Batman Begins: The Thread

But the saving-the-world element itself isn't what makes the story fascist. Every other fantasy epic doesn't take place in a realistic urban metropolis where a crimefighting capitalist has to clean up a chaotic society. In this case though, the saving of the world element becomes a justification for any other infractions that Batman may commit.

Why, does it consist of boring action scenes and horrible, repetitive dialog?

Human Resources
Doomsday Book
Blindness
Triple X
Mary Poppins
Street of Shame
Pi
Together
Dr. Strangelove
Red Beard
The Tale of One Bad Rat

Those are the first ten to come to mind. Though the real answer is, maybe we don't need the sort of instant solutions Batman and other superheroes offer.

YR TAKE ON 'WAIT (THE WHISPER SONG)' PLZ.

What's that?

I'm not sure if you're asking about Rimbaud and Rambo or if there's something called Rimbaud/Rambo. At any rate, I know very little about Rimbaud and I've only seen pieces of Rambo. It's the kind of movie that was always playing on the big screen TV at the pizza parlor when I was a kid. It has never occurred to me that there would be a reason to actually watch the whole thing.

And that's why we don't have superheroes in real life.

Get one crime-fighting bat-suited billionaire to clean up your town, pronto!

And that's why filmmakers shouldn't take superheroes too seriously.

-- j blount (jamesbloun...), August 3rd, 2005 2:11 PM. (papa la bas) (later) (link)

Funny you should mention that... I was at the Dallas Fantasy Fair in '86 when Gary Groth pressed Miller on that at a panel. (At least a partial transcript ran in The Comics Journal eventually.) Part 2, pgs. 18-20, with the tank... Miller finally said, "Okay, he blew the hell out of 'em!" The entirety of today's posts on this thread were hashed out at that panel...same lack of conclusion or consensus. It was interesting.

But they should still take the stories seriously!

man, Frank Miller can be so goddamned silly...

-- Tuomas (tuomas.alh...), August 3rd, 2005.

why the hell not?

The difference is in the context: Trainspotting portrays it's drug users as reckless, stupid, uncaring, but not entirely unsympathetic, and definitely not evil. Whereas in DKR the only scene that features Robin's parents is one mentioned above (and I think the parents are taking weed, not heroin), and that combined with the general tone of the story gives you the impression that Miller's view is more like, "Drug users are bad people, mmkay?".

Have you read the Daredevil story Miller did on PCP? That is as fine an example as it gets of preachy scare story drug education.

Robin's parents aren't the only liberals in the book, obviously. There are others, and they look like idiots. And there are conservatives, and they look like idiots too. The only people who don't look like idiots are Batman and his allies.

What I got from that scene (and the lack of Robin's parents in the story in general) is that Robin's parents were completely wrapped up in their own thing and completely ignored her. The need for attention generated by this was one of the big drivers that led her into becoming the new Robin. Note the lack of value judgement on the parents.

The only people who don't look like idiots are Batman and his allies.

This is very OTM.

That's why he's awesome! But I am not here to argue with Tuomas.

But Punisher...I don't know, he seems like such a dead end.

(x-post)