I think the Batman movie does give a Conservative message. Besides everything that Kyle Smith said why the movie is Conservative there are two other messages in the movie.
1) The importance of life. Batman can’t take a life, which is also part of the message of Batman Begins, “Have you finally learned to do what is necessary?”. This is big struggle for Batman in The Dark Knight. However, at the end, Batman realizes that he can clean Gotham City without killing. Of course this is a bit of a naive message, but the larger point is that Batman values ALL life.
The Joker’s culture is a culture of death and chaos. Batman’s culture is a culture of life and chaos. As we all know, it is this one thing, the value of life, that separates Batman and his arched enemy, The Joker.
2) The second message of the movie is the servant leader. Batman, who quickly becomes the leader of Gotham, is more than willing to fall on the sword for the good of the people, for the good of those that he knows he must protect. The Servant Leader. He is more than willing to sacrifice his good name, his reputation, his life so that others may live free of death and chaos.
These two are Conservative messages and in fact both are Christian messages, value life and be a servant leader-sacrifice yourself for the good of humanity.
Batman, The Dark Knight, is one of the best movies I have seen in a long, long, long, VERY long time. I will be seeing it a second time and you can bet it will become part of my movie collection as soon as it comes out on DVD.
