Our grandson is staying with us this week, and we have been resigned from the outset to undergoing an experience of re-education. Even at five and a half he knows more about dinosaurs than I do. I had not bargained, however, for one aspect of the discovery process.
Last night we settled down together to watch his choice of movie. He had brought with him a DVD of Lego Batman the Movie. Of course, Batman has been with me since my own childhood, but I wasn’t anticipating the level of violence in this new version. What is worse, I was shocked by the pretty explicit political messages in the film.
All “baddies” are absolutely and irredeemably bad, and there is only one possible response to them, and that is to destroy them violently. I could not avoid the pretty explicit suggestion that “The Joker” is gay, and therefore not only evil but is also a figure of fun. Only one female is visible in the plot, and she has a very insignificant, subordinate part to play. The figure of civic authority (the Commissioner) is pretty pathetic and powerless, and consequently dependent upon the extra-constitutional vigilante figures of the various “superheroes”.
I could not escape the conclusion that the movie (one of the worst I have ever seen for a wide range of reasons) is a crude summary of the most objectionable features of American far right populism. A serious conversation with my son lies in the not too distant future!