The Dark Knight- English ESSAY

The Dark Knight, released in 2008 and written, directed and produced by Christopher Nolan is set within a year after the events of Batman Begins. Batman, Lieutenant James Gordon, and new district attorney Harvey Dent successfully begin to round up the criminals that plague Gotham City until a mysterious criminal mastermind known as the Joker appears in Gotham, creating a new wave of chaos. Through the use of various visual codes and conventions the central ideas of Chaos vs Order, Heroes vs Villains and Light vs Dark are reinforced during the final scenes of the film. Viewers of The Dark Knight are challenged to respond to the central themes and ideas and explore the in depth characterization within the film.

The idea of order within Gotham collapses when Harvey Dent, once seen a symbol of order as Gotham’s elected DA declines rapidly and becomes a representation of chaos or anarchy. This is revealed through Harvey Dent’s dialogue at the ending scene in the film, saying “the only morality in a cruel world is chance”. This dialogue is paired with the symbolic action of flipping a scorched 2 headed coin, signifying Harvey’s change from a symbol of order or Gotham’s “white knight” to his decline into chaos. The Joker is known throughout the film as a agent of chaos as he said during this dialogue with Harvey Dent in the hospital “Introduce a little anarchy, upset the established order and everything becomes chaos. I am an agent of chaos. Oh, and you know the thing about chaos? It’s fair.” Throughout the film the key concept of fairness or ‘chance’ is explored and is reinforced during the Harvey’s final moments in the ending scene. Earlier in the film when the joker is being interigated there is a definite sense of tension and escalated anarchy. This atmosphere is captured by the audio of what sounds to be a razor blade running along