Hi, for my A2 Film Studies Coursework I am looking into the morality and ethics of the protagonists in Christopher Nolan films, specifically The Dark Knight Trilogy, Memento and The Prestigue. The coursework requires some form of questionnaire or interview, so detailed responses would come highly appreciated. Spoilers follow and even if you haven't seen all of the films covered, I'd still enjoy hearing your thoughts on the ones you have.
1. Would you say Bruce Wayne / Batman does more harm than good for the people of Gotham? You could pretty easily say that he never effectively stopped The Joker until the ending (bringing up the argument that they depend on each other), resorted to terrorist tactics such as rough interrogation and hacking into moblile phones, damaged several buildings with the Tumbler, encouraged several villains simply by existing and hid for eight years. While personally I lean on the side that he does more good than harm, though when you consider that most of the criminals are just poor people, large donations might have been an easier solution rather than just pummeling on them.
2. Would you consider Leonard Shelby a good man? While he still believes that he is hunting down his wife's killer, in actuality he's only tricked himself in order to give himself purpose. It's suggested that he has already killed someone "innocent" before in the film's ending/begining, so should he considered a serial killer, or someone just trying to save his wife?
3. Christian Bale's and Hugh Jackman's characters in The Prestigue are pretty much opposites, the first truly gifted and awkward and the other less talented but more of a showman. As they each become more successful, they can't resist trying to show the other one up, resulting in some violent and dark consequences. They sacrifice several things (lovers, fingers, morality) in order to get ahead, but do you think that they lost themselves in the process or brought out the best in each other. What I mean is that they both strived for success, but without this competition would they have got so far?
1. Would you say Bruce Wayne / Batman does more harm than good for the people of Gotham? You could pretty easily say that he never effectively stopped The Joker until the ending (bringing up the argument that they depend on each other), resorted to terrorist tactics such as rough interrogation and hacking into moblile phones, damaged several buildings with the Tumbler, encouraged several villains simply by existing and hid for eight years. While personally I lean on the side that he does more good than harm, though when you consider that most of the criminals are just poor people, large donations might have been an easier solution rather than just pummeling on them.
2. Would you consider Leonard Shelby a good man? While he still believes that he is hunting down his wife's killer, in actuality he's only tricked himself in order to give himself purpose. It's suggested that he has already killed someone "innocent" before in the film's ending/begining, so should he considered a serial killer, or someone just trying to save his wife?
3. Christian Bale's and Hugh Jackman's characters in The Prestigue are pretty much opposites, the first truly gifted and awkward and the other less talented but more of a showman. As they each become more successful, they can't resist trying to show the other one up, resulting in some violent and dark consequences. They sacrifice several things (lovers, fingers, morality) in order to get ahead, but do you think that they lost themselves in the process or brought out the best in each other. What I mean is that they both strived for success, but without this competition would they have got so far?
