Christopher Nolan feels "plagued" by the most mythical phrase of 'The Dark Knight'

“You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain,” a mythical phrase uttered by Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) in ‘The Dark Knight,’ the second film in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. A phrase that has become increasingly iconic over time, and the British director himself has spoken about it and how he has come to understand it in an interview with Deadline.

Christopher Nolan said he was “plagued” by the mythical line written by his brother Jonathan Nolan: “It kills me, because it’s the line that most resonates. And at the time, I didn’t even understand it.” Strange statements about something he did not comprehend at the time, but with the passage of time, he has come to understand what his brother was trying to convey with the dialogue uttered by Harvey Dent: “I read it in his draft, and I was like, ‘All right, I’ll keep it in there, but I don’t really know what it means. Is that really a thing?’ And then, over the years since that film’s come out, it just seems truer and truer. In this story, it’s absolutely that. Build them up, tear them down. It’s the way we treat people.”

Christopher Nolan and a legendary trilogy for Batman and superhero movies

Christopher Nolan and his Batman trilogy is considered by many to be the best superhero movie ever made. Beginning with ‘Batman Begins’ in 2005, it was followed by the movie in question in which the phrase commented: ‘The Dark Knight’. Released in 2008, it had a huge impact due to its quality and the characters portrayed in it, with what many consider to be the best Joker in history, played by Heath Ledger, who died the same year as the premiere, but who left an immortal legacy for which he even won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.