Welcome back, Colts fans. It is time for the third installment of the Why This Week Was Like a Movie article. Up today, as you can see from the picture and from the title of the article, is the 2008 mega-hit The Dark Knight. The Dark Knight is Christopher Nolan’s second of his Batman trilogy and arguably the best super hero movie of all time. Don’t take that last statement as an indictment of the Colts’ play against the Tennessee Titans last week because it was far from a masterpiece. However, it was their best showing in their three outings so I guess it sort of links up. Lets jump off of a rooftop, spread our wings, and try to not get Rachael Dawson killed.
Movie Synopsis
The film is centered around a billionaire playboy that fights crime (dressed as a bat) to avenge his dead parents in a city overrun with crime that is perpetrated by scarecrows, half faced men, and clowns. Yes, I know. Batman does sound extremely silly when you say it like that, but the film is far more serious than that. Why so serious? It is serious because Gotham is struggling to find a hero in world that has gone awry for them. Their only saviors are a man in a bat suit and a man that loses half of his face and bases all of the important decisions he makes on the flip of a coin. The times are bleak internally for our protagonist and he has to bite the bullet and face the fact that he can’t be the person he wants if he wants to save his city as an evil clown torments him at every turn with plans that are outlandish and lack any sort of cohesive sense. Which is where everything starts correlating between the film and the guys with horseshoes on the sides of their helmets.
How it relates to Week 3
Both the film and the team share strikingly strong similarities within the walls of the characters/players close in on what they want to be and start to force them to be who they need to be in order for the city/team to not crumble under the weight of chaos.
Batman
Andrew Luck is the epitome of what Batman is more than any player in the NFL (even if he looked more like Superman with that dive against KC in the 2013 playoffs and actually looks like a Cro-Magnon Wolverine). Batman is a strong individual that mixes his natural talents with the gifts and advantages he was given. Luck grew up in a football household (his father Oliver was a QB for the Oilers), but clearly worked hard to get to where he is. Batman runs around the first film in the series, Batman Begins, as the guy that does everything on his own. He doesn’t need help and really shows the world that he can help the city no matter how ridiculous he looks. Luck was sort of the same way his first three years. He carried the weight of the team on his shoulders and led them to victories that, quite frankly, they didn’t deserve. Luck is not without his faults, but he does far more good than harm. Even as the media and some fans start to turn on him as the citizens of Gotham did to Batman, he stands strong. If Luck’s next three years are similar to this film then we will slowly see him morph into what the fans want him to be and not what he wants to be. He wants to be a game winner and the fans want him to be the game changer. Push too hard and he might have to turn his back on the world and watch it burn.
The Joker
Ryan Grigson is the scar faced wonder in a suit that doesn’t quite look right on him. His plans of action are out of left field at times. He could easily blow up a semi, but he wants to flip it front ways because it looks cooler. He treats coach Pagano like he wants to use him as the volunteer in a disappearing pencil trick. No one truly knows what his end game is and I’m not entirely sure he knows it himself. It almost seems like he’d rather burn a big stack of money than use it for the change he desperately wants to create. We can always ask him how he got his scars came to the decisions he has come to, but I feel the answer would be different every single time and would lead to more confusion and fear. He is trying to force a change in our Batman that doesn’t need to happen and if he pushes too hard maybe it will backfire and cause more chaos in the long run than he ever expected.
Two Face
Andre Johnson relates to the Harvey Dent persona more so than anyone expected he would. Dent is on a crusade to make Gotham a better place and get it over that hump of failure that it has teetered on in the way that Johnson was suppose to give this team an edge it sorely needed. However, Johnson slowly morphed into a bitter man that has done more to harm than city than help it. The Colts seem to be phasing him out, which is good, by giving more time to Moncrief because Johnson just can’t perform like how he use to or to the level that is expected of him. He’s been on both sides of the fence. Coming into the season he touted about how he had plenty in the tank and that Luck was the best he’s ever worked with and now he seems to be okay with riding the bench and feels indifferent about the situations that have befallen him. You hope the unburned half of Johnson can figure it out and become just enough of his old self to boost this city when it matters most. We can at least send him out for the coin toss.
Alfred Pennyworth
Batman’s loyal assistant and unsung hero of the film. How can we not connect him to Frank Gore? They are both wise. They set the pace of the film and on the field. They’re both really old, but still really useful. I kind of wish Gore had a Michael Caine accent though. That’d be great. Gore needs to be utilized more because he compliments Luck and gives him the tools to be a better hero. Gore understands Luck’s needs before Luck does and hopefully Pep Hamilton can learn to understand that too.
Bane
I know Bane wasn’t in The Dark Knight, though this perfectly describes Coby Fleener. Why? Well because both have been non-existent so far, but we know there is something looming around the corner. GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER FLEENER!
The win wasn’t pretty, but it was a win. It should lead to better things to come down the road and the bleak ending that seemed to be imminent can garner a fresh start with our hero figuring out how to adapt to an ever changing and collapsing situation. We know we might not strike gold every time and we will meet some very worthy adversaries in the coming season, but we have to keep fighting the Arkham Asylum of the front office’s shenanigans. With Luck’s injures seeming to be more serious than thought and his potential to sit out against the Jacksonville Jaguars in week 4, we might have to resort to turning on the Matt “Adam West” Hasselbeck bat signal to pull out another win and even ourselves at 2-2. Then maybe the Luck, the Dark Knight, rises when he returns.
