×
s

Christopher Nolan's 'The Dark Knight' Ending Explained

This trilogy became one of the most critically acclaimed versions of the caped character, receiving high praise for both the cast and the director.

Cover Image Source: IMDb

Batman has always been cemented in people’s minds as the somewhat ambiguous masked crusader. Faced with hypocrites and the seedy bowels of Gotham City, the hero is often forced to take justice upon his own hands, according to SlashFilm.



 

Christopher Nolan’s Batman, in The Dark Knight, is one that completely changed the game for Christian Bale’s predecessors. It didn’t have to be grotesque and dramatic like Tim Burton’s but could lurk in the shadows as a project that toes the line between bleak and gory. 

But Nolan dresses his Batman in dry humor and the perils of taking something too seriously. Heath Ledger’s Joker is prodding and humoring the edges of Gotham’s chaos while district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) takes on the ridiculous mantle that a systemic rot can be uprooted by one man slithering in the shadows. Like a comedy of errors, the film etches its presence as a mockery of the current system.



 

However, it became quite clear that in its attempt to remain ‘apolitical,’ it invited a lot of commentary on how Gotham and Bruce Wayne is a reflection of the American Presidency of George W. Bush during the 9/11 catastrophe. There are disagreements that the film is actually about society’s desire for a scapegoat. The author of the SlashFilm article disagrees with both saying that the film set up a muddled political context that left too much to interpretation.



 

The Joker’s obsession with blowing things up and causing chaos is calculated but messy enough to go back on his words and his understanding of what this city needs. Essentially, there is no difference between Ducard’s Ra’s Al Ghoul and the Joker. Injecting mass hysteria is something both of them achieved. It seems like the purpose with which the Joker decided to capture Gotham City was lost. Absolute freedom or in this case anarchy should’ve been welcomed with joy. But the rotting corpse of Gotham City is one unable to handle that slack of a grip.



 

This author would like to point out that Gotham City’s mentality mimics our own to an insulting level. Our world drowns in chaos and we continue to fight for survival while the one percent takes the chance to solve problems they created in the first place. The fact that there are necessary evils like Batman changes the way we view evils themselves. Our actions border on empathy and kindness while the world becomes a pawn for a larger game.