Tags
Art, Christianity, Evil, Fight Club, Homer, Jake Gyllenhaal, MCU, Morality, Nightcrawler, Plato, Villain
Morality in art is a keen interest of mine, as is no doubt evident from the many posts I’ve made analyzing the failings of art from the perspective both of its craft and of its message. I believe, quite firmly, that good art is moral art, in the line of Plato, who contended that art is compelling and potentially dangerous and devoted a great deal of time to discussing what kind of art would and would not be acceptable within The Republic. But most discussions of morality and art quickly tend to degenerate into superficial condemnation of content (language, violence, and other issues more the matter of ratings boards than moral practitioners) or equally superficial understandings of theme (why aren’t the bad people sufficiently punished?). So today let’s discuss Nightcrawler, because it is a perfect example of how art can be moral without moralizing.