Favorite Scenes of All Time: #8-The Interrogation (The Dark Knight)

There's really a lot to like about The Dark Knight. It's easily the best film in the Dark Knight trilogy, and features Heath Ledger in a role that has become legendary despite Jack Nicholson playing it decades earlier. One scene however, is so well shot, so well executed , and so all around perfect, that it rises to the top of all the great scenes featured in this trilogy... the interrogation.

Like Vader's redemption from last week, a lot of the greatness in this scene stems from the villain utterly stealing the show with his delivery of his lines. This is a big boon in itself, but what makes this aspect so important in this film is that in doing so Heath Ledger has also subconsciously let the audience know that the Joker is the one in charge of the situation despite his apparent seat of weakness in the scene. This is important because it subliminally allows the audience to still be threatened and intimidated by a clown in handcuffs, not an easy feat in any sort of film.

Notice how Christopher Nolan took a page from the Francis Ford Coppola and initially has the Joker hidden in the shadows like Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now to convey how they are almost one with the darkness:

But then Nolan expands on this idea and has the light come on with the entrance of Batman, allowing the viewer to realize that Batman represents the light and order as opposed to Joker's darkness and chaos, a yin to his yang, a battle of symbolism if you will.

Next we have the brilliant dialogue between the two juggernauts on screen, and we begin to see how fractured Joker's psyche and sense of morality really is. But what really kicks this scene into high gear is when Batman finally snaps and begins beating him down, and this is the first time (and only time) that we see Batman truly powerless against someone. He has met someone who can beat him one way or another, and despite all his strength and skills we see him unable to save the people who need saving and forced into a choice he swore he would never make.

Finally, we have the score, a slowly building violin score that plays whenever the Joker comes on screen. Nolan has stated that he chose this score because it represented the growing madness inherent in the Joker's character, his growing wishes to simply see the world burn. It's a perfect piece for this character, and when coupled with this scenes' escalation of crisis it really places it over the top to get my number 8 scene of all time.