The Dark Knight is by
far one of my favorite movies of all time, and not just because of Heath
Ledger’s performance as my top fictional character, but because of everything
the movie itself represents. Symbolism and hidden meanings continually show up
throughout the movie through big time pieces like Batman (representing order),
The Joker (representing chaos), and Harvey “Two-Face” Dent (representing pure
chance) as well as other small characters including Rachel (representing
innocence), Harvey’s fiancé, and Detective Gordon, later named Commissioner
Gordon by the end of the movie. The film as a whole conveys a constant battle
between chaos, order, and chance as three interlocked fingers of a hand, or
better yet, the pieces of a chess board each with their own purpose. But it
also follows a specific pattern/structure of storytelling.
The villain is clearly
established at the beginning of the movie and so is the supposed hero/vigilante
who occasionally gets help from the police. As a viewer, you know that the
movie has to end in some resolve but you watch to see just how this resolve
plays out. One of the big components of this viewing is the semiotics within
each character or underlying symbol/object. Starting with The Joker, everything
he does from his first arrival on screen is done to convey some sort of chaos
or disorder. From the way he walks and talks, to how he can be laughing with
you at one point and blowing your head off at the next, The Joker openly
challenges Batman, who has become a sense of order and rule towards the
villains and thugs of Gotham City. As seen in many pieces of literature, when a
battle between chaos and order erupts, the thing swallowed up most between the
two is innocence. This is seen through the death of Rachel in one of The
Joker’s schemes against the GCPD and Batman in which they had to choose between
Harvey and Rachel while trying to save both.
At this point I should
note that many, if not all, of Joker’s actions are carried out with one
specific point to be made, and I love that they stated this comic accurate
phrase in the movie. His overall message is that anyone, even the most noble
people, can be corrupted after just one bad day, a phrase famous in “Batman:
The Killing Joke”. He successfully completes this with the heart and star of
Gotham City, Harvey Dent, by taking away Harvey’s love in a traumatizing event
and eventually Harvey is drove to the state of a killer who murders you solely
based on chance and the flip of a coin. However, The Joker was also
unsuccessful in getting citizens and inmates to blow each other up with the
threat of their own demise hanging in front of them.
Moving on to the hero of
the film, we see Batman struggle with this specific villain more than with
anyone he has in the past. That might be because the actions of this enemy
aren’t governed by the common wants or desires of a normal thug. The Joker
doesn’t care for money (something we see as he openly burns more than a million
dollars in cash without hesitation), fame or recognition. As stated by Alfred
in the movie, “some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They
can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to
watch the world burn”. This quote by Alfred also plays into a similar quote by
The Joker himself when talking with Batman in an interrogation room in which he
is trying to convince Batman that they are alike, and that the civilians are
the real monsters. “They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll
show you. When the chips are down, these... these civilized people, they'll eat
each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve.”
A noteworthy view of the
movie is not only the actions which take place in the movie, but the structure
of the camerawork as well. One example of this would be the constant cutting
over the shoulder camera work when Batman, Harvey, and Gordon are all meeting
on the roof. With the camera constantly circling the three, it helps to
establish as well as showcase the constant and frantic pace shown throughout
the movie. Even in the final scenes of the film, the camera is constantly
cutting between Batman running away, the police arming up and beginning a
chase, and Gordon having to break the Bat Signal, a sign that the trust between
Batman and Gordon must now stay hidden as they share their dark secret about
the truth of Harvey while painting the image that Batman has gone rogue.
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