This image released by the Library of Congress shows Heath Ledger, left, and Christian Bale in a scene from the 2008 film "The Dark Knight." Action, Adventure. The Dark Knight was nominated for eight Academy Awards for the 81st Ceremony,[190] breaking the previous record of seven held by Dick Tracy[191] for the most nominations received by a film based on a comic book, comic strip, or graphic novel. [226], The Dark Knight is the highest-grossing film of 2008, the second-highest-grossing superhero film, the second-highest-grossing film based on comics, and the fourth-highest-grossing North American film of all time. Alfred Abel, When you have Gary Oldman, who's one of our greatest actors, and he's in awe of what Heath was doing, it showed what a performance Heath was giving. TV-PG It was a very interesting tie-in.I remember finishing to watch Harvey's interview, the last episode from the web series, moments before I go to the movie theater to watch the movie. [245] Darren Franrich of Entertainment Weekly wrote that the film "cemented a new way of talking about superhero movies," specifically one that acknowledged them as serious vehicles for political commentary and artistic achievement. | Gross: [230] The film came second to Hancock, which was screening in 71 territories in its third weekend. [177] It was also voted as one of New Zealand's favorite films in a 2015 poll. Or would it be several steps further? Before the police arrive to take the Joker into custody, he gloats that Gotham's citizens will lose hope once Dent's rampage becomes public knowledge. [169][170], In 2012, Total Film ranked The Dark Knight as the sixth most accomplished film of the past 15 years, writing that "Christopher Nolan's psycho-operatic crime drama was its decade's most exciting blockbuster—and its most challenging. $534.86M. | 136 min Batman races to save Rachel, while Gordon attempts to rescue Dent. Other candidates included Yorkshire, Glasgow, and parts of London. Joshua Harto plays Coleman Reese, an M&A law accountant at Wayne Enterprises who deduces Bruce's persona of Batman from Fox and plans to reveal it to Gotham. When you look at a film like Pirates of the Caribbean—something like that, there's something about a very fanciful, very detailed visual effect, that I think is more powerful and less repulsive. [135] An unlicensed copy was released on the web about 38 hours after the film's release. Director: Jon Polito, The movie even drank from the right sources of the comic books. Rochelle Davis, The film was the first mainstream feature to partially utilize IMAX 70 mm cameras, with Nolan using them for 28 minutes of the film, including the Joker's first appearance. A pair of lookalikes, one a former French aristocrat and the other an alcoholic English lawyer, fall in love with the same woman amongst the turmoil of the French Revolution. [156] Levy and Peter Travers conclude that the film is "haunting and visionary,"[152][156] while Levy goes on to say that The Dark Knight is "nothing short of brilliant. Approved In addition to the standard DVD releases, some stores released their own exclusive editions of the film. 143 min The Joker kills Gambol and takes over his gang, and the mob ultimately decides to accept the offer. And it's been a fantastic ride since then. The Oscar was awarded to the late Ledger. Releases were in the form