Batman or the Joker for Father of the Year

In case you've been under a rock for the past week or so, you'll know that the sequel to "Batman Begins" titled "The Dark Knight" opened last week and smashed all existing box office records for an opening night and opening weekend. The movie has been acclaimed by all manner of audience from the die-hard fan to the casual viewer to the critics. Many people are obviously drawn to see the final screen performance of the late Heath Ledger but mostly they are drawn in to see the movie that so many are raving about. Apparently though there are some people out there who take their fandom a bit too far.

If not taking their fandom too far they are at least getting confused as to which character, the Batman or the Joker, they should be seeking to imitate. What am I saying? Well apparently last Thursday night, the night "The Dark Knight" had its midnight premiere there were lines and crowds all over the country. Some theatres were running shows every fifteen minutes due to there being such huge crowds. In Utah was where David Farnham entered the scene. Seeing as how "The Dark Knight" is rated R for so many different reasons, Farnham apparently did the responsible thing and declined to take his 2-year-old son along. Batman would be proud. Unfortunately, Farnham was apparently determined to see the movie on opening night. So what does he do? He takes his 2-year-old son with him and keeps him in the car with the windows rolled up in 87-degree heat. Granted it was at night but a locked up car is still a locked up car isn't it? The Joker would be proud.

The movie itself runs for about two and a half hours and with previews it's nearly three hours long so imagine sitting in a sauna for about three hours with no ventilation and you get an idea of what Farnham's son probably went through. Luckily fellow theatregoers noticed Farnham's son locked in the car crying and they immediately notified the authorities and theatre managers and managed to get the kid out. Medics found the child a bit dehydrated and distressed but otherwise okay. Farnham, needless to say, was arrested on charges of child endangerment. Now thankfully this episode ended on a relatively positive note but it could have been much worse.

Now I can understand wanting to see the movie bad enough and having to take kids into consideration but do you mean to tell me that there was no alternative for Farnham other than to leave his kid in the car in the parking lot? Even if he didn't want to shell out money for an additional ticket (since someone under 17 can be accompanied by an adult) I'm sure he didn't want to deal with the nasty looks from fellow moviegoers at a kid who could have cried and complained through much of the movie. Not wanting to deal with that potential problem, he decided to do the even less responsible thing and leave his kid in the car. I'm sure there are probably many other things that Farnham could and should have done but that's ultimately his decision. So many people ask themselves, "What would Jesus do?" when confronted with confounding decisions. In Farnham's case, perhaps he should have asked "What would Batman do?" instead of falling into the obvious trap of doing what the Joker would have done.