| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | THE DARK KNIGHT (2008) |
| Director | Christopher Nolan |
| Writer | Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan, David S. Goyer |
| Lead Actor | Christian Bale |
| Cast | Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart |
| Genre | Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller |
| Release Date | July 18, 2008 (United States) |
| Duration | 2 hours 32 minutes |
| Budget | $185 million |
| Language | English |
| IMDB Rating | 9.1/10 |
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Positive Aspects of THE DARK KNIGHT (2008)
I’m ready to say that this is without a doubt the best Hollywood film of all time. When they finally get it right, that’s when you feel the magic of the cinema. This film delivers as an entertainment, as a spectacle, and most importantly, as a strong story with haunting, deeply dramatic themes and masterful, chilling performances. Batman Begins was already a fantastic film, but somehow, director Christopher Nolan has upped the ante and managed to deliver a film that is better in every department, and it’s not all smiles and sunshine as most warm and fuzzy Hollywood blockbusters tend to be.
This is a dark, brooding film where not everything turns out well, including Batman himself who discovers that by becoming a dark, symbolic vigilante to stomp out crime in Gotham City that he may in fact be making matters worse. This deterioration in law and order is personified in the rise of the Joker, played with such a chilling, gleeful menace by Heath Ledger that you’ll feel your hairs stand up on end every time he appears.
He’s nasty, funny and mad he doesn’t want money or power. He’s a total anarchist who wants to show the people of Gotham City how corrupt they really are. He says to Batman, “when the chips are down, these so called civilised people will eat each other!” What makes the Joker work so well is that he’s not afraid of Batman at all. In one powerful scene where Batman is interrogating the Joker and trying his best to intimidate him, the Joker responds by laughing in Batman’s face the more he attacks him, and trying to push Batman to cross the line there are moments where you can see hints of desperation in Batman when he realises that there’s nothing he can do to break this mad clown.
Therein lies the crux of what makes this film great the Joker is powerful enough to stand up to Batman (getting the upper hand in some cases), and the Joker continually throws impossible moral and ethical choices at Batman for his own amusement. Each of these choices ends in a bad place for Batman, particularly in the case of Gotham District Attorney Harvey Dent (played brilliantly arrogant by Aaron Eckhart) who transforms in to Two-Face after one of the Joker’s pranks burns half of his face and kills the love of his life, Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal).
This is a film I would recommend seeing more than once because there’s so much going on that you’ll appreciate more the second time around. Aside from Heath Ledger’s spectacular performance as the Joker which has far more depth, range and chills than Nicholson’s performance as the Joker in Tim Burton’s Batman (no small feat that!), Christian Bale is once again excellent as both Bruce Wayne and Batman, particularly in the latter with his dark, voice from hell interpretation of the character. Batman, as played by Bale, is darker and more sinister this time around, but he’s still the central character despite the emergence of the Joker in the story.
Aaron Eckhart is wonderful as Harvey Dent/Two-Face, and in many ways delivers a performance that is just as strong and chilling as Ledger’s, although it may not get as much attention. Gary Oldman shines as the newly promoted Commissioner Gordon and is the only real ‘good’ guy in the film who along with Batman is trying to reign in Gotham’s criminal hierarchy. Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine are great in their respective roles of Lucius Fox and Alfred Pennyworth in assisting Bruce Wayne to be Batman. There’s also a delicious sub-plot where an employee of Wayne Enterprises discovers that Bruce Wayne is Batman and tries to blackmail him over it. Fox replies to him, “let me get this straight, you want to blackmail someone who spends his nights beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands? Good luck!”. This is a film that delivers on all of its promise and more go see it now!
Final Verdict
“The Dark Knight” is nothing short of brilliant. It elevates the comic book movie to a level that matches any serious Oscar-winning film, has deep thematic story and structure which will actually engage your brain, and has some of the most stellar performances you’re likely to see, beginning with Heath Ledger’s unforgettable and sinister turn as the Joker which manages to out-do even the great Jack Nicholson.
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