Question about Batman's tactic in Dark Knight

[Sisko_is_my_captain]

This always bugs me when I watch The Dark Knight, so maybe someone can shine some light on it for me. In the garage battle near the beginning of the movie, Batman jumps onto the side of the Scarecrow's van and while hanging onto it, uses a wrist mounted thingamajig to rip a 6-12" tear in the skin of the van. What was the point of that?

My theories are: (A) To induce a little terror: "The Bat is ripping my van apart, he's a monster!"; (B) He was just trying to hang onto the van and his device ripped the metal then snagged, instead of holding properly in place; or (C) He was actually trying to tear an opening to climb through, but he failed rather miserably.

So what was it?

 

[davejames]

Um, C.

I agree it is a bit awkward, and the comic book Batman probably would have opted to jump on the roof and crash through the windshield instead, but Nolan obviously wanted to show off a new Bat-gadget. And probably also demonstrate how clumsy and restrictive the old Batsuit had become for Bruce.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I finally got the film on two disk bluray today. I love it, and hate aspects of it. The biggest poain was going into my blu-ray player settings to get the correct audio settings, as the true HD is actually very low in volume unless you have HDMI, so i had to set it to DD.

Oh, and with regards to your questions... Nolan depends on a lot of fancy editing to forgive a multitude of sins in all of his films. He even depends on editing and hardly lets a scene play itself out or breathe.

 

[Trekker4747]

I think it was "C." It seemed to me that he was trying to rip into the van and things just didn't pan out.

 

[Captaindemotion]

I re-watched the movie on Sunday and wondered about this too. Was it that he weakened the support struts for the roof of the van so that when a bit of weight came down on it - when he jumped on top of it - the roof just caved in?

 

[Trekker4747]

I think he just wanted to get in the van and things didn't work out.

I know it's blasphemous to say this but, The Bat is fallible.

 

[PsychoPere]

I know it's blasphemous to say this but, The Bat if fallible.

He didn't have enough time to prepare.

 

[Trekker4747]

Batman's own Kryptonite.

 

[doubleohfive]

One of the things that drives me nuts about The Dark Knight is its low-rewatchability factor.

I mean, yes it's a fantastic film - I love it. But by the time you get to the countdown with the two ferries, its like COME ON ALREADY FLIP THE GODDAMN SWITCH!

Other than that though, I don't really mind it.

 

[Trekker4747]

Strange, I find TDK very rewatchable if not for Ledger's performance alone.

 

[doubleohfive]

Oh its rewatchable, its just some parts --like the ferry scene I mentioned above, which were gripping during first viewing-- drag on and on and on and on and on and on on repeat viewings.

 

[Trekker4747]

Yeah, I agree. And the moral dilemma of it all seems... forced. It's pretty ridiculous any mayor or city official wanting to even be considered for re-election would put convicts on the ferry over citizens. That scene can sort of drag, especially with the DB on the civilian boat but at least that scene is broken up with the Batman stuff in the building.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Mark Kermode said it best in his review.. it felt like one moral dilemma too many, despite the fact that the filmmakers would argue that "well that's the point.' It's an odd contradiction.


[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAv9jx2dr08&feature=related[/yt]


I love the film too, but it feels like more of a series of set-pieces wherein editing has taken over for a true narrative through-line.

 

[Admiral_Young]

That scene was another one designed to make Bruce look fallible and as mentioned an excuse to upgrade the suit. Nolan has stated from the start that these films purpose are to show a Batman who isn't perfect and makes mistakes and still is learning. Much like the Daniel Craig Bond films.

 

[Aeon]

Also the plot about Gordon faking his death is rather useless.

 

[Trekker4747]

Yeah, I'm not quite sure what the end-game of that was and at times it seems like the characters only know as much as the audience knows -that Gordon is dead. I mean, otherwise, why would Batman stake-out the Gordon household and take the abuse from his "widow" and look so beaten up over it? Wasn't this his plan?!

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I love the film in many ways, but this plot, like every other plot in the film, is so trimmed down. Nolan is an efficient story-teller, almost too efficient. I mean, many scenes happen before we get a chance to register what we are seeing, and they are over. Like there is a scene where a bunch of people are standing next to the batsignal waiting for him - I think they are cops, but I can't remember if they are from Gordon's MCU or another division (these distinctions seem more important to the film than they actually are) because the shot is less than five seconds.

 

[Trekker4747]

I think it that scene it was all of the cops, watching for Gordon to destroy the Batsignal as the police now believe Batman is a cop-killer and would want to see the signal (and the police's "co-operation" with Batman) destroyed. The Joker and Two-Face had killed some police in their antics.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

No they were clearly waiting for Batman. The signal was on. And then one guy says "he doesn't wanna talk to us" and another guy says "god help whoever he does wanna talk to" and the cut to Batman out to find Eric Roberts

 

[Trekker4747]

Oh, that scene. I thought you were talking about the montage at the end when Gordon smashes the Batsignal. I'm pretty sure those guys were MCU, they're all people Harvey Dent latter kills/confronts over the death of Rachel, people whom he criticized Gordon for using when they had all been investigated by Dent when he worked for IA.