Readers of this blog may remember my admission of Batmania, which I confessed to last summer when The Dark Knight came out.  It was in a post at that time that I examined the Medical Afflictions of the Batman and his Enemies. 

 Recently the movie came out on DVD and like all Darkknightaholics, I was first in line to buy it, drop it into my player and watch it, like, 5 times in a row.  What caught my eye this time wasn't just the haunting performance by Health Ledger or the story's thoughtful examination what constitutes good and evil in modern society.  It was also how health care and health insurance crisis affected the story. 

Whether Chris Nolan realized it or not, the movie acts as a social commentary on American health care.  Key points of the plot and key scenes in the movie hinge on it. 

Let's take a look at the Joker first--"Ya wanna know how I got these scars?" he asks Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gylenhall) as he puts a knife to her throat.  He then goes onto detail how his wife used to gamble, debts from which led to her being beaten up badly by some thugs who came to collect her gambling debts.  The Joker then goes onto tell her, that "we didn't have the money to pay for surgeries" and so, to try to make his ailing wife feel better, he put a razor blade to his mouth and cut it up.  Of course, she doesn't think it's funny, and leaves him.  Now, he says, "I see the funny side of things." Nasty story.

Second, we examine an important subplot in the movie--corrcupt cops.   Follow this thread and it leads to the death of Rachel Dawes and the birth of Two-Face, and the kidnapping of Gordon's family at the movie's climax. 

Again, it's health care at the root of it all.  At the beginning of the movie, we see Commissioner Gordon having a quiet discussion with detective Ramirez, who is in his Major Crimes Unit. You may remember that's when she tells him that her mother is back in the hospital. We don't get back to that point until near the end of the movie, when Two-Face confronts her and she admits she helped engineer Dawes' abduction and ultimate death.  It turns out she can't afford to pay her mother's medical bills without going rogue.  Then she calls Gordon's wife and tells her to leave her apartment, which leads to her and her kids to a near death at the hands of Two Face. 

Finally, let's not forget the destruction of Gotham General Hospital--boy, that Joker must really have it out for us doctors and nurses. Too bad we didn't have universal health care to get his wife her surgery.  It would have saved Batman a lot of trouble--he loses his girlfriend, his car, his reputation.  Well at least his movie made money....

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