THE DARK KNIGHT (AND THE BATMAN)

The Data Points

• Year Released: 2008

• Runtime: 152 Minutes

• Directed: Christopher Nolan

• Produced: Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, Charles Roven

• Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman

• Oscars:

  • Won: Best Supporting Actor (Ledger), Sound Editing

  • Nominated: Cinematography, Editing, Art Direction, Make-Up, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects

  • Not Nominated: Writing, Directing, Best Picture

• IMDb Plot Summary: When the menace known as the Joker wreaks havoc and chaos on the people of Gotham, Batman must accept one of the greatest psychological and physical tests of his ability to fight injustice.

Why The Dark Knight is Great

Blockbuster Superhero Value. Over the course of his career, Nolan’s proven that he stands alongside the best action filmmakers ever, and his skills are evident in this film’s biggest scenes. The extended armored truck chase, Batman’s fist-fighting, even the destruction of the hospital, were all captured for real with an excellent sense of stakes, geography, and an immediacy that today’s blockbusters have mostly moved away from. No matter how outlandish the situation is, the action all feels real, and that’s because Nolan flipped a real 18-wheeler from rear to front, destroyed a real building, and had a real stuntman jump off a Hong Kong skyscraper. Regardless of the story or setting – be it a fictional Gotham or a real Chicago – the action spectacle that Nolan conjures up for this story is second to none.

The action is complemented by the visual world that he builds; with Dark Knight, he went for an even more grounded and realistic version of Gotham by shooting primarily in Chicago and letting it look like Chicago. Despite that, Nolan is constantly signaling to us that this is a superhero movie, albeit one set in our world. These nods towards the comic book aspects of this story help bolster, and validate, its status as a fixture of the genre.

Multiple Genres. While this movie is definitely a superhero movie, it’s also definitely a crime thriller with ideas about contemporary American society can unravel. Its structure is quite like Heat; an opening heist sets the mood, and our lead detective plays catch-up for half the film before meeting the antagonist face-to-face where they discover they have a lot in common. Additionally, it embraces a mix of style and realism in its filmmaking that Heat excelled in. Embracing non-superhero influences isn’t a weakness of The Dark Knight, but rather a strength since it helps this film stand apart from other superhero films, including its predecessor. This setup is part of the conception of Gotham city as a real place, featuring real action and stunts, making for a technically cohesive movie that we, once again, don’t get very much of anymore in our biggest entertainment.

Gotham as America. From when the Joker begins unleashing havoc on the city in the first act all the way through his final appearance onscreen, the response he provokes in Gotham is synonymous with the response he provokes in the audience and is allegorical for America’s panicked response to terrorism and other like disturbances, which is to say that our institutions fall apart completely and we’re willing to abandon our values, up to a point. Some of this stuff gets a little too on the nose during the movie, but that doesn't diminish the impact of seeing people behave this way on film in a blockbuster – re-watch the scene where the city’s inhabitants are told that they must kill a certain lawyer or else Joker will blow up a hospital. In this scene, the Joker is right; people will eat each other when the chips are down. Even before this, the way that we pick and choose whose life is worth protecting in the face of evil and who we are willing to sacrifice is sharply evoked.

Archetypes and Symbols. The way that this film draws its characters as contrasting archetypes to each other is unusually smart for a blockbuster film and helps elevate this movie far above its peers. The villain is usually the inverse of the hero, but as the film moves along, we understand that while they are opposites in terms of representing order or chaos, Batman and Joker function so far out of society that they have more in common with each other than in opposition. The Joker doesn’t just proclaim himself an agent of chaos, he proves himself the real deal by pulling the threads of societal institutions until they come apart at the seams. The Joker’s true opposite is Harvey Dent, who represents the ideal view and promise of those institutions, and his turn into Two-Face is an allegory for both those institutions not living up to their promise, and their ugly undersides.

Rounding out the character’s archetypes are Gary Oldman’s turn as Jim Gordon, a world-weary police officer who must wade his way through the world to try and achieve some measure of justice; he represents a pragmatic reality, especially the idea that there is a small measure of competence or buried beneath bureaucratic processes or corruption. Rachel Dawes holds faith in the system, which is killed for the audience along with her at the end of the film’s first act and is also the most ordinary person in the entire movie; her struggle to decide between choosing Bruce/Batman and Harvey Dent reflects our struggle to embrace what they each represent. Michael Caine is perfectly used as a conscience and counselor for Bruce, reassuring him and us that he must carry on in the face of this evil.

The Joker. It’s not just Ledger’s transcendent performance that makes the Joker such a high point of this film and of onscreen villains, but his entire conception and positioning within the film. He exists to point out the flaws of society, and why our belief in institutions is invalid. Back to superhero world, he also serves to needle and isolate Batman by pointing out that any acceptance he believes he has in Gotham is temporary and is also pointless due to the pervasive corruption preventing any kind of real change. As a blockbuster template, he felt revolutionary in a few ways: we never see him plan, so we always view him through others’ eyes; he is constantly one step ahead of the heroes; he allows himself to get captured as a part of a larger plan; and despite being a psychotic killer, he is wonderfully charismatic. Our biggest tentpole franchises are still trying to catch up to the Joker template – look at Silva from Skyfall, Loki from the Avengers, and kind of Thanos from the Avengers.

And now to discuss the performance itself. His physicality is amazing, and since Heath Ledger designed most of his costumes and make-up, I’ll give him credit here. The cracked make-up, clearly dyed hair, and yellow teeth all make him feel real, which amplifies the menace of whenever he’s onscreen threatening or harming defenseless people. His vocal modulation is amazing, as he cycles his voice through a range of choices that never seem to stray from the character that he’s created. The charisma I mentioned starts with him – no matter how disturbing he gets, there’s something about the way he delivers his monologues expressing his worldview and holds the camera’s gaze in a way that’s quite arresting. He’s occasionally quite funny, constantly unpredictable, one of the most iconic villains in the history of screens, and his performance won’t be forgotten anytime soon.

