the movie’s point. There’s something deeper than truth.

The movie juxtaposed how things really are, with how we want to believe they are. It then suggested that we should go with the later option.

That’s how I read it.

Your thoughts?