Batman

I had been anticipating the return of Batman to the silver screen after watching Chris Nolan's Batman Begins. The Dark Knight was entertaining and delivered much more than I expected. This film raises many great ideas, but in particular posed the question - can good exist without evil and vice versa?


The conflict between good and evil is one of the most common conventional themes in literature, and is sometimes considered to be a universal part of the human condition. Let's explore this by exploring some of the characters that are pivotal to the story of The Dark Knight:

The Joker is the villain in the movie. His aim is to test humanity. He isn't in it for the money, rather he wants to experiment to see how he can manipulate individuals. He has a strong interest in the human psyche - what drives us, what makes us tick? He is constantly testing society to find if good people can turn bad. We can see this with his experiment with Harvey Dent.

Harvey Dent represents the white knight. The good guy who wants to wipe out corruption and "fix" society. He's the pin up boy that everyone is cheering for, to clean society and bring justice against corruption using the power of the law.

Batman is the dark knight. The vigilante who does the work that no one else wants to do. He doesn't follow society's laws, but his own set of morals. Batman feels that Harvey Dent is the new protector of the city and the people will no longer need him, he can hand the mantle over to Dent as he is the white knight that Gotham city needs. Dent has the power of the law behind him and Batman recognizes his full potential to be the hero that Gotham wants.

The movie runs for about 2 and a half hours and is full of some great concepts and ideas, including the following:

• White knight vs. Dark Knight - The hero Gotham needs vs. the hero Gotham city wants.
• The idea that anyone given the right situation could turn evil.
• This is personified in the "Joker's" character. Was he insane or did his character personify just pure evilness? I believe, Alfred sums it up best:

“Some men aren't looking for anything logical. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

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Overall, I think this movie has something for everyone. If you like a good story, you got it, if you like action, there’s plenty. If you want thought provoking tid-bits to talk about later, well you got that too. Definitely go see The Dark Knight in cinemas.