Trauma and PTSD IN BvS: Showing Instead of Telling

Since I have memory, I loved watching movies and TV shows. This love became especially strong in my teenage years, where I had one show and a storyteller that marked me. That show was The West Wing (TWW), and that writer was Aaron Sorkin. The characters, stories, speeches, and the drama he wrote were so powerful that I became enamored with his style. Followed him through the years in different TV shows and movies both as a writer and more recently as a director.

As I grew older, I discovered another storyteller that marked me. This time a more visual one, that used the film medium in its full potential and delivered stories that touched me emotionally but also connected me to the craft of filmmaking like nobody else did. This filmmaker was Zack Snyder. I first became interested in his movies with Watchmen, but what really fired my passion for his movies were Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition (BvS). His style, with his visuals and the way he collaborates with other artists deliver these movies that look beautiful. On a personal note, his movies have connected me with characters I loved since I was a kid in a way I never imagined possible.

Though very different storytellers, there are at least two things they have in common. First one is the use of their surnames as nouns to show their very particular style. Sorkin is all about the words to build a story. Very fast, quite expositional, but very poetic and dramatic. Snyder is a visual storyteller in the best way possible. Building stories (and moving them forward) with both jaw-dropping but also subtle visual cues in every frame. He uses this style to build stories that usually challenge us, makes us uncomfortable, but if you engage with his art, the social commentary in it is very powerful. While different artists, they both have a blink-and-you-miss-it kind of style.

The second thing they have in common, which is the basis for this article, is that they both crafted powerful stories about trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Sorkin did it through Joshua Lyman (played by Bradley Whitford) in the episode Noël in TWW. Snyder did it in Batman v Superman through Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne. And while Noël was praised (as every Christmas episode during Sorkin’s tenure in TWW) and earned Bradley Whitford an emmy, BvS was highly polarizing, and Affleck was somewhat criticized for his performance as Bruce Wayne.

Part of the criticism to BvS can be explained by Warner Brothers decision to cut roughly 30 minutes of the movie for theatrical release (which were restored in the Ultimate Edition of the movie). However, I do believe that Affleck’s acting, together with the visual cues in the movie showing the trauma he is going through are often overlooked (and sometimes even mocked, especially in its culmination). So, in this essay I wanted to showcase through Sorkin’s Noël, with its brilliant and exposition-heavy dialogue, how one can shed light on the subtler storytelling, acting, and visual cues that show the trauma and PTSD Bruce Wayne is going through BvS. This is purely meant as an illustrative exercise that aims to bring things that might be overlooked at first glance but are important to understand what the character is going through in the movie.♦︎

To do this, first I have to do a brief exposition on what Noël is about. This episode (Episode 8 in Season 2) is about Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford), one of the top aides to the president of the United States (Josiah Bartlet played by Martin Sheen), experiencing PTSD after having been shot and having been close to dying at the beginning of the season. The whole episode is centered around a trauma specialist (Dr. Stanley Keyworth played impressively by Adam Arkin) helping Josh understand what he is experiencing. Josh, a character known for his egotistical behaviors, is quite the tough patient being prone to rejecting any type of help. Throughout the episode Dr. Keyworth disarms him and helps him understand his diagnosis (PTSD) by going through different things Josh has been experiencing at work during the last three weeks. Their interactions and dialogue showcase how to recognize patterns to diagnose PTSD and is what I mostly will use to create parallels to Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne situation throughout BvS.

So, let’s start from the beginning of Noël where Dr. Keyworth tries directly to engage with Josh about what happened during the shooting he lived. Immediately, Josh is defensive and dismissive, like nothing happened (Image 1). In the case of Bruce Wayne this plays very similar to his first conversation with Alfred in the movie. Bruce becomes defensive as if nothing has changed and his behavior is the same as always. Alfred knows Bruce had a traumatic experience recently during the Black Zero event in Metropolis. Watching thousands of people dye around him while being completely powerless to do anything about it. While Alfred insists on how experiencing this could affect Bruce, Ben Affleck’s subtle acting shows how dismissive he is of this take (Image 2).

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In Noël, a second sign that Dr. Keyworth mentions as important is Josh’s friends being worried about his behavior during the last three weeks. This is also constantly shown in the episode (Image 3). In BvS nobody is telling you explicitly that friends are worried about Bruce behavior, but this is patently clear from almost every interaction between him and Alfred, which in the movie seems to be his only friend (Image 4).

