THE DARK KNIGHT



2008
Warner Bros.



Directed by Christopher Nolan
Produced by Christopher Nolan, Charles Rovan & Emma Thomas
Screenplay by Christopher Nolan & Jonathan Nolan
Based on a story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer
Based on “Batman” created by Bob Kane





Something really special happened to me while watching THE DARK KNIGHT. Sometime around the part where The Joker and Harvey Dent are having a very revealing conversation in GothamGeneralHospital I realized that I wasn’t just watching a good superhero movie. I was watching a good movie, period. The summer of 2008 has been a very good summer for superheroes in general and along with several other popular comic book based movies, THE DARK KNIGHT has successfully straddled the worlds of the comic book fan and the average movie goer. Movies based on comic book superheroes have made it into the mainstream. And in the case of THE DARK KNIGHT it’s well deserved. But comic book fans such as me have been saying for years that if only the studios would take these characters seriously and trust their stories to writers, directors, actors and technical people who would simply treat the material with respect, these characters and their stories would deliver. In this case, it pays off in many excellent ways. That’s not to say that THE DARK KNIGHT rang all my bells. But we’ll get to that later.

Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) is living in a gorgeous penthouse atop the Wayne Enterprises building by day and keeping the streets of Gotham safe by night as Batman. His faithful butler Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine) is keeping their underground GothamCity hideout tidy as well as the penthouse while continuing to offer sage advice with his usual acid wit and deadpan delivery. Batman and Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) have got Gotham’s underworld on the run and they contemplate an alliance with crusading District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) Dent is beloved by the citizens of Gotham and Bruce Wayne is seriously thinking about throwing the full weight of his considerable influence behind Dent. Maybe it’s time Gotham had a hero who doesn’t have to wear a mask and skulk around at night to do his good work. Bruce would also like to put Batman behind him so that he can devote all his attention to Assistant District Attorney Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) However, Rachel is devoting her time to Harvey Dent and is seriously considering marrying him.

Everybody’s plans get put on hold by a siege of terror brought to GothamCity in the form of a white-faced, scarred demon of chaos who calls himself The Joker (Heath Ledger) The brilliantly deranged psychopath strikes a deal with Gotham’s crime bosses: he’ll kill the Batman in exchange for half of their immense illegal fortune. But that’s only a scheme within a scheme as The Joker intends to rule Gotham himself. The Joker announces he will kill someone for every day that The Batman does not turn himself to the police and unmask. Despite the disfigured, goofy grin on his face he ain’t kiddin’ around. Panic soon fills the streets as the terrified citizens of Gotham are caught in the middle of a war between Batman and the Joker. But it’s a more than a war fought for control of Gotham: it’s also a war for the soul of Harvey Dent as well. And Batman faces what is perhaps his most terrible dilemma yet: how far is he willing to go to stop The Joker? Is he willing to cross a line that he can never step back across?

What really made THE DARK KNIGHT a standout for me is the ethical and moral issues raised by and faced by the main characters. Batman, Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent are all good and honorable men committed to their dream of a GothamCity free from the terrible decay of crime eating away at it. And they’re willing to go to war for it. But The Joker escalates the war to a frightening new level. And he keeps upping it. Each one of the three men must look inside themselves and determine how they’re going to save the city without losing the elements of their character that separate them from the criminals they fight. Rachel Dawes loves Bruce Wayne but she wonders if Gotham needs him to be Batman more than she needs him to be a husband. Even Alfred and Wayne Enterprises CEO Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) have their own ethical issues to wrestle with in this movie, especially Lucius Fox when he discovers how Batman is using an invention of his in a way Lucius never intended for it to be used and is plainly frightened at the thought of Batman having such power.

What else did I like about THE DARK KNIGHT? I like how Batman is actually shown doing detective work. I like how Lucius Fox and Alfred work so well at providing backup/support for Batman. Lucius actually plays a major role in helping to capture a major mob accountant, a task that takes not only him but Batman to Hong Kong. I liked Tiny Lister’s brief but kickass cameo. I like all the cool Batgadgets. I like Christian Bale a lot. He seems more confident in this movie and is equally at home as Bruce Wayne and Batman. I like how Bruce Wayne had a lot to do in this movie. I like that this movie was filmed in Chicago which does an excellent job of playing GothamCity. Having the action take place in a real city and not on a set gives this version of GothamCity a bedrock reality that the Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher films didn’t have.

