The Glamour of Evil

Over at CatholicVote, a writer recently criticized the Dark Knight films for glamorizing evil and thereby animating such lunatics as James Holmes. In essence, evil is insipid, and should be portrayed as such. Portrayals of evil should be chaste... Or so the argument goes. Unfortunately, such reasoning is why many Christian films are so often colorless. We must admit: evil is alluring and glamarous (albeit on a superficial level). If it weren't, men would quickly become saints, which is obviously not the case. Yes, we must assiduously avoid evil. However, there is a yearning in us to confront and overcome evil, and this is the service of great art. In a darkened theater, we can confront evil. We can have a reckoning, because evil allures art's hero and not us. Most of all, though, we can exorcize our own demons. These demons take the form of vivacous villians such as the Joker, who are then overcome by heros such as the Batman. Those who imitate such evil instead - men like James Holmes - do so not because of its glamarous display in film. Rather,  they made their choice long ago, and simply use a film's trappings as their excuse.