What is the main theme of The Dark Knight?

Question

According to Wikipedia, the main theme of The Dark Knight is escalation, such that each event lead to an escalation that results from the choices Batman and James Gordon make. A separate source said that if one were to start from the beginning the movie can be seen as sequence of small games with the first being the robbery scene.

The robbery scene being compared to that of the Pirate Game.

Is it possible that the primary theme is actually Game Theory? Since the actual escalation didn't occur until the end with the prisoner's dilemma and Harvey kidnapping Gordon's family? What is the main theme of The Dark Knight?

Answer 1

The Dark Knight, in my view, is an epic description of the Joker's character. There is no other theme to the movie. Just as 'Batman Begins' was centered mainly around the characterization of the Batman. I observed a similarity and a difference between the Joker and the other mob bosses/bad Guys. the similarity is that both, the bad guys and Joker have anti social ideas. The difference lies in what level of sophistication the players employ. The other guys want to kill Batman and prey on the fearful. Joker is different. He just wants to kill everyone else. He also wants to prove that everyone is inherently un-altruistic / sadistic. That is why he conducts the experiment on the ferry with the prisoners and the convicts. This is classic prisoners dilemna. He also succeeds in employing Harvey Dent, the supposed hope of Gotham City, the only DA brave enough to prosecute Gotham's criminals, and turn him against Gotham. These are a battery of experiments that he performs - just for the thrill of finding out what happens.

Answer 2

In addition to the already existing good answers, another theme of the movie, with a strong connection to current political and social problems, is of course terrorism.

Especially how to deal with people (or one man in this case) who are not driven by "ordinary" criminal motives (like money) and don't react to the threats of "ordinary" punishment (like imprisonment or death), how easy it is for them to push an organized society (that is just not prepared for such an irrational person) into chaos and, most important, how far the society's executive organs (in this case the Batman) would go (or what he needs to become himself) to stop such a person.

This culminates in Batman building the perfect surveillance state (with those unrealistic cell-phone radars). Although he is smart or honest enough to destroy this machine once he's found the Joker, he has obviously crossed a line there.

To conclude, I think it is hard to find one single theme to describe the movie, as it contains many interresting themes. And I would say Nolan himself (he wrote it, didn't he?) didn't have one single theme in mind to center the story around.

Answer 3

During the climax of the movie there is a dialogue - "Sometimes truth is not good enough. Sometimes people deserve more. They deserve to have their faith rewarded". While these dialogues are presented we see two scenes - 1. Alfred burning the letter that Rachel gave to Bruce. Here Bruce believes that Rachel was going to wait for her but that's not the truth and if revealed it can break Bruce so Alfred hides the truth. 2. Batman asks Gordon to say that Batman killed Harvey because they can not let Joker win. So the truth is that Joker was successful in shaking up Gotham. He indeed took the best man and turned him bad. But Batman & Gordon hide this truth so that the people of Gotham don't lose their faith. This according to me is the main theme of the movie