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Next in TWW episode, as soon as Josh starts telling the events of the last three weeks, the White House montage opens with musical instruments (a brass quintet). This is a visual/sound cue that later is going to be explicitly explained how important it is. As Dr. Keywoth describes to Josh, this is how it starts. For him, the bagpipes equate to police sirens, and he starts slowly reliving the shooting (Image 5). In BvS there is also a sound cue that is subtler. Instead of Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne hearing something that equates to a sound from the moment of his recent trauma, he is having recurring nightmares that start with the sound of the World Engine. This only lasts for seconds and is easy to miss. But this sound clearly reflects the weapon that created mass destruction in Metropolis and is hard to forget. In the movie, Bruce has two dreams, where both start with this distinctive sound. Since these are dreams, he probably does not know consciously what is going on, but unconsciously this suggests that throughout a good part of BvS he is reliving this traumatic experience. Moreover, the fact that we, as an audience, see two dreams/nightmares of him, might suggest that he is constantly having these types of dreams. Even the visual cue of him drinking and taking pills to forget his dreams goes in this direction (Image 6).★

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Back to Noël, there is another plot point associated with Josh’s PTSD. An air force pilot, who had sustained injuries during combat, commits suicide by crashing his plane into a mountain. On top of this, Josh and the pilot share the same birthday. Dr. Keyworth pushes Josh to talk about this, to think whether knowing about these coincidences with the pilot pushed Josh over. To act in ways that are not common for him and to consider whether he should also be dead (Image 7). In the case of Bruce Wayne there is also something that pushes him over. It is the moment where Superman is in Congress to testify and suddenly there is a huge bombing inside the Capital building. At that same moment, he is also receiving little red notes in checks that are supposed to be going to survivors from the Black Zero event. These notes reinforce how powerless he is about everything, how he is not doing anything for people that were affected by this tragedy. In the case of this plot point, we know both things are not a coincidence (like Josh birthday with the pilot) as they are orchestrated by Lex Luthor (Image 8).

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Then, we get to one of the climactic points of TWW episode. Dr. Keyworth encourages Josh to talk about a particular meeting in the Oval Office with the president. Before even remembering the event Josh very explicitly states that there is a line you never, ever cross. That line is raising the voice in the Oval Office and disrespecting the office of the president. This is at the heart of most of the characters in the show. The West Wing is about a group of highly passionate individuals working for the president to improve the country. All of them have the utmost respect for the president both as an individual, but also for the office that he is representing. However, as Josh goes through remembering the Oval Office meeting, it is patently clear that he is not listening to anyone and completely snaps at the president for not listening to him. President Bartlet’s face expression when Josh crosses this line makes his aide snap out of his behavior. Following this, Leo McGarry (the Chief of Staff) takes Josh to his office and explicitly states that Josh probably was not fully conscious when he was going at the President. The show is clearly telling us that Josh’s PTSD is so strong that he probably is not being fully conscious of his actions. This is the first time during the episode where it is suggested by one of his colleagues that Josh needs professional help from a trauma specialist (Image 9).

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This helps us shed some light on different cues in BvS about Bruce Wayne’s behavior. After the capitol bombing and the little red notes, we start also approaching one of the climactic points in this story. Bruce face and actions after this point reflect very much, he is not listening to anyone and is completely captured by his PTSD. He does not listen to Alfred, is completely on his own trying to device how to kill Superman. Even when Superman tries to talk with him, Bruce does not listen and goes into full battle mode. During the whole battle he never interacts with Superman, he is just talking on his own. There are also dialogue cues that shows us he is doing whatever he can to not think he is thinking about taking a life. He dehumanizes Superman at every turn. We get to the point where he defeats Superman and has him in a position where he is getting ready to kill him. While there is no explicit dialogue about crossing a line, the editing of the movie (and previous cues) implicitly tells us this is a key moment. Batman is about to cross that line, is about to become an executioner (Image 10).

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We get to a point where we see Bruce Wayne not fully conscious and about to cross a sacred line. Dr. Keyworth and TWW episode explicitly tells us these two are potentially related with PTSD. While Josh in the Oval office snaps out of his unconsciousness after crossing that line, Batman is going to be snapped out of his PTSD by Superman’s words about “Martha”. This stops Batman on his feet. Even more, this is the first time he starts interacting with Superman asking why he is mentioning Martha. This is our first cue that Batman is not in this fully unconscious blind mode anymore. At this point we get several visual and musical cues that tells us a lot more about how he is snapping out of his PTSD. Recognizing what he is about to do, regaining consciousness about his actions. First, we get an image of him going to his parents’ tombs. Then a shot of Martha Wayne’s tomb. These images are a shorter version of what we see during Bruce’s first dream/nightmare earlier in the movie. Immediately after seeing Martha’s tomb we get an image of the gun that kills Bruce’s parents. This combination of images visually suggests to us that Bruce is realizing that he is about to become his mother’s killer. There is also an interesting interplay with Bruce’s dream and his subconscious and this moment that replays part of that dream. In that dream, Bruce watches a window with an archangel with (looking eerily like Superman) that is watching over the tombs of Martha and Thomas Wayne. In the dream, a bat-monster desecrates Martha’s tomb. Symbolically, Batman has become this monster that is destroying Bruce Wayne’s mother, while Superman is watching over the legacy of Bruce’s parents. In the movie, after Bruce wakes up from this dream he starts drinking and taking pills to forget what his subconscious is telling him. The mention of Martha’s name transports him to this dream, bringing this whole thinking to his conscious part. Is he about to become his mother’s killer by destroying the man who is trying to do good and is a good guardian to the Wayne’s legacy? The musical cue during this montage also goes in this direction. As we see Bruce in his dream, the song “A Beautiful Lie” starts playing. This song also plays at the beginning of the movie where Bruce’s voiceover tells the audience that the bats (representing Batman) were supposed to take him to the light, which he discovers was a beautiful lie. The beautiful lie can be interpreted in different ways. One of them is that Batman was supposed to relief him of this trauma by doing good, by stopping killers, executioners like Joe Chill (who killed his parents). But this was a lie, as he is about to become Joe Chill himself. There is also a visual detail suggesting this, where Batman before he is about to kill Superman, is standing in the middle of two columns with writing that seems to be "Joe Mr. Chill" in them (Image 11).

