By: Matt Stark
With the recent DVD release of this year’s biggest blockbuster, The Dark Knight, I began thinking about the commentary that the film makes on the law. While the Joker, played by Heath Ledger in an Oscar-worthy performance, gets most of the attention from fans and the media, I find the dynamic between Bruce Wayne/Batman and Harvey Dent to be the most interesting element of the film.
Harvey Dent is Gotham City’s District Attorney. He represents the uncompromising moralist, eager to clean up Gotham and to fight the corruption that has infiltrated the city’s government. Batman is Gotham’s “silent guardian” and “watchful protector.” He’s a vigilante who apprehends criminals that have until that point evaded the grasp of the law. Batman works as a sort of agent for the law, helping it along. He never takes justice into his own hands, and he is governed by one personal rule: he doesn’t kill. Wayne believes in the law, and he hopes that one day it can exist and function without Batman. Wayne views Harvey Dent as the realization of that hope. Dent is a force of truth, justice, and honesty working tirelessly within the bounds of the law. He is the moral attorney that can hopefully fuse morality with the law. He is the white knight to Batman’s dark knight. The film acknowledges the absence of a moral dimension within the law, and Dent is a revelation.
While most superhero movies present a clearly defined battle of good versus evil, director Christopher Nolan’s film is far more complex. Harvey Dent’s vision is ultimately frustrated. The corruption the city government coupled with the Joker’s random acts of chaos ultimately leads to the death of Dent’s girlfriend and to his disfigurement. Dent becomes a villain, Two-Face, enacting revenge and carrying out his new version of justice by the flip of a coin. The 50/50 chance of the coin seems just as good a system of justice as a flawed legal system. He becomes a tragic figure, and the audience sympathizes with his need to punish those who have wronged him, even if it means working outside the law.
In the end, Batman takes responsibility for Two-Face’s revenge killings in order to preserve Dent’s reputation. Harvey was the one person that Gotham could believe in, and Batman doesn’t want that image tarnished. If Gotham can’t have hope and faith in the law, the city will destroy itself, and chaos and lawlessness will reign. We need to know that there is a force working to punish wrongful acts, to provide remedies, and to set things right. Batman accepts vilification in order to maintain this ideal, saying “I’m whatever Gotham needs me to be.”
