The Dark Knight (2008) (2 Viewers)

[Simon Young]

I recently posted this on another forum, thought I'd share.

I love how the Nolans and Goyer have gone to great lengths to plausibly justify everything in the Batman universe that often gets taken for granted. A great example would be the title of the film. It would have been easy enough to simply use 'The Dark Knight' with no explanation as to its meaning; fans of the comic would have been happy with the allusion to a darker Batman, while nobody else would have given it much thought. However, the writers clearly relished the opportunity to deconstruct the nickname and make it relevant to their story. Realistically, nobody would just start referring to Batman as 'The Dark Knight'. It might feel a little contrived - after all, people are still getting used to calling a masked vigilante 'The Bat-man'. However, it makes perfect sense to nickname Harvey Dent 'Gotham's White Knight'. It's exactly the sort of hyperbole that the tabloids would use to make him appear larger than life - the hero that is going to clean up Gotham City once and for all. To then take Harvey's nickname and turn it on its head, passing it to Batman as he flees from the cops, was a stroke of genius. And in the final moments of the story, Gordon's utterance of it made perfect sense of the film's title. Brilliant.

Same thing with Harvey's lucky coin. Here's a man who uses a little gimmick (before his disfiguration) to create the illusion that he leaves things to chance when, in fact, he doesn't at all. He's too good for that. Then, at the same time as half his face gets burned off, his coin suffers the same fate. The result is a man who relies entirely on chance to determine his actions and demonstrates just how much he has been mentally scarred. The coin becomes more than a villain's gimmick. Again, an example of the writers taking something from the comics that fans take for granted, and giving it greater emotional weight.

I'm sure most of you have picked up on these little things already, but I thought it was worth reiterating just how well thought-out they are.

 

[rich_d]

Your points are fine but a bit much. I guess we define 'brilliant' differently, your definition more in line with the Guinness commercials.

White Knight contrasted with the Dark Knight ... brilliant.

If that's a brilliant idea, there are thousands of cowboy films you might find ... brilliant.

 

[Simon Young]

I think you misunderstood my post. It wasn't the contrast alone that I thought was brilliant, but the decision to nickname Harvey Dent the 'White Knight' and then develop that into Batman's nickname by the end of the movie. It's one of the many little things that impressed me about the writers' attention to detail. My point was that it would have been all too easy - nay, almost expected - for the script to refer to Batman as 'The Dark Knight' with no better explanation than, ya know, that's what they call him in the comics, and it's bad-ass. But instead they mined it for ideas and gave it a meaning that added dramatic weight to the film's title.

It's the same with almost every element of Batman Begins. For example, the decision to have Dr. Crane's scarecrow mask be functional - shielding him from his own fear toxin - as well as scary. That was all invented by the writers, I believe, and had nothing to do with the comics. It gets taken for granted, but the little details add up to an interpretation of the Batman universe that is possible, if not entirely realistic.

To what commercials do you refer? I haven't seen the American Guinness ads. The British ones tend to be quite good, but I'm assuming they're different.

 

[billjames]

Guinness rocks

 

[Tim Glover]

For some laughs....it's quite funny. And true.

Michael Bay's Rejected "The Dark Knight" Script - The Spill.com Movie Community

 

[Dome Vongvises]

I haven't said much of anything in the Movies section in forever. HI CHUCK HI TIM!

Anywho, just wanted to say that TDK has pretty much raised the bar on what I want to expect from popular entertainment movies from now on. I saw The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor recently. Yep, big difference in quality there.

 

[JonZ]

"Guinness rocks"

But Spaten Ocktoberfest is the best

 

[Pete-D]

Just a thought ... but what if in the process of negotiating for the third film, Nolan asked that Warner Bros. give Heath Ledger's family say $5 million dollars.

Or simply both Nolan and Bale get an extra $5 million on top of their agreed upon deals which they then give to the Ledger family.

I don't know how much Heath Ledger made during his film career, but man, if he had lived after the TDK he would've commanded a much, much larger salary, especially for a third Batman movie. And his performance contributed quite a bit to TDK making monstrous amounts of cash.

Obviously it's not something they have to do, but I think it's something Nolan, given the type of power he has now, could get Warner Bros. to sign off on.

 

[rich_d]

I understand the intent and it would be nice.

It would also be nice if actors returned portions of their salaries when they don't draw theatre goers as expected but that doesn't happen either. In essence, producers and the stockholders behind them pay the money and take their chances.

Not to worry, it's not like Ledger family won't be making money on residuals from video sales. That and all his other projects that went to DVD.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

I finally got around to seeing TDK on the IMAX screen the other night. What I love about IMAX is it's a return to the days of 70mm exhibition, but on an even more impressive screen. The movie's action scenes are just mesmerizing in this process. The opening bank heist has to be one of the best first five minutes of any movie ever. And the Hong Kong scene...the Batpod chase...incredible.

