Klavan''s Bachelor in B.S. (Batman Science)

Upon my first review of Andrew Klavan’s viewpoint of “The Dark Knight” I… fell out of my chair laughing. The bat symbol as a discreet symbol for everyone’s favorite former President? You have got to be kidding me.

Andrew Klavan’s viewpoint is a broad, and stretched interpretation of “The Dark Knight.” In fact, any most every movie ever made, in most every genre, but especially in action and drama, contains the basic principle good vs. evil. According to Klavan’s viewpoint, most movies have war on terror undertones, including movies that existed before the war on terror.

Now I have to admit that I don’t often watch movies looking for a deeper political message, but I can usually at least perceive, even if I don’t agree, with a person’s alleged interpretation. But I refuse to accept that my favorite movie of 2008 is, as Andrew Klavan says, “a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown” by the President I most despise “in this time of terror and war.” For example, Klavan states that Batman, like former President Bush, “sometimes has to push the boundaries of civil rights to deal with an emergency, certain that he will re-establish those boundaries when the emergency is past. “ Bush not only pushed those boundaries of our enemies but also extended those boundaries to the point of vengeance, and disgraced our countries reputation. Batman doesn’t believe in vengeance and punishment. Batman believes in justice and change for the better, like is passion for trying to improve Gotham City. Even further, Bush didn’t re-establish those boundaries he pushed; he left his mess for the next administration to clean up. In fact, the next administration did more for those “pushed” boundaries in days than Bush every attempted to do.

Another statement that I found particularly unnerving is his statement that “doing what’s right is hard, and speaking the truth is dangerous,” implying that this principle regards to both Batman and President Bush. Well, I am not going to deny that there is a possibility that there are some things that the former President did do right and with good intentions. But telling the truth, I have my doubts. In fact, with the onset of the war, the American people were told to live our lives as normal and to continue spending money, as if to not cause any panic or concern over the said war. The truth is that if the Bush administration had been honest about the terrible happenings in the Middle East, that they would have been able to rally more support for their cause, instead of Bush’s administration having to “slink in the shadows” because we’ve turned Bush into the bad guy. He asked for it by treating to American people with kid gloves, and allowing the media to skew the view on the war on terror.

Andrew Klavan should keep to writing his books and movies, and quit trying to interpret other works of entertainment. It’s possible, and likely, that Batman is just Batman.

Beth Goin