The entire point and climax of the Dark Knight revolves around the idea that Batman is in fact NOT a hero.
I see where you're coming from, the whole "he's the hero we need but not the one we deserve" at least pays some lip service to the fact that what he's doing is questionable, actually. Further reinforced when Batman destroys the surveilance system after he's done using it because it's too evil you guys. But here's a couple of things that dilute it a bit: 1. that police and military are already justified under the banner of pragmatism (in my view, being an anti-hero vigilante is simply cynical detachment) and 2. the counterpart, the hero gotham deserved, was harvey dent, some dumbo politician.
I actually think the subtext within the movie is far more cynical on Harvey Dent then it gets credit for. There are several clues/moments that show Dent's crusade is not pure altruism and is motivated more than a little by narcissistic ambition. Even just his monologue on the Batman and Roman suspension of democracy infers that he sees himself more like Batman than as a counterpoint to him, and he is shown interrogating a man at gun point long before he goes completely insane.
The counterpoint to Batman and what is needed in the end is not in fact Harvey Dent the person, deeply flawed and broken...but instead the idea of what Harvey Dent represented. The incorruptible white knight.
I see where you're coming from, the whole "he's the hero we need but not the one we deserve" at least pays some lip service to the fact that what he's doing is questionable, actually. Further reinforced when Batman destroys the surveilance system after he's done using it because it's too evil you guys. But here's a couple of things that dilute it a bit: 1. that police and military are already justified under the banner of pragmatism (in my view, being an anti-hero vigilante is simply cynical detachment) and 2. the counterpart, the hero gotham deserved, was harvey dent, some dumbo politician.
I actually think the subtext within the movie is far more cynical on Harvey Dent then it gets credit for. There are several clues/moments that show Dent's crusade is not pure altruism and is motivated more than a little by narcissistic ambition. Even just his monologue on the Batman and Roman suspension of democracy infers that he sees himself more like Batman than as a counterpoint to him, and he is shown interrogating a man at gun point long before he goes completely insane.
The counterpoint to Batman and what is needed in the end is not in fact Harvey Dent the person, deeply flawed and broken...but instead the idea of what Harvey Dent represented. The incorruptible white knight.