Gotham City vs. New York City

I watched on Blue Ray last night The Dark Knight, the third movie in the Batman trilogy.  The trilogy is fascinating because of the different ways that the concept of "justice" is depicted both by the League of Justice and Batman.  What was also fascinating about The Dark Knight is how the directors went to great lengths (often using advertising techniques) to make the viewer see Gotham City as New York City. 

In the first two Batman movies and even in the comic books, one gets the sense that Gotham City is the equivalent of New York City.  This is primarily because Gotham City is densely populated and has large, tall austere buildings.  However, in the first movie Batman Begins there is an in air monorail system which does not exist in the real New York City.  This monorail is absent in the Dark Knight.  There are a number of wide angle camera shoots taken from the air in the Dark Knight that gives the viewer the feeling of the immensity of Gotham City.  These camera shoots make it clear that Gotham City is an island, something which is not clear in the other two movies.  There are also panoramic and zoom shoots of a bridge which leads out of Gotham City, which looks very similar to the bridge in New York City that leads to Kennedy Airport.
 
Many times in the movie the audience is reminded that Gotham City  has just a six mile radius, again similar to New York City.  There is also a long scene where the Gotham Stock Exchange is infiltrated.  The exchange looks strikingly similar to the New York Stock Exchange all the way down to its location which is clearly in the bowels of the city.

The directors of The Dark Knight clearly want the audience to have the false impression that they are looking at the potential destruction of New York City.  The directors want the audience accept this false impression and analogy for a couple of different reasons.  The emotional pangs the viewer feels should be greater if a real instead of a fictional city is under assault. The directors also want the audience to buy into the disparity of wealth between the haves and have nots that in fact does exist in America and particularly in New York City.  Finally, the various themes and messages of the movie are much stronger and hit him more intensely if in fact Gotham City is just another name for New York City.