lemonbella | Question

I was reading a couple of other reviews of The Dark Knight, and some of them seemed to suggest a very different take on a pivotal scene than the one I have. I'm quite confident in my Batman canon and have a very strong version of Batman in my head, However, I'm slightly curious as to whether there are people who really view Batman in a different way to me.

So, in the scene when Batman and Gordon are racing to save Dent and Rachel, my interpretation is that Batman deliberately goes to save Dent. To me this is obvious because that's who Batman is. He saves who Gotham needs him to save, rather than who Bruce would like to save. This also fits with the previous discussion about Dent being the guy who Gotham needs. It also feels disingenuous to me if that discussion between Dent and Rachel is only there to set up the surprise, rather than to illustrate that Batman is the Dark Knight not the Knight in Shining Armour.

However, these other reviews appear to suggest that Batman ends up in the wrong place because the Joker tricked him: so he thought he was going to save Rachel but ended up saving Dent.

I'm not sure how I'm going to feel if other people suggest the second interpretation is correct. It might ruin the film!