A lesson on Getting Even
From Tim Burtons Batman Returns (1992).
In this iteration The Penguin spent his early childhood as a Circus Freak who then literally resurfaces to society in an apparent act of heroism to run for Mayor. Suspecting false motives and foul play, Batman/Bruce Wayne investigates this new public figures background.
Looking for clues to the motives of this mysterious figure, Bruce Wayne does his detective work in the Bat cave, studying the background of this person to find out what he is trying to actually gain by exposing himself to the public and running for office like this. During the research, his butler Alfred serves him a bowl of soup. Bruce lifts a spoonful to his mouth, expecting hot liquid and, like a person taking a swig of milk they thought was water, reacts with alarm and confusion.
Bruce: It’s cold!
Alfred: Its a vichyssoise, Sir….
Bruce: [looks confused]…
Alfred: It’s *supposed* to be cold.
For the longest time I had no idea why in the hell this random irrelevant scene was in the movie. And then I realized the symbolism and appreciated it that much more.
While Bruce is researching the origins of The Penguin’s life, he is actually coming across exactly the motives for the suspected criminal activity he’s looking for, but he hasn’t yet realized it. After tasting the soup and being assured that the temperature of it is by design of the dish, he returns to his research and finds out that the Circus the Penguin was featured at was burned, with at least one performing having vanished. Alfred then asks if this revelation has made Bruce feel better. Bruce replies “no… actually I feel worse”. We don’t immediately know why, but in the larger context of the movie, it becomes clear what had just happened…
Bruce/Batman knew that there was an ulterior motive to The Penguins public relations scheme but didn’t know what it was. He knew that The Penguin was involved in a crime syndication in Gotham but didn’t know what dots to connect between that and the public exposure of The Penguin as a media darling and figure of sympathy. Was he going to steal something in a heist that required government involvement? Did he need to take control over a political wing that would facilitate smuggling or fluidity of his criminal operations? None of the above… The Penguin, as it turns out, was not a petty criminal like Tim Burtons version of the Joker in the previous movie of this series, nor an anti-hero like Catwoman, but rather a full blown Super Villain. And in classic Super villain motivation, the Penguin is compensating for feelings of rejection and victimhood via chaos that reflects the chaos he feels was unjustly stirred within him when he was most vulnerable and his motive is not a heist or monetary gain but rather scale-balancing revenge.
It isn’t until near the end of the movie that we find out that the Penguins seemingly diligent work ethic as a politician – spending late snowy December nights working – was actually part of his plot for vengeance in that he was using the city records to transcribe family lineage to pull a “Prince of Egypt” and force Gotham city to suffer the same indignity that he did as a child.
The Penguin/Oswald Cobblepot: It’s time… These are the names of the first born sons of Gotham City, just like I was. And just like me, a terrible fate awaits them. Tonight, while their parents party, they’ll be sleeping in their safe cribs, their soft beds. And we will catch them, carry them into the sewer and toss them into a deep, dark watery grave!
Even his henchmen have a “wait, really? whoah…” response to the revelation that the Penguins plot has been a decade+ long plot for twisted justice.
The soup scene is foreshadowing all of this via symbolism in where Bruce was operating off of expectations that fit in with normal experiences. With the soup, he expected it to be hot and with the Penguin, he expected a more cookie-cutter criminal motive. Instead, the soup was cold and the Penguins past suggested much darker and deeper meaning.
The Penguin does not desire wealth or small-scale criminal maneuvering – he desires revenge. and like the vichyssoise, it is “a dish best served cold”…
THE LESSON
The meaning behind this phrase is that enacting revenge when its “hot”, i.e. when you are feeling the full rage of the crime committed against you, you are unlikely to achieve a balancing result because you haven’t the information, planning, or resources with which to succeed. A plot over time, however, can yield the justice you’re looking for by putting work into preparation, knowledge, and strategy. Thus the “colder” your revenge, the more effective a balance you can achieve.
This contrasts Batman’s heroic life-path choice in the face of pain suffered through injustice in where he decides to dedicate a life to preventing innocents from experiencing that same pain, we are shown the villain life-path choice of the Penguin in where his conclusion is “I have experienced pain, and thus I will force innocents to experience that pain with me”.
The lesson is that (in super villain terms) – is that running into the streets, guns blazing, will get you no where except arrested and jailed forever over a few random victims – thus giving up everything for a rush of feeling good. Instead, a smart super villain has to be the Penguin at the end of the clip with his quil pen and monocle, busily working on a snowy December night – and of course the better option is to be the hero version of that, like Batman, whom on that same night was furthering his own quest that was the mirror image of the Penguins pursuit (preventing harm to the innocence as a way to balance his own scales of injustice).
If the Penguin sought revenge too early, he would have been easily stopped and thwarted with minimal effect, but because his plan was years and years in the making, only an equal level of chess playing like that of the Batman could stop him.
The lesson here is 1) to not act hottly but rather put in the work to be effective, and 2) do so for good – even if vengeance and injustice is your fuel.
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