I went with two friends, neither of whom are Batman fans, and they both said the film was incredible. One of the guys said that "it was a great psychological thriller on the level of Hitchcock". Can't ask for a greater compliment than that!

 

[rich_d]

One example ...

YouTube - guinness ad

 

[Brian Borst]

Funny you should say this. The other main actors (Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell) in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (the final film of Heath) have all donated their salary to the daughter of Heath Ledger. She wasn't in the will of the actor, because it was too old.

 

[DavidPla]

The script is up on JoBlo and they do have a very small scene of the Joker escaping from the penthouse for those wondering what happened to him afterwards.

http://joblo.com/scripts/The_Dark_Knight.pdf

 

[Ennsio]

Went and saw TDK for a second time last Friday at the Imax (my first viewing was at the Imax too so I have no idea what it looks like on a regular screen).

One thing I found very interesting at the theatre I went to was that they released some smoke or fog into the theatre before the show started from just beside the projector window. This lasted for about 10 minutes, and people kept turning around and looking at the smoke and wondering if it was intentional or not. Did this happen in any of the other Imax theaters you guys went to?

Just before the movie started, there was the typical Imax promo demonstration with lasers shooting around the room and describing the projector and sound system, so I'm guessing that the smoke was to fit with the laser show. Problem is that it really washed out the screen image for the first half of the movie until the fog had totally cleared. I don't remember them doing that on my first Imax TDK viewing. The only reason I can think of for releasing the smoke was for the laser intro, but that's a pretty weak reason for reducing the picture quality of the movie. Any body else have any idea about why the theatre would do this, or what it would have been supposed to achieve? On both viewings, the crowd thought the intro was pretty cheesy and laughed throughout when there was the singing coming from each of the different speakers.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I just saw it and have to give a thumbs down. I mean, you hire the great William Fichtner--a god among actors--and don't use him past the first scene?

One question, that might have been discussed here. Was Batman going to save Rachel and Joker lied and switched the locations, or was he always going for Harvey? I thought he told Gordon he was going for Rachel.

Also, for the ferry scene, was anyone else thinking, "What if Joker lied and you blow up your own boat if you push the button?" I was hoping someone would float that idea.

 

[nolesrule]

He told Gordon he was going for Rachel, so that means the Joker lied. If Batman was really going after Dent but told Gordon he was going after Rachel, wouldn't he and Gordon have ended up at the same location? The only time that the locations are mentioned is when the Joker reveals them.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I thought Gordon was going to an address and believed Dent to be there, but I didn't know what Batman knew.

 

[TonyD]

yep, this has been mentioned at least a dozen times in this topic.

batman and gordon are coming out of the station after bats interrogates
joker.
he's hopping on his bike and gordon says "who are you going for" not those exact words, bats says "Rachel" .
joker lied and reversed the addresses.

 

[Fred Bang]

That exactly what I thought would happen. I expected that big black prisonner to push button and blow the prisonner's boat. Obviously, I was really surprised when he threw the detonator away. It's one of the strenght of the movie; you really don't know what's gonna happen.

 

[Nick Martin]

FINALLY!!!

I was able to witness the IMAX Experience this afternoon.

Just incredible on all levels. PERFECT presentation all around.

I sat in the back row center, so while the surrounds were a constant presence, they weren't overpowering at all.

Not only was the sound far greater in the sense that I could easily hear all the dialogue without the music drowning everything out, but the best aspect, at least to me was NOT the sheer size of the image, but instead the resolution.


The only way to describe it (and this is not to devalue the 35mm scenes in any way, this is just a very loose comparison) was watching a Blu-ray disc with standard DVD spliced in.

Again, a loose comparison.

The image size differences weren't very jarring, because the 35mm scenes were impressive and just as wide. It was almost like removing masking borders at the top and bottom, which made the switches very subtle.

Sitting in the back row allowed for a more-or-less eye level view, making it very comfortable to watch. I must have sat in the exact same seat for Apollo 13 back in 2002.


I was very pleasantly surprised by how much of the film was true IMAX.
I certainly didn't expect the entire underground chase sequence and BatPod pursuit to be completely IMAX, so that was very welcome.

I think it's safe to say that I'll be Blu-ray ready by the time this film hits store shelves, but if not, I would hold out slim hope for the aspect ratio-shifting feature to be included on a standard release as well, as I would have no problem whatsoever watching it go from 2.35 to 1.78 at home.
2.35 to 1.43 however....well it's understandable that the IMAX frame is slightly modified for home viewing.

Best cinematic experience I've ever witnessed!