Spider-Man and questions of “forgiveness”

Due to the lag between the print and online publishing schedules at one of the papers that I write for, my review of the new Spider-Man movie won’t be up for a while. But suffice to say the movie is an over-stuffed let-down. In the meantime, consider this interview that Sam Raimi did with Entertainment Weekly:

You also seem very suspicious of superhero motives in this movie.
Peter Parker is really still acting on very immature impulses. He’s dressing up in this costume. He’s a vigilante, making a choice that he’s right and others are wrong, and he’s tying them up and acting outside the law. He must have a very high opinion of himself. He holds himself above others. But in fact, he’s a sinner. These people aren’t so foul, and he’s not so pure. The kid’s out of control.

But aren’t some of the things he’s done in the first two pictures genuinely heroic?
What he’s really acting out as an impulse is, I should have stopped that guy that killed my Uncle Ben, but I didn’t. So, I’m gonna stop every next guy, and bring them down. A better lesson might be to understand those that commit wrongs, and aspire to a higher relationship with them. Which might perhaps be forgiveness.

That’s an interesting exchange — but on one level, it just confirms one of the criticisms of the film that I made at the Arts & Faith message board, in conversation with my colleagues Jeffrey Overstreet and Steven D. Greydanus, who both liked the film (but I can’t resist noting that they liked the Star Wars prequels too…).

The criticism that that exchange confirms is this: I noted that the film “lets personal emotions interfere with notions of justice”, partly by asking us to believe that Peter Parker is being “bad” when he enjoys exposing a rival’s wrongdoing, and partly by asking us to believe that Spider-Man is being “good” when… when… Well, that would be a major spoiler. But suffice to say that, as I wrote there, the scene in which Spider-Man “forgives” someone allows “rank sentimentality” to “overwhelm any sense of justice or broader social responsibility”. As I also put it, “the bigger picture doesn’t matter — all that matters is what Spidey FEELS inside.”

To come at it from another angle: Spider-Man has no business forgiving those who have committed crimes against other people.

Suffice to say I much prefer Batman Begins (2005) and the way it explores the relationship between the personal and the social.