Batman Observations- Part 3

The final viewing of Batman offered few new observations. However, there were many elaborations of previous deductions.

1. Batman's sense of "the greater good" is greatly elaborated upon in the final hour of the movie. After the Joker escapes from Gotham's prison, he threatens to blow up a hospital if a specific individual is not killed within the hour. This forces the town into a state of panic. One of Gotham's police officers is in the vehicle with Commissioner Gordon as well as the targeted individual. Bruce Wayne pulls through the red light to save Gordon, the individual, and the officer from getting hurt. After this, in the climax of the movie, Batman has Joker at his finger tips. He could easily do away with him, but he can't because the good in him overpowers the small amounts of evil that conflict him.

2. Vengeance plays a large in the transition of Harvey Dent from Gotham's "White Knight", to "Two-Face". This also elaborates on the Joker's ability to manipulate. He manipulates Dent's mind in believing that Batman and Commissioner Gordon were somehow involved in the death of Rachel Dawes. This is the driving force in the movie's climatic ending.

3. Chance is introduced in this section of the movie, as well. Since the beginning of the Joker's reign, there has been a simple cause and effect relationship between the choices citizens of Gotham can make. Simply stated: if the citizens choose a certain way this will happen, but if they choose another way this will happen instead. Harvey Dent however, relies solely on chance. His father's lucky coin is his aid, and with this coin he almost takes the life of Batman as well as Commissioner Gordon's son. This variable in the post-modern villain "Two-Face" is quite an interesting variation of the typical villain.

4. The question of the Joker's sanity has been questioned since the beginning of the movie. He truly seems mad, yet his plans are clever, devious, and evil. His physical appearance leads us to plead insanity, but his mental capacity goes far beyond that. He explains himself when he converses with Harvey Dent in Gotham General Hospital. He claims that he is an "agent of chaos". He doesn't like to follow the rules, and therefore kills atypical victims in unprecedented ways. This "breaking of the rules" is what causes the chaos that Gotham is constantly experiencing.

5. The most ironic observation made in "The Dark Knight Rises" is that Gotham fervently believes that there is good to be found within the city. Whether it's due to Batman's imminent presence or simply the town's collectively subconscious idea, the idea is very clearly there. Sadly, we don't get to witness this extraordinary feat until the Joker's final game. His "social experiment", where there are two boats in the middle of the river. One is filled with innocent civilians, and the other is filled with criminals. Neither boat detonates a bomb, and thanks to Batman the Joker doesn't detonate the master switch either. This incident then raises the question, is "real-life" society this forgiving?