The Dark Knight Saga/Tear Jerker

I know the rage that drives you; that impossible anger strangling the grief until the memory of your loved one is just poison in your veins. And then, you catch yourself wishing for the person you loved to never have existed so you'd be spared your pain.

—Ducard, from Batman Begins

While The Dark Knight Saga is better known for its epic or frightening moments, it has some memorable emotionally-intense moments as well.

• Ducard's Freudian Excuse from Batman Begins, especially in light of the actor who played him going through something similiar since the movie came out.
• When Bruce's parents died in Batman Begins. Although the scene has been done many times; it is still saddening to see young Bruce lose his parents. And Bruce telling Alfred he blamed himself.
• The aftermath of the Joker's sadistic choice.
• The portion of The Dark Knight from a prisoner throwing the detonator out the window up until the very ending of the movie is rich in tear jerker moments.
  • The first gets its emotional impact from being such a heartwarming moment in such an otherwise dark context. It's followed quickly by the civilian deciding at the last second against blowing up the prisoners' boat and Batman summing up the implications of this for The Joker's philosophy.

What were you trying to prove? That deep down, everyone's just as ugly as you? You're alone.

• • And then we see the corrupted Harvey Dent ranting at Gordon for failing to save Rachel, threatening to kill Gordon's son in response, and using a coin flip to decide whether or not to actually do it.
  • And then there's Batman realizing the implications of what Dent did to the prosecution of the criminals, and insisting on taking the fall for it; the protagonist of the series, insisting on lying and encouraging Gordon to lie, because of the harm the truth would cause. This is enhanced by Gordon's speech about how "we have to chase him because he can take it." Bittersweet Ending indeed.
• Rachel's letter to Bruce. And what Alfred ends up doing with it.
• Bruce's speech about how Rachel was going to wait for him after she died. Alfred smartly takes the letter away from the breakfast tray and burns it. In context of Batman's speech about having faith being rewarded, Bruce would have likely quit being Batman right there and then had he read the letter.
• Rachel's cut off sentence when she dies in the explosion.
• Batman standing alone at the site of Rachel's death, with two firefighters pointing at him as he broods.
• She's in it so briefly - but the lady playing Gordon's wife gives a fine performance. Her whole role is a tearjerker - from freaking out and yelling at Batman (hiding in the shadows) when the police notify her of her husband's "death" to the moment when he comes back and they share a tender moment to the ending When she desperately tries to protect her children, hiding their faces, and screaming "Jim, help him!" as Two-Face holds the gun on her little boy. There should be an Oscar category for "Best supporting supporting actress."
• Alfred's line to Bruce in the second trailer for The Dark Knight Rises. The sorrow in his voice is heartbreaking.

Alfred: You are as precious to me as you were to your own mother and father. I swore to them that I would protect you, and I haven't.

• Another moment from The Dark Knight Rises would be the teaser trailer scene where Gordon is lying on a hospital bed, telling Bruce that Batman has to come back. Think about it for a moment: Considering how little we know about the movie at this point, Gordon might be dying right there. That feeling you just got after reading that is probably loss of sympathy for Bane.
• "You thought we could be decent men in an indecent time, but you were wrong." That line is so powerful and Aaron Eckhardt just nails it.
• "The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world is chance."
• Seeing Harvey's sanity break when he finds out Rachel has died. It's done in almost complete silence, but the minimal soundtrack and Eckhart's acting really sell it.

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