Blog Entry #8

Final Scene of the Dark Knight
First off the theme of this movie is even the best of men are capable of becoming evil. The Joker proves this by turning Gotham's white knight insane with one really bad day. This theme is told didactically through the conversation between Gordon and Batman at the beginning of this scene.

The rhythm of this scene is Batman being chased paralleled by Gordon public eulogy of Harvey Dent. What Gordon explains to his son at the end of the scene is an example of affinity to his eulogy speech at the beginning because Batman is the true hero of Gotham by keeping Harvey's image alive. The contrast is seen as how Batman and Harvey are both portrayed from the same speech. As Batman says, the people of Gotham deserve more than the truth because they show that they are not all inherently evil (shown by the two boat ferries scene). The rhythm of this scene bounces between people covering up the truth to keep others safe: the eulogy, Alfred burning Rachel's note (that reveals that she wouldn't wait for him despite Bruce's beliefs), Lucius Fox destroying the sonar machine to preserve the privacy of the public, Gordon destroying the bat signal and Batman running away so he becomes the enemy. The movement of this scene is a climax to build to Gordon's final line, "A Dark Knight". Once Batman reveals to Gordon that it should be him thats is charged for the killing of the dead the music begins to build and continues as rhythm bounces from cover up to cover up. The movement and rhythm are in sync in this scene as the both increase in intensity. Conscious and subconscious comes into play between the white and dark knight. Batman associated with being vigilante and a criminal makes him the dark knight while Harvey cleaning up the streets and being a martyr makes him the white knight.