After the modest critical and financial success with “The Prestige,” Nolan returned to the Batman franchise and released a movie that riskily omitted the name of the Caped Crusader – “The Dark Knight.”
Two years later, how do you review Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight?” What hasn’t been said? There’s no one left to convince to see the movie; if anyone hasn’t seen it, they aren’t worth the effort.
After watching and rewatching Nolan’s films prior to this, it only made me realize more that “The Dark Knight” is a perfect realization of all the themes he loves to explore. It’s about the extent of rules and limits, something he touched on in both “Following” and “The Prestige.” It’s about the blurriness of morality, a theme he examined in “Memento” and “Insomnia.” It’s about fear and what it can drive us to do and become, something that we saw a lot of in “Batman Begins.”
But there’s plenty unique to “The Dark Knight.” It’s a rumination on terrorism as the anarchistic Joker seeks to cause madness in the streets of Gotham. Batman, the only person with any hope of stopping him, has to consider how far he is willing to go to eliminate the Joker before he himself becomes the villain. As their fight escalates, Bruce Wayne becomes more and more uncertain that he is the hero in his own story. Some have read into this undertones of George W. Bush waging war on terrorism against Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. That’s a rather extreme way to look at it, but it’s not too much of a stretch to say that this storyline did tap into the zeitgeist. We ourselves have wondered where to draw the line in our fight on terrorism as to aggression. How much counter-aggression does it take before we ourselves become the aggressors?
Of course, you can’t discuss the movie without heaping superlative after superlative on Heath Ledger’s The Joker. It’s a role that deserves to take its place among the most iconic characters in cinematic history, something Ledger’s unfortunate passing sealed. His complete immersion and stunning transformation overshadowed pretty much every other performance in the movie, which says a lot because there were some other fantastic turns. Forget the deep, raspy Batman voice and Christian Bale is flawless, delivering a subtle portrait of Bruce Wayne’s affliction and inner torment. Aaron Eckhart is compelling as Harvey Dent and Two-Face, as good at being the hero with a face as he is at being the villain with half a face. There’s solid foundational performances from veterans Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine, but the movie’s true unsung hero is Gary Oldman. As the only truly noble man in the movie, he’s a figure to be admired and respected, and there’s a good chance you won’t even notice it. But that doesn’t stop Oldman from putting any less sensitivity or emotion into it, nor does he try to overdo anything to make himself stand out more.
Still, it wasn’t Heath Ledger alone that drove the movie to extreme critical acclaim and some of the most enormous box office receipts in history. Nor was it the look of the film – which, by the way, was spectacular, particularly Wally Pfister’s breathtaking cinematography. It was Nolan’s script, full of intelligence and insight, that won audiences over. Such intellect was so unconventional for a movie of the genre, and we had generally allowed ourselves to think that action movies don’t require us to engage our brains. Yet Nolan challenged our assumption and delivered a movie that successfully blended smarts with action, and we loved the exciting and refreshing change of pace. Now, we want every action movie to be more like “The Dark Knight.”
So call it a masterpiece. Call it the most thematically rich and relevant movie in recent memory. Call it the first shot in a revolution for the comic book, superhero, and action genres. Call it the movie to define a decade not just of moviegoing but also of American life.
Viral websites. Aren’t they fascinating?
I was flipping through the channels two weeks ago, and something interesting caught my eye.
I’m so tempted to give it to either “Baby Mama” or “The Dark Knight,” the two movies that are seemingly always on HBO/Cinemax. They always provide me entertainment, and I end up watching both of them quite a bit. But I think it’s a little too early to crown them king.
I saw “Casablanca” for the first time (yes, I know that’s shocking) a few weeks ago and ogled at how many quotable lines there are. I knew, “Here’s looking at you, kid,” and “at least we’ll always have Paris.” But I had no idea it was the origin of “this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship” or “round up the usual suspects.” Not to mention that the movie is the reason for Warner Bros. theme song on their logo and the inspiration for the title “Play It Again, Sam.” (Fun fact: no one ever says the words “play it again, Sam” in the movie. It’s always a variation.)
“Iron Man 2” missed the opening weekend record that “The Dark Knight” set by $25 million. Phew. Batman will “live to fight another day,” as Harvey Dent says.
It may be best to start by analyzing the category.
For those of you not familiar with the movie industry, several high-profile film festivals (Toronto, Telluride, Venice) have occurred over the past week, inciting much talk about the upcoming onslaught of movies that will be highly considered for Academy Awards. For those who read the factoids, it is hardly a secret that this season also brings a rush of euphoria for me. I will keep you posted with trailers and buzz, and I will also soon be posting early predictions for nominees. But as kind of a warm-up for what is to come, I wanted to give my answer to the question an age-old question: how do you define “Best Picture”? What you will read below is an English paper that I wrote last year for a compare and contrast essay, mainly what critics think and what audiences think about the best movie of the year.
One Sunday in February or March every year, all the focus of popular culture turns to the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, California, for the Academy Awards. The glitz and glamour dominates the red carpet, yet the two most important people glide down the red carpet almost inconspicuously. Cameras do not flash in their face; people do not ogle at their outfits or speculate about whether or not they will end up in the tabloids; Ryan Seacrest from E! might interview them just for kicks. Although just accountants, these two people hold a briefcase filled with twenty-four envelopes that will change the lives of many people. Millions of moviegoers across the world watch the ceremony to find out the names inside the envelopes, but they stay tuned in to hear the presenter call out a movie, not a name. They want to see what over 5,810 people working in the movie industry voted as the Best Picture. However, for many moviegoers across America, their opinions do not match the Academy’s. Many of them have never heard of some of the nominated movies; some of the movies might not have played in their town. With each passing year, a divide between what the general public perceives as Best Picture and what the Academy chooses as its Best Picture has grown wider and wider.
The Oscar voters also like to play it safe, rarely awarding controversial or provocative films. In 1993, they awarded Best Picture to “Schindler’s List,” a film about the Holocaust. Although many acclaimed movies were produced about the subject in the 50 years since the horrific genocide, “Schindler’s List” marked the first nomination for Best Picture for a film about the Holocaust. The Academy generally receives movies set in the past more favorably than movies set in the present or future. In 2008, “Slumdog Millionaire” was the only movie set in the present day.
So why can’t the mainstream moviegoer and the Academy voter find harmony in a pick for Best Picture? Perhaps the Academy has forgotten what Best Picture really means. David Carr of The New York Times said, “It should be the kind of movie that is so good that it brings both civilians and the critical vanguard together.” Ideally, a mixture of box office success and critical praise would result in a Best Picture win (or at the very least a nomination). But if the Academy believed in such a formula, “The Dark Knight,” the film with the highest critical praise and box office gross, would have won Best Picture in 2008. And while that year’s Best Picture winner, “Slumdog Millionaire,” was a box office sensation, the film relied on the awards season to fuel its box office. According to Boxofficemojo.com, over 65% of its gross was accumulated after it received the nomination for Best Picture.
Marshall and the Movies 
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