Why Nobody Admits The Dark Knight's Two-Face Didn't Work

The Dark Knight might be the jewel in the crown of Christopher Nolan's trilogy, but its Two-Face really didn't work - and fans won't admit it.

With Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight raising the bar for all superhero films, few want to admit that its Two-Face simply didn’t work. Nolan’s grounded take on Batman’s universe remains widely beloved by DC fans, and The Dark Knight is universally considered the best of the trilogy. However, alongside Christian Bale’s Batman and Heath Ledger’s Joker, another comic book character was introduced: Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent, better known as Two-Face.

A slight revision to Two-Face’s origin story sees Dent’s transformation into the villain come as a result of getting tangled in the Joker’s plans for Batman and Gotham. In Nolan’s film, Dent is Gotham’s beloved District Attorney, and he can be seen pursuing justice at great personal risk throughout The Dark Knight. However, once the character has been transformed into Two-Face, he’s essentially wasted by the film, being killed off in its final scene.

While Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy achieved lasting success, its handling of Two-Face’s character was disappointing. Having such a substantial Batman villain introduced and killed all in the space of one film was a waste; particularly as other villains, like Cillian Murphy’s Scarecrow, who appeared in every Dark Knight movie, were given more open endings. Two-Face is perhaps the weakest aspect of The Dark Knight, but the following issues are ignored by most of the trilogy’s viewers.

The Dark Knight’s Harvey Dent Was Too Good To Be A Villain

As established by the first act of The Dark Knight, Harvey Dent has been fervently pursuing Gotham’s criminal underworld. The relationship between Dent, Gordon, and Batman is central to the film’s plot, and The Dark Knight‘s ending explains that Dent was the best of them all. It’s even stated that Dent’s courageous heroism was why the Joker chose to target him specifically, making him – by the film’s own admission – The Dark Knight‘s purest hero.

In doing so, The Dark Knight neglects to properly explore Dent’s innate duality. It is briefly touched upon, but there’s precious little build-up that smoothes Dent’s transition from trusted public servant to his killing five people as Two-Face. Dent’s virtuous beginnings don’t effectively foreshadow the emergence of his darker half, and that’s a major way that The Dark Knight fails the character.

The Dark Knight Rushed Two-Face’s Origin

One of the easiest fixes for Nolan’s Two-Face would have been to take a little more time in developing the character. The Dark Knight does reference his dual nature, but his transformation into the villain happens all too abruptly. The narrative reasons for this are clear, but had Dent’s character been given a little more time to develop, his transformation would have been far more satisfying.

As it stands, The Dark Knight does the bare minimum in setting Dent up as Two-Face. Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy uses most of its villains to great effect by reimagining them in a more grounded manner, but his Two-Face felt rushed and inconsequential. In its rushing of the character, The Dark Knight also had Two-Face only briefly playing a secondary villain to the Joker, then killed him off before he had a chance to ever really become the interesting and layered character of the comics.

The Dark Knight Killed Two-Face Because He Had No Future

Due to The Dark Knight‘s mishandling of the character’s origins, his death at the end of the film was essentially a mercy killing – he’d been given a (rushed) narrative arc, and there was very little left to do with the character. Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy created a problem for Two-Face, mostly down to the way he’d been written: his Harvey Dent was too heroic, so his Two-Face had to be pure evil in order to make the villain’s duality feel real. This would have made including the character in future films too messy, as his two halves were written to be so vastly different from one another.

This made Two-Face’s The Dark Knight death inevitable. Nolan’s version of the character was specifically written to undergo his entire narrative arc in a single film, and with that achieved, Dent’s death had more of an impact on the franchise than his survival would have. Still, Two-Face’s death in The Dark Knight marked an obvious point of no return for the character.

Why Two-Face Deserves A More Gradual Development

There may have been a subtle Two-Face Dark Knight set up in Batman Begins, but the character was ultimately introduced and killed in the span of just one film. While some villains, like the Joker, need no real build-up, Two-Face is defined by his origins, and that’s something that simply can’t go unexplored. By not giving the character time for gradual development, Nolan effectively ruined any chances he had for becoming an effective or interesting villain.

Of course, sometimes giving a villain a gradual development can backfire, as has been the case for Harvey Dent and Two-Face in the past. Both Tim Burton’s Batman and Fox’s Gotham featured Harvey Dent as a character, although they never actually turned Dent into Two-Face, which fails to do the character justice in another way. However, Nolan’s trilogy easily could have introduced Dent in Batman Begins before having him become Two-Face in The Dark Knight, then potentially could have used him as a major villain in The Dark Knight Rises. Instead, The Dark Knight trilogy’s Two-Face was rushed and then discarded, wasting his potential.

Why Nolan Fans Won’t Admit The Dark Knight’s Two-Face Flaws

Christopher Nolan is one of modern cinema’s most celebrated filmmakers, and his Dark Knight trilogy is adored by viewers and critics alike. However, the refusal of many to acknowledge Two-Face’s flaws in The Dark Knight ultimately stems from a positive, as the character’s origin was reworked slightly in order to better serve the film’s specific narrative. While this does work within the context of the film itself in regard to the character of Two-Face, it’s a wasted opportunity.

The Nolan trilogy set up many Batman villains but used only a handful, and while some fans are quick to dismiss Tom Hardy’s Bane, Eckhart’s Two-Face is all too often left out of criticisms leveled at the trilogy. This is most likely down to his inclusion in the trilogy’s best film, and that he’s not its main antagonist. As such, it’s easy for the issues with Nolan’s Two-Face to skate by unnoticed, particularly with Heath Ledger’s Joker stealing practically every scene.

Ultimately, Nolan’s trilogy was a brilliantly grounded reimagining of Gotham City and its heroes and villains, but its Two-Face wasn’t without his issues. It’s possible that Matt Reeves will seek to use Two-Face in The Batman or its sequels, and this could go some way towards righting the wasted potential of Nolan’s version. Regardless of how great the movie may be, The Dark Knight‘s Two-Face didn’t work, and Nolan fans rarely admit it.