I’ve been going around and around in circles on this issue, and I’ve frankly become dizzy at the ambiguity.
But one of our readers, Gareth, sent a note recently regarding the fate of Harvey Dent in “The Dark Knight,” offering up a line from the shooting draft of the screenplay (available for purchase) that sort of turns the stomach.
I don’t want to spoil anything here, so check it out after the jump…
Alright, Gareth had the following to say:
I too would be very upset if indeed it turned out that Harvey and Two-Face truly were dead at the end of The Dark Knight. The film was certainly ambiguous on that issue, and it didn’t even occur to me to think that the character was dead at all (trusting in Nolan as much as I do, and seeing the juicy potential for the cover up to blow up in the faces of Batman and Gordon in the third film), but then I read your post concerning the Jonathan Nolan interview.
And now this. Having just picked up the Full Shooting Script today…I immediately flipped to the end to see what impression the script leaves, and I must say…it is FAR less ambiguous:
“Dent lies at the bottom of the hole. His neck broken. DEAD.”
Now, perhaps this is just the simple language used to convey what the audience is perceiving to be true…perhaps they want to play this one in true Batman and Gordon style…”Close to the chest.”
Some think I’m crazy for going on about this, but there are obviously plenty of readers and Bat-fanatics who share my dismay at the very possibility that Dent/Two-Face is dead at the end of this film, his potential squandered, a lineage pillaged.
Comments
12 responses to “More on Harvey…”
This is extremely disconcerting. My feelings on the entire film would have to be reevaluated if this was true. My grade would quickly go from an A to an A minus.
amen… you just don’t kill a character with so much story and intrigue like that… anti-climactic
Ok next let’s debate whether Marion Crane really died in the shower in Psycho- I mean you can’t just kill off the main character in the middle of a movie! That never happens. And that Citizen Cane movie- how boring was that, we knew the main character died from the beginning of the film. OBVIOUSLY Harvey Dent is not dead. Christopher Nolan is not an idiot who would treat a character like Two-Face in a realistic way where his better judgement got taken over by revenge for the period of a day and then at the end of the day, paid for the consequences. No. Two-Face will resurrect for sure in the next film with his face burned off and neck broken and never realize that what he did that night was just acting out on his anger despite his, Harvey Dent’s, moral character that was shown throughout the first two thirds of The Dark Knight. How dare people doubt that Harvey is dead!
HE CAN’T BE DEAD!!!! They are too smart to pull something like this.
This reminds me of the old Flash Gordon serials. Except we have to wait three years, not next week.
I think if he winds up coming back, it’s more that they planned to have Ledger come back and use Eckhart to fill the void. Not something they originally planned upon.
hey I just came across this on IMDB… confirmation that Two-Face lives???? I certainly hope so!
Eckhart Agrees To Third Batman Film
23 July 2008 9:10 AM, PDT
Aaron Eckhart would reprise his role from The Dark Knight – because working with Christian Bale is “phenomenal”.
Eckhart, who plays District Attorney Harvey Dent in the sequel, confesses he “absolutely” would star in a third Batman film.
He tells WENN, “To work with Christian (Bale) all over again, and the cast, would be phenomenal. I think this movie is a movie of a lifetime.”
harvey dent is dead…
but two face is alive
I think it’s a good thing that Dent’s fate is up in the air. I think it’s good that people have so many questions about all things Dark Knight. This is all good, and it’s part of the plan!
WENN are the guys that supply the news to IMDB. Most of that is not tobe trusted then.
Ofcourse he’s dead,
isn’t that kind of the story’s point?
The film premiered here in my country tonight and I went to see it. There’s no doubt in my mind he’s dead. He gets a memorial service! Anybody would be declared clinicly dead by then. And only his death could put Batman in the spot he’s in at the end. The whole “A Dark Knight” speech?
I mean, wouldn’t that suggest that Harvey’s body was revived or taken and hidden after everybody thought he was dead? So after the memorialservice? That he played dead the whole time? Wouldn’t that be unlogical, even in a Batmanmovie? Jonathan Nolan seems to aim for a realistic approach.
He’s dead because the story needs him to be dead. To make a point about the relevant difference between truth and hope in this story.
But I could be wrong, ofcourse.
I often am.
[…] (Props to Casey) SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “It’s WENN, I know…”, url: […]
Well, the “memorial service” is presented in that strange flasforward/back scene at the end. I’m still not quite sure why they did it that way, but it sure was no clear confirmation of his death. Perhaps Harvey Dent’s death but not Two-Face.