Ah, I must have missed that. Makes sense.

I think I'm confusing this guy with Cillian Murphy .

Anyway, I didn't think that Harvey Dent was supposed to be pure of intent; I thought that he was supposed to -- at the very least -- have a history of being, well, two-faced.

Well, this is emblematic of my whole problem with the movie -- it was at the end that I realized Dent was supposed to be a white knight. (Which is why I am whitefonting) I think that with Nolan movies, plot comes first and theme gets layered on second, and the result in TDK was that the themes were often incoherent, internally contradictory, and expressed in dialogue/speeches/narration. So as this relates to Dent, we have a character with baggage from the comic books, played by someone who plays it a little smarmy (that courtroom scene was fucking RIDICULOUS), that at the end of the movie we realize was supposed to represent pureness driven to the dark side.

I agree the courtroom scene was out of hand. The second time I watched the film I was still expecting to find out later that Dent had orchestrated the whole scene and I had to remind myself that I'd already seen it and we're supposed to take that bit seriously.

Also I'm still finding it odd that Lao is on top of the pile of bills but never mentioned again after Joker starts the blaze. I wonder if a scene of him burning to death was cut out, and the sound of barking dogs now replaces what were oringally his screams.

Laga, that guy was well creepy. And similarly delicately boned to Cillian Murphy .

Hm. Opposites is an option. Which brings up another issue. How, if things are supposed to be so secrety in the bat-warehouse, is it that good guy wannabes and potentially baddies just happen to know what is going on with Bats ?

I'm thinking about this WAY too much and need to just go enjoy my memories without trying to figure it all out.

Laga, I thought that as a character moment for the Joker, it was pretty effectively chilling that he's burning a man to death and not even paying attention. But I'm not sure it was really intended that way - I suspect it might have been more a plot oversight like Batman never actually going back to the fundraiser to deal with the Joker after catching Rachel.

re the plot oversight- I figured by the time Bats got back upstairs Joker's crew had split.

bonny, i had the same question about the garage scene that you did. it was very WTF?! for me. i don't think we were meant to think that he and the Batman wannabes were on opposing sides because one of the fake!Bats said they were just trying to help and i think i remember Crane agreeing with him.

Tiggy remembers it the way I remember it, which is why I found it confusing, but potentially interesting. I wonder if something there got cut for time, either during that scene, or later.

That was the sense I had too.