The Dark Knight: Reflections on Human Nature

SPOILER ALERT: Parts of the movie will be used and discussed in my post, so if you haven't watched it, and don't want me to accidentally ruin the movie for you, go watch it, I highly recommend it. Oh and by the way: STOP HERE.

After watching the highly-anticipated The Dark Knight on the big screen, I realized that this movie was amazing not only the action level. As many people have seen or heard, the late Heath Ledger's performance of the Joker was simply ridiculous, well played, and certainly the "newer, better class of criminal" that has the Batman busy in Gotham. After all, he's a man of his word.

But not only was Ledger's acting of the Joker superb, merely the character brought up very interesting points about human society as we know it. The "social experiment" that the Joker did with the two ferries, one filled with convicts, the other with innocent men, women and children. As both boats are rigged with oil barrels and explosives, the Joker throws the people onboard an interesting, and possibly sick twist to it. In their own hands, they hold the detonator to trigger the other boat's demise. The Joker tells them that they have 15 minutes to decide whether or not they'll detonate the other boat, as if neither boat decides to do it, he promises to blow both boats up.

In this predicament, we see that initially, that the citizens were very set on blowing up the convicts' boat, as "they made a choice to break the law." After 10 minutes of an absurd "vote" onboard, we realize that the convicts had no intention of blowing up the other boat, and the citizens also didn't want to dirty their own hands by mercilessly condemning hundreds of people to death. As Batman had put it, "Gotham has citizens ready to see the light, that they are waiting for the good in people." Social experiments have always been interesting to me, and most of them involving money prizes and such, there is always one or two individuals that end up being too greedy to be a "team player." However, when lives are stake, people seem to concern their morals and ethics more carefully. This gives me quite a nice, positive outlook on humanity and the future.

The other major note on human nature I saw, was that about relationships between people. Batman, or Bruce Wayne, has always had a thing for his childhood friend, Rachel Dawes. Now, from before, we must realize that Rachel had told Bruce that "once Gotham no longer needs a Batman", they could be together. We see that she means it, but at the same time, is living her normal life, and thus another guy enters into her life, the charismatic District Attorney, Harvey Dent. Of course, she's always hesitant when Harvey asks her to marry him, but at the end, you see that even though "Patience is a Virtue," my addition to that line would be "...but Patience often fails the test of Time."

Of course, this film tells us that in reality, there is not always a happy ending, and that Good might not always be able to conquer Evil. As for Batman vs. Joker, my take on why Bruce could not kill the Joker, despite having around 10 different occasions to do so, is because he realizes that he needs the Batman, and that the only reason for Batman to continue to thrive in Gotham, is to track and hunt the Joker. As in their relationship, the "Agent of Chaos" is necessary for the "Vigilante of the Night" to continue in Gotham. Much more complex than your simple Good vs. Evil, hmm?