The Ensemble. I think the rest of the cast absolutely does their job, and while I’m not quite sure why Morgan Freeman is in these movies, I’m very happy with his rendition of Fox being another wizened guide for Bruce. This is my favorite Michael Caine – Christopher Nolan collaboration, and I think the Alfred that Caine gives us in this film is perfect. Aaron Eckhart’s double duty of golden boy Harvey Dent and maniacal Two-Face is very well done, and Christian Bale also succeeds in the double duty of Batman/Bruce Wayne, but my favorite non-Ledger performance in the film is Gary Oldman’s Jim Gordon. He keeps this whole movie anchored to the ground and watching him be pushed as far the edge as possible without falling in the final confrontation with Batman and Two-Face makes for gripping stuff.

John’s Highlight Reel

• Opening Heist. Nolan showcases his ability to stage action that feels immediate and unpredictable while building terrific intrigue about the nature of the Joker; after he’s revealed to be the final robber standing, we’re left with more questions than answers, which is just a terrific way to start a movie.

• A Magic Trick. The Joker’s first real scene with the mob bosses terrified, amazed, and blew my 13-year-old mind when I first saw this, and it continues to be one of the best “villain confronts lesser villains” scenes that I’ve come across in my time watching movies. Ledger is on fire, Nolan crafts a ridiculous implication of violence that makes most other blockbuster villains look adorable by comparison, and yet the Joker is so strangely compelling that we’re left satisfied when he leaves everyone in the room reeling.

• Why So Serious? I’m not sure why Hollywood hasn’t been able to give us too many more PG-13 villains who are as menacing as the Joker since the Joker, but I’ll give some credit to Nolan for this; his conception of Gotham as a real place, and the Joker as a real person, makes Joker’s threat more intense and Nolan’s camera angles and movement only amplify it. He places the audience immediately close to people that the Joker is threatening and the camerawork, editing, and superb Hans Zimmer score amp up the stress levels that begins with Ledger’s work.

• Trucks > The Wrong Address. I’ve seen all of Nolan’s movies, and this stretch that begins with Harvey Dent being put in the back of an armored truck and ends with Rachel getting killed is my favorite. When you think of highlights from this film, you think of the following: the semi-truck flipping over after a bonkers tunnel chase; “HIT ME!”; the perfect shot of the Joker sitting in the holding cell; the interrogation scenes; the emotional crescendo of Rachel and Harvey in peril; the Joker sticking his head out of a police car window like a mad dog; and Batman standing amongst the wreckage where Rachel died. And guess what? It’s the central 30 minutes of this film, and every second is great.

• And here. We. Go. What Batman believes is his final confrontation with the Joker cuts between him battling through cops, hostages disguised as thugs, and thugs disguised as hostages and a “social experiment” between a ferry full of prisoners and a ferry full of ordinary citizens. While the latter is a little too on the nose in what it’s trying to say, it’s a remarkable emotional climax for what we all thought would be a formulaic superhero blockbuster, and I greatly respect it. Batman’s final conversation with the Joker – and our final glimpse of Ledger’s brilliance – contains one of my favorite camera movements ever: while the Joker is hanging upside down, the camera rolls so that he is right way up, but the world around him is upside down, which is visual storytelling that speaks for itself.

• Final Confrontation. And yet, that wasn’t even the climax of the film; this blockbuster’s true climax comes as a now-fallen Harvey Dent threatens Gordon’s family, Gordon, and Batman at gunpoint. That’s it. Just a showdown between three of our movie’s characters with one shot fired. It’s subversive in a genre that was just beginning to find its form and remains unique in that variety of storytelling nearly 15 years on. It’s also very well-acted and strongly written; when the final coin flip comes up heads, I still smile at such at the simple genius of it.

• Epilogue. In classic Nolan fashion, he ends his movie with an extended montage while one of his characters gives a monologue about the meaning of everything that happened. I don’t care that’s how he often lands the plane; when you have Gary Oldman concluding with an overview of how and why Batman must remain an outcast to absorb Gotham’s sins over footage of his persecution at the hands of police officers he sought to help, I’m all the way in. This montage also has some of the most beautiful footage in the entire film, and with Wally Pfister as cinematographer, beautiful it is indeed.

Some Spoiler-Free Thoughts on The Batman (2022):

This past weekend, I got to see The Batman which was the main reason for me wanting to revisit and write about The Dark Knight, but it’s only fair I pass along my thoughts on the latest iteration of the Caped Crusader. In short: it’s stylish, thrilling, well-directed, psychological, and unique amongst the landscape of today’s superhero movies, but mostly due to a shoehorned in, unnecessarily large third act, fails to transcend the genre the way that The Dark Knight does. Pattinson is fantastic, and about 75% of the movie is a real re-invention of the onscreen Batman, and the movies he features in, into a moody detective noir featuring a motivated serial killer. Matt Reeves is in utter control as a director, and his vision for Gotham and everything in it was fresh, but to me it felt like a cool, edgy escape from reality instead of asking us to confront reality the way that Nolan’s film does. The fact that people are quick to compare it to The Dark Knight is awfully telling, and I think The Batman earns that comparison, which is high praise. Check it out – it’s the handmade, intellectually stimulating, emotionally satisfying blockbuster entertainment I crave.

However, there’s not been one supervillain performance quite like the Joker, and if I haven’t been able to convince you of some of the other merits of The Dark Knight so far, I’m hopeful you can appreciate one of the most iconic screen performances of the century delivered by a young talent gone far too soon; thank you Heath.