Another Brilliant Phantom Stranger deduction

[phantom stranger]

I've always wanted to see detectives Renee Montoya and Harvey Bullock appear in a Batman movie. So while I'm watching the Dark Knight, I keep thinking to myself, "Why isn't Det. Ramirez called Montoya? I mean she even looks like the character."

Ditto for the surly detective played by Keith Szarabajka. Why not just call him Bullock (instead of Stephens) since that's who he reminded me of, even though he wasn't particularly heavyset.

And then it struck me: Nolan didn't want an honorable character like Montoya to end up being a crooked cop. So he gave her a different name.

As for Detective Stephens, perhaps he's not Bullock because Nolan didn't want two Harveys in the same movie. Or perhaps it was just too small a role to waste on such a cool character.

[GBglide]

In Batman,  Eckhardt reminded me of a corrupt version of Bullock.

[The Dark Knight]

In Batman,  Eckhardt reminded me of a corrupt version of Bullock.

Yep. Flass from Begins looks similar to Bullock, too.

[gordonblu]

In Batman,  Eckhardt reminded me of a corrupt version of Bullock.

Yep. Flass from Begins looks similar to Bullock, too.

Considering Flass was tall, muscular, and vaguely nazi-ish in Frank Miller's Batman: Year One, I kind of felt Nolan's Flass was a nod to Eckhardt from Batman89. When the animated series aired, I thought Bullock was supposed to be a similar character to Eckhardt, because I didn't know about Harvey Bullock before then.

[johnnygobbs]

Considering Flass was tall, muscular, and vaguely nazi-ish in Frank Miller's Batman: Year One, I kind of felt Nolan's Flass was a nod to Eckhardt from Batman89. When the animated series aired, I thought Bullock was supposed to be a similar character to Eckhardt, because I didn't know about Harvey Bullock before then.

I was disappointed by that aspect of Batman Begins since I always found the tall, youngish buzz-cut version of Flass to be a much more formidable corrupt cop and nemesis to Gordon than the bumbling fat guy version in Begins.  I also agree that he owed a lot more to Eckhart than the Flass from Batman: Year One.

I also agree with Phantom that Ramirez and Stephens did seem to be echoes of respectively, Montoya and Bullock.  It's possible that Nolan set up these similarities on purpose in order to throw the curveball of having Ramirez turn out to be the corrupt one, and Stephens the upstanding one.  I would however, like to see Montoya and Bullock done properly on screen in the future.

[BatmAngelus]

I believe one of the Nolan brothers actually confirmed the Ramirez name for the reasons you stated, phantomstranger   
(Though Louise Simonson's Batman: Gotham Knight novelization replaced Ramirez with Renee Montoya anyway.  On a sidenote, I found Simonson's novelization much more satisfying than the actual movie).

I don't recall Stephens being addressed by name in the movie and easily could have been just called "Bullock" to avoid the Harvey confusion.  But, as you said, Szarabajka isn't really that heavyset.

As for Eckhart, I always felt like he was a take on Bullock.  Bullock in the 1970s comics was originally a corrupt cop working for Mayor Hill and Rupert Thorne (who was the basis for Carl Grissom) before turning a new leaf.

[Azrael]

In Batman,  Eckhardt reminded me of a corrupt version of Bullock.

and

Yep. Flass from Begins looks similar to Bullock, too.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one that noticed these things