The Dark Knight Batman taking the blame for The Two Face murders

[Spidey-Lad93]

In the Movie you had a psychopath in The Joker who was killing people through out the movie instead Batman decide to protect the legacy of Harvey Dent by saing he was the one who killed those people why didn't he just say it was the Joker

 

[The Endless]

A question i too have always asked.

But sometimes you've gotta separate your literal thinking and focus on the bigger theme.

 

[The Joker]

First of all The Joker was taken into custody after the Prewitt Building situation when Dent was killed. Second Batman and Gordon would never frame someone else for several murders, even someone like the Joker. Batman took the blame willingly for a greater good.

 

[jonathancrane]

The Joker is correct.

 

[Travesty]

I don't really see it as "the greater good". I see it as nonsensical. We were told throughout BB that he wanted to be a symbol, that he wanted to shake people out of apathy. And of course, you start to see that at the beginning of TDK, ie., people are seeing Batman as a positive symbol in Gotham, criminals are scared of him, DAs are now fighting against the mob(with help from Batman), etc. But then to just throw away the already positive symbol, in order to protect the legacy of a man who turned insane(also for nonsensical reasons), is just a bit counter productive.

Now, don't get me wrong. I understand why they wanted to protect Harvey's name/legacy, but why do that while also tarnishing Batman's? Batman himself is already regarded as a positive symbol to stand up to the criminals and unjust. Why throw all that away, just so Harvey is the only "true" hero? Why not both? Why not just cover up his murders? But of course, they used a scapegoat(who was the actual hero and not the villain), instead of just keeping all of these murders "unsolved mysteries".

The better option if they needed a scapegoat: blame it all on one of Joker's dead goons. Problem solved, and Batman could still work, and help stop criminals like Selina, who obviously had a mile long rap sheet. But at the same time, you wouldn't have this weird uplifting speech from Gordon at the end, which now makes no sense, since TDKR came out.

 

[Doctor Octopus]

It is not nonsensical. Batman sees in TDK that Harvey Dent is a better symbol than Batman ever can be. Harvey does not inspire murderous copycat vigilantes and things like that.

Batman's rep got tarnished more because of the Joker. Everyone wanted Batman to turn himself in and blamed him for Joker's madness, like Mrs. Gordon saying Batman brought that craziness on them. The Mayor was also being asked on TV when were they going to arrest the Batman.

Harvey was a much cleaner, safer, and better symbol than Batman. We polish up our symbols all the time. How many times do you hear ugly things such as:

- Gandhi referred to Africans as kaffirs (basically same as American N******) when he was a young lawyer in South Africa

- Documented recordings revealing Martin Luther King Jr running sexual trains with prostitutes with fellow members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

- A panel of experts at BU censored MLK for plagiarizing his doctoral dissertation

- Nelson Mandela organized terrorist attacks for the ANC prior to being sent to prison

- Mother Theresa stopped believing in the Christian God towards the end of her life

The failings of "heroes" are often covered up because the community is served by the good that they symbolize. The stuff like MLK's plagiarizing and sexual indiscretion weren't disclosed for DECADES because it would ruin their legacy

Blaming it on a dead Joker goon is silly because it would not have worked. There was no dead Joker goon at the site where Harvey died. There was only Batman, Commissioner Gordon, Harvey, and Gordon's wife and children. The Police had made a perimeter around the building.

 

[Travesty]

The cops came, because Batman asked Gordon to call it in. If he didn't call it in, they could have put the blame on anybody or covered up Harvey's body to begin with. Since he was conveniently missing from the hospital, and nobody knew where he was.

And yes, blaming it on one of Joker's goons is silly. Just as silly as Batman taking the blame to begin with.

 

[Doctor Octopus]

That is not true. Gordon said to Harvey when the Cops arrived that they knew there was situation and were creating a perimeter. Batman only told Gordon to call them in after Harvey died and they decided he would take the blame. But the Police were already there long before that.

I'm sorry but I don't agree with you that it's silly Batman took the blame.

 

[saborlord123]

Yeah it's pretty weird they just didn't blame the Joker for the murders.

 

[Herofan]

The decision for Batman to take the blame feels pretty myopic, like they knew the movie was ending soon and thought the Joker wouldn't be able to escape again and Batman wouldn't ever be needed again otherwise, to either save from another villain or to set a positive example for the city.

 

[Brother Jack]

People often ignore the character motivation for Batman taking the blame. An essential part of the reasoning is that Bruce feels responsible for the murders and for Dent's fall as a whole. And from a certain point of view, he was. The whole film is about the consequence of Batman's existence in Gotham and Bruce's naivety toward the negative ramifications, and so the ending is him taking ownership of it all.

 

[shauner111]

And yet it still wasn’t necessary. I love the ending because of the music, the rhythm of that whole scene with Gordon’s speech. The way Batman says “I...killed those people” with the score hitting that deep note at the exact line delivery from Bale.

But it doesn’t make a lick of sense. All they had to do was stop feeling guilty for a minute and think logically. Blame it on a Joker follower/kidnapper. Say he got away. Gordon’s family tells the police that this is all true. Harvey arrived with Batman to try to stop this Joker nut. Dent died in the process after a scuffle with the clown. Batman was shot right before so he couldn’t save Harvey.

Bingo. Harvey still dies as the hero. Joker gets all the blame. Batman can still operate in Gotham until he decides to hang it up, while the ppl see Bats as their hero. He’s not a fugitive.

Does it bother me? No. The final scene is epic. And it works better this way as a movie ending. I wouldn’t change it. But does it actually make sense? No it just doesn’t. It’s there for the sake of a cooler cinematic finale. Once that happened, and they went to put pen to paper on a sequel, they had to create Rises based around the idea of Batman being a fugitive.

 

[BatLobster]

I mean, I think the plots of most movies could be pretty easily negated if you drilled down on "what would be the absolute most logical thing the characters do here?".

Mind you, Gordon doesn't initially like the idea. It happens because like @Brother Jack said, Bruce/Batman feels responsible for what happened to Dent/Rachel (he says so to Dent) and he decides to take the blame, not only to protect Dent's reputation but because I think he genuinely views his mission of inspiring hope for Gotham as an utter failure at this point and I think he believes the Batman concept will have more value as a villain in this moment, because Gotham needs to reject lawlessness in all its forms, including Batman, in order to have a true philosophical win over The Joker. And as he says, "The Joker cannot win." At least that's how I've always viewed the ending. It's not logical in terms of self-preservation, but I think there is a bigger idea behind what he's doing. I mean, the movie is all about exploring the negative consequences of the Batman mission. Even right from the beginning with the copycats, we clearly see that he's not quite having the effect he intended (to quote The Batman). So I think the ending is all about his reckoning with all of that, and yet still trying to do something heroic in the process.

 

[OnLeatherWings]

People don't act logically in real life, either.