TERROR TACTICS

The Joker throws a lot of bombs. As he explains, gasoline is cheap. But is he a terrorist? Sure, he terrifies people, but he couldn't be confused with an Islamic terrorist/freedom fighter/jihadist or whatever the hell those guys call themselves these days. The Joker notably, and with repeated emphasis, calls himself an agent of chaos, a terrorist without a cause. He simply likes to see the world burn.

Is he a stand-in for the real-life terrorists who blew up the twin towers? Possibly-- to most people in Western countries targeted by Al Qaeda and Bin Laden, we only know they like to blow things up-- buildings, trains, bus stations. They talk a lot about bringing down the established order, but all we ever seem to know about is the chaos they create. And really, haven't these people been fighting these battles for centuries? If they can't get it together by now, maybe chaos is really what they're about. They haven't figured out what's supposed to rise from the ashes.

So then, who does Batman represent? The more secretive arm of the CIA, the people who used to do things covertly, like spy on people, and not overtly, like the current government? Batman's little cell phone trick (while making the climax almost incomprehensible) is considered so intrusive into the lives of private citizens that Morgan Freeman quits Wayne Enterprises in protest, leaves his wife, and gets into a car accident in Mississippi!

At the end of the movie, Batman becomes a pariah so people will still believe government officials are as good as their word, incorruptible. Batman is already outside the law, so he readily takes on the role of the vigilante, willing to stand for actions (like murder) he would never commit. It's a cynical idea, that people would rather have a bogeyman than admit our leaders are flawed-- almost as though we were better off when we thought Saddam was the ultimate bad guy, and not our own government.