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Affleck’s acting at this point is full of interesting cues. After reliving his dreams, he is first showing anger while interacting with Superman, trying to understand the million things that are happening to him inside. This shows an initial degree of coming back to his consciousness. However, this anger changes to full realization of what he is about to do. This happens after Lois Lane appears and states that Martha is also Clark’s mother. Bruce is recognizing Superman is a human being, a man, someone that has a mother. And Bruce was about to murder him, just as Joe Chill killed his mother. He falls to his knees, and his face at this point is showing shame and throws the weapon he was about to use as far as possible (in his back you can even see another time the word Joe written in a column). This shame that he feels when he recognized what he almost did is also what leads to his promise to Superman that “Martha won’t die tonight” (Image 12). Much like Bradley Whitford in TWW when he snaps at the president, I find Ben Affleck’s acting during this moment highly impactful. With his face partly covered, he is able to show a range of emotions representing what Bruce Wayne is going through inside of him, which is quite complex. All the way up to his shame, showing that he was not himself. He was not conscious about his thinking and actions, blinded by his trauma and PTSD. He shows he understands he was wrong, completely mistaken about Superman and his actions.

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While I have described many parallelisms between these two trauma stories, there is also a slight difference which is an important one. Noël is about a quite recent traumatic experience (the Rosslyn shooting) that is being relived by a character. BvS instead revolves around two layered traumas in Bruce’s psyche. A more recent one (the Black Zero event), that is connected to a deeper traumatic experience (the death of his parents). Both, make him feel powerless. The most foundational one give rise to Batman and his search for regaining control by trying to stop what happened to his parents. However, by doing it long enough (20 years in Gotham) this has weared him down. Feeling again powerless. This feeling is exacerbated by the Black Zero event, where the presence of superhuman beings highlight even more how tiny and powerless Bruce feels. In a way, this story structure gives more strength to Bruce’s PTSD feeling. While it is about the PSTD coming of a recent trauma, this is intertwined with this character’s defining traumatic experience. It is about his legacy. Not surprisingly, Snyder opens up the movie with these two scenes (the Wayne’s murder and Bruce point of view during the Black Zero event) highlighting how they are a key piece to understand who Bruce Wayne is, but also what he is going through as the movie opens up (Image 13). Feeling powerless and subdued by his recent traumatic experience that brings back up memories of his most foundational traumatic experience.

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In the end, the dialogue in Noël by a trauma specialist describe extremely well the visual, acting, and musical cues we see linked to Bruce Wayne during BvS. Friends being worried about recent behavior (Alfred throughout the movie), sounds that transport implicitly or explicitly a person to relive a recent trauma (World Engine sound). Events that exacerbate the feeling of recent trauma (Capitol Bombing/You let your family die). Partial or full loss of consciousness about actions (Bruce not listening to both Alfred and Clark). Potential to cross lines that are never to be crossed (Batman about to execute Superman). Almost impossible to snap out of this state, unless extreme circumstances happen (“Martha”). Even the ending of Noël suggest that we get better, there is healing which is also linked to Bruce speech (“Men are still good”) about rebuilding and being able to do better (Image 14). Interestingly, while Noël tells you about PTSD, how it is triggered, what actions are linked to it, BvS shows it to you, without even once mentioning the words trauma or PTSD. This describes perfectly the styles of the artists behind both pieces of art. And while the subtler and less explicit story took me longer to engage with, once I did, I discovered a powerful story about trauma and PTSD, involving characters I loved since I was a child. And only recently and to my surprise, I realized this trauma story about Bruce Wayne/Batman was as powerful as the one I used to engage quickly and repeatedly during my teenage years watching The West Wing. Both marked me, as the storytellers behind them, and I will always cherish that.

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♦︎ While this exercise is built around Noël’s brilliant dialogue, the episode has many other acclaimed characteristics. The direction by Thomas Schlamme is masterful, as is the editing, sound, and acting. All of them make this one of the best episodes of the series.

★ For me it is interesting that differently, in his only dream (the Knightmare) in Zack Snyder’s Justice League you cannot hear this sound. This dream takes place after Superman’s death and rebirth, which might signal a slow recovery from his traumatic experience.