What didn’t I like about THE DARK KNIGHT? Christian Bale still hasn’t found a voice that works for Batman. His Batman continues to sound like a throat cancer victim straining to talk. I missed Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes but considering the character’s eventual fate I was glad she wasn’t in this one. I was confused by some of the fight scenes. Christopher Nolan tends to film them too close in and underlit so that I honestly had a hard time telling what was going on. I think the gimmick of Batman’s cape being a glider is used way too often. The Joker could have been cleaned up a little. He looked downright diseased and infected throughout most of the movie

Which brings me into what you probably really want to know: what did I think of Heath Ledger as The Joker? I thought he was scary, brilliant and wonderfully psychotic. This is a Joker who’s traded in his high voltage joy buzzers and acid squirting lapel flowers for shotguns and razor sharp knives. Notice that I said ‘a’ Joker. Ledger is a wonderful Joker but he’s not ‘The’ Joker if you know what I mean. His interpretation of the character is as far from Jack Nicholson’s Joker as Nicholson’s was from Cesar Romero and it’s even further from the comic book version. This is a Joker that fits in magnificently with this ‘Real World’ vision of Batman but he’s not The Joker from the comic books. Not for me at any rate. That didn’t stop me from enjoying Ledger in what is really a performance that has to be seen to be believed. You never know what he’s going to do or say next and there are several scenes Ledger has that are truly disturbing. This definitely isn’t a Batman movie for the kiddies. I know that Batman fans insist that the movies get darker and darker but after THE DARK KNIGHT it can only get darker by opening with one of the major characters hanging themselves in the attic of Wayne Manor.

I only hope that with all the deserved praise given to Heath Ledger that Aaron Eckhart isn’t forgotten as I believe that his performance is equally as good. Harvey Dent’s character and story is what is really at the core of THE DARK KNIGHT and Eckhart is terrific in the role. But there really isn’t a bad performance or misstep in the entire movie. THE DARK KNIGHT is essentially a hardcore action thriller that sets out to show Batman in the ‘Real World’ just as much as possible. And it works. By all means don’t wait for the DVD. Go see it in the theaters. It’s simply the best Batman movie made so far.


152 minutes
Rated PG-13 But I think it should have been an R. There are some scenes that I feel are too intense for younger viewers
and parents should be advised that this is not a fun superhero romp. This is most definitely an adult picture with sometimes
shocking violence and mature themes.

Great review.

I have a question though. Why do so many people say the movie should have been rated R? Based on the MPAA regulations and rating requirements this movie has nothing "R" in it unless scary sequences and images automatically make a movie R. The language was minimal and most of the violence was off camera.

I would have seen it either way, don't get me wrong, but I think it was an extreme PG-13 but not quite R. If it was "R" I'd expect it to be more like "The Punisher" which was super dark, violent, and full of language. I don't think The Dark Knight was deserving of a R rating though.

Sure it's not Spiderman PG-13 but it's still within the mark I think. That's just me though. I do agree that it would probably be a scary one for the kids though, but that's the fault of the parents who let their 8 year old kids go to PG-13 movies. I think a 13 year old could handle this movie just fine without being too scared.

I didn't read the whole thing because I've yet to see it. But judging from what I've heard of it I REALLY want it.

I think it was a nice touch that the Joker looked "diseased". Also, why R? I think PG-13 is fine and if people don't understand that PG-13 is the yellow traffic light of MPAA ratings, isn't that their fault for being presumptuous? The movie has maybe one or two "jump-at-you" scenes and that's it. No serious blood or gore aside from the scene where Wayne is stitching his arm and even that is only seen for about 2 seconds.

Great review though, most of my thoughts echo your own.

I hear you, but you've got parents that are going to take really young kids to this. Kids who will probably find Ledger's Joker too disturbing and scary. That's my only reason for saying THE DARK KNIGHT should be an R. Parents should be fully aware going in that this is a movie made for adults and not for the kiddies to jump up and down and cheer while Batman beats up the baddies. There's no McDonald's Happy Meal with a toy tie-in for this movie.

Well any parents taking really young kids to a PG-13 movie are about to learn a lesson then. I think that's their own mistake for assuming all PG-13 movies are the same.

The movie ratings are based on the age the MPAA thinks should see a movie. Regardless of whether or not most PG-13 movies are ok for younger kids by most parents, PG-13 means anybody under 13 should probably not see it until their parents have seen it for themselves first. TDK shouldn't be punished with an R rating because parents don't understand that PG-13 means the movie is not suitable for really young kids. That's the parents fault, not the movie's fault.

I thought it was just me/my proximity to the IMAX screen. I couldn't follow those scenes either.

I agree with the R-rating. One of my friends is planning on taking her 6-year-old stepson to see it, and I think that's a big mistake.

Great review, Derrick.

It wasn't just you. I talked to a couple of people who attended the same showing I did and they said the same thing.

Oh, this one is way too intense for a 6 year old. In fact, I can see a 6 year old being bored stiff by THE DARK KNIGHT.

Glad you liked the review.

Yeah, there's so much in terms of morals and duality going on that a lot of young kids won't be too thrilled with it.

If anything I'm almost wishing at this point that they made it to get an R rating. It would give the combat scenes and the violence better continuity. That's one of the reasons why some of the action had an awkward flow to it; they had to limit the amount of violence and to what extent they showed it. If it's affecting the point of continuity I say let the kids wait a few years.