Category:Overview of All Three Movies

The Dark Knight Trilogy successfully depicts the archetypal journey of the hero. In this movie, Bruce Wayne becomes a symbol of justice in a town full of depravity. This ideal or symbol manifests itself into the persona Batman, which is an extremely personal representation of his own fear.

             In Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne’s journey is all fueled by the anger and pain surrounding his parents’ death. He stumbles through a grief stricken world, he numbs out the pain by leaving his past behind. He so desperately wants to bring justice to Gotham but refuses the call because he does not want to be a hero. He then, with proper training by Raz al Gul, crosses the first threshold and accepts the role as a hero. He ends up facing his old mentor, Raz al Gul, and by doing so conquers and manipulates his fear.

             In The Dark Knight, Batman reaches the apex of his physical prowess. But the Joker breaks Batman/Bruce Wayne from a psychological standpoint. The Joker makes the hero, Batman, question his every move from a moral decision. He has to become the villain to be the hero. He takes the blame for Harvey Dent’s death because it is the only way for Gotham to achieve true peace. He draws comparisons to the archetypal Christ figure by sacrificing himself for the greater good.

             In The Dark Knight Rises, Batman’s journey correlates to the archetypal journey of “the task”. Which means that the character is given an egregious task to complete. But when it is completed, so is his journey as this hero. In this case, Bruce Wayne bestows this duty upon himself. It is a conscious and ethical decision by Wayne. Bruce Wayne created Batman as a symbol that could be greater than any humanistic form of justice. Batman did create a form of unparalleled heroic justice in a corrupt city, but he still had not dealt with many issues as Bruce Wayne. It is as if he used Batman to prove his failures as Wayne. In the end, the burden of evil and desire to do good has taken almost everything they had. Nolan keeps Wayne alive because he made the decisive decision to destroy batman and devout himself fully to Bruce Wayne. By doing this, he was freed from his past, or he could at least deal with his past. This is a model example of “the end justifies the means”. Crime is cyclical. There will always be a need for a hero, but that hero must move on because he is human too, there will always be heroes. But for now, he has completed his task and Bruce Wayne’s journey must begin.