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Guest
Contributor
Ben Sikma
Ben
Sikma is an advancement associate at the Acton
Institute.
 Business
and Virtue in Batman Begins
Bruce Wayne, the Dark Knight's alter ego, makes an unlikely
Hollywood hero...
[Ben
Sikma] 6/24/05
Like a hideous
gargoyle believed to protect ancient institutions from evil,
the motionless silhouette of Batman
stands out against
Gotham’s dark cityscape. This arresting image from Batman
Begins suggests that the bad guys are in for another hard time
from the Dark Knight. But what is peculiar about this latest
foray into comic book film noir is that Batman’s alter
ego, Bruce Wayne, represents what would usually be an inviting
object of attack by film writers and producers: Bruce is fabulously
rich, the “prince of Gotham,” and his wealth was
inherited. Instead, the unlikely hero uses all his resources
-- virtue, physical prowess, and capital -- to fight injustice,
even to the point of engaging in a hostile takeover of a publicly
traded company.
Although the central theme of Batman Begins is how Bruce controls
his own phobia (bats) and redirects it to fight fear (personified
in the villain Scarecrow), the film also presents a picture of
a businessman -- an extraordinarily wealthy businessman -- that
overcomes stereotypes about such people as almost inevitably
corrupt, unethical, and heartless.
Thomas Wayne, Bruce’s father, founded Wayne Industries
with a philanthropic vision, essentially coupling capitalism
with genuine concern for the needy. Advocates of central planning
trumpet the “success” of public transportation and
the New Deal, but there are no government intrusions to be found
in Batman Begins. Thomas Wayne used Wayne Industries to build
the city’s rail system and nearly bankrupted the company
during the Depression to alleviate Gotham’s suffering.
Alfred, the family confidant and manservant, explains to Bruce
that his father had intended these efforts as an inspiration
to his peers. Thomas Wayne and his wife are depicted not as corrupt
and exploitive, but as the city’s moral core; after they
are murdered, Gotham spirals into corruption.
The film seems to present the view that the wealthy Wayne family
can be highbrow, have and enjoy their status symbols -- essentially
live the bourgeois lifestyle -- and still be virtuous people.
Karl Marx must be rolling in his grave.
Yet one of the most gratifying aspects of this film is its affirmation
of the value of traditional institutions more generally, such
as the family, rule of law, and private ownership of the means
of production.
When Bruce returns from Princeton to Wayne Manor,
he dismisses his home and inheritance and intimates that he’ll soon
be gone again. Alfred Pennyworth, the Waynes’ faithful
but stodgy butler who raised Bruce to be a gentleman, tells him
to be respectful of the “six generations” who lived
there and who bore his name before him. In another instance,
Alfred reminds him of his duties as a host. Bruce responds, “I
don’t care about my name,” and Alfred replies, “It’s
not just your name, it’s your father’s name. And
it’s all that’s left of him. Don’t destroy
it.” The emphasis on familial dignity and adherence to
social convention flies in the face of contemporary celebrations
of individual expression and flight from responsibility.
The principle of rule of law plays out against
the idea of vigilante justice. The bad guys turn out to be
members of the League of
Shadows, from whom Wayne learned to fight. They credit themselves
with bringing down Rome and Constantinople, and even London,
by loading cargo holds with plague-infected rats. This time,
Henri Ducard, the group’s ringleader, claims to employ
economics and fear to destroy Gotham, lamenting that the only
thing that kept him from achieving victory was Thomas Wayne’s
example of virtue. Ultimately, Bruce’s tenacious belief
in societal institutions as the proper avenues for justice becomes
the key breaking point between him and the League.
What about private property? Even as a fighting
technique is merely a tool, something neither good nor evil
itself but subject
to its user’s purpose, so director and screenwriter Christopher
Nolan portrays capital and the means of production: “We
felt that… Bruce should have a conduit into Wayne Enterprises,” Nolan
notes, “that would allow him through the back door to utilize
his own great wealth from the corporation founded by his father.” From
the Tumbler (Nolan’s revamp of the Batmobile) to the ten
thousand defective Batman masks (manufactured in Asia) to his
own personally designed “batarangs,” Bruce gives
his father’s philanthropic vision a real entrepreneurial
touch as he actively seeks to root out corruption and serve as
a paragon of virtue for Gotham.
Is Batman himself a microcosm for the corporate
entity? Probably not purposely, but as he lays out his idea
for fighting injustice
as Batman, he explains to Alfred, “A man is just flesh-and-blood,
and can be ignored or destroyed. But a symbol… as a symbol
I can be… everlasting.” Corporations, too, are symbolic.
Their names represent legally distinct entities that exist indefinitely
and operate independently of human conventions. This is at once
a strength and weakness, primarily the former, as long as the
human persons who comprise them are committed to solidarity with
their neighbors, as Thomas Wayne believed.
Granted that
a business mogul who by night wears a cape and fights crime
is far-fetched and meant to be fantastic,
such films
nonetheless exert a powerful influence over the popular imagination.
The depiction of a morally responsible citizen who is devoted
to the common good serves not only to challenge entrenched stereotypes
with respect to business; it challenges us all to pursue virtue—even
heroically. tRO
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