The Dark Knight Rhetorical Analysis

In a post-9/11 world, national surveillance and the subsequent Patriot Act became national issues in the United States. Is the government’s blatant and unconstitutional disregard for citizen’s privacy necessary for national security? This question dwelled in the consciousness of the post-9/11 American population. In The Dark Knight (2008), Christopher Nolan delves into this controversial subject and uses the heroic, yet morally ambiguous Batman and his cell phone sonar invention to depict the gray line that lingers in this highly contentious debate. During the scene where Batman introduces the new “spy technology” to Lucius Fox, Nolan uses stylistic elements such as lighting, cinematography, costuming, and acting in order to parallel the horror

He lurks in the dark, utilizing borderline inappropriate methods to fight the same fight as Dent and Bruce. Even though he doesn’t kill, he does torture to get the information he needs. Even though Batman has the same goals as his alter ego, Wayne, and Dent, he actually ends up bringing more chaos than order. He created the Joker and Two Face even when he had the best of intentions because he fought in the shadows and had no concern for law and justice. This is incredibly analogous to the world we live in today due to years of intervention in the Middle East and what happened in the Bush presidency. America and Pakistan created the Taliban and propped them up as the resistance to Soviet control in Afghanistan to use them as a proxy for the overall conflict between America and the Soviet Union. This of course only backfired years later and resulted in one of the largest, most powerful terrorist organizations in recent history. Even today, after this movie was created, the U.S. is witnessing the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq with the emergence of ISIS. Throughout the years, America has tried to do what they thought as good, but has always ended up creating

In this scene, Batman is dressed up in a dark costume with a mask that only shows his eyes and mouth. Part of this costume is motivated for the plot, but within the context of this scene, it can represent much more. For example, throughout the entire Nolan trilogy, the mask goes to represent the character of Batman as a whole. It shows that Batman wants to hide his own identity. This could be motivated for many reasons. He could want to protect himself or the ones he loves, but within the context of this scene and allegory, he wears the mask to protect himself from criticism. He knows that his methods are barbaric, and if anyone found out that he was actually Bruce Wayne, people would begin to judge him even when he is not in