Character Analysis
Man, three leads like that and this movie still find time for Commissioner Gordon?
Take that, Tim Burton.
Like Batman himself, this version of Gordon got his start in Batman Begins, and like Batman, we pick him up here in the middle of his story. Originally, he was the one good cop in the bad town: the only guy who never took a payoff, and therefore the only guy that Batman could trust. Together, they seem to be making a run at crime in Gotham, with Gordon acting as the good cop while feeding Batman information that can help him nail the really scary guys.
In fact, his arc here follows Batman's almost perfectly. Batman gets to hang out on gargoyles and look all broody and menacing, but otherwise, the two are pretty close. Both start out the movie on top of the world, and both get thrown for the god-king of loops by a freaky guy in a purple suit.
Want more comparisons? We got 'em. Both of them rely on Harvey Dent to close the deal on Gotham's underworld, figuring that he's more pure than they are. Oh yes, Gordon bends laws too… and like Batman he's open about it rather than trying to hide it or deny it. When Harvey gets on his case about the dirty cops in his department, he fires back:
GORDON: I don't get political points being an idealist. I have to do the best I can with what I have.
He himself isn't corrupt, but he's got to rely on corrupt cops if he wants to get the job done. That pragmatism certainly saves him from ending up like Two-Face (and seriously, how scary a supervillain could Commissioner Gordon have made?). But once again, like his buddy in the cape, it doesn't save him from having to enter into a nasty bargain in order to hold on to the fruits of his idealism. He has to spread the lie that Batman killed all those people, hiding Two-Face's crimes and hoping that it's enough to keep the city's criminals all locked behind bars. The Joker pushes them just that far, and the good cop in Jim Gordon can't entirely stop some of that evil from sloshing over.
Good Cop
Gordon is Batman's stalwart ally to the end, of course, even buying into the whole "blame the vigilante for everything" plan, which bites them in the rear in the third movie, but that also shows us his capacity for loyalty, his hunger for justice, and his desire to protect the innocent: all the things that good cops are supposed to do. That helps him hold onto his soul at the end of The Dark Knight, and even redeem himself by the time the third movie rolls around.
And like Harvey, he's also something of an everyman: somebody we can connect to. Unlike Batman (and you'll never know how thrilled we are to finally draw a distinction between them), he doesn't live in a huge estate or drive Lamborghinis around the city. He's got kids, he's got a mortgage, he's got problems we can all relate to… and like Harvey, he's faced with either giving up everything that's important to him or risk seeing the city go down the spout.
That makes him a less cautionary example than Two-Face: someone we can look up to, even when he makes mistakes, and know that he's really acting in the best interests of all of Gotham. Heroes are made of such stuff, and Gordon doesn't need a pair of tights or a cape to do it. He's the guy we all should aspire to be, even when the chips are down and it might be easier just to let his team gun down all the clowns. (Whew! Glad he avoided that little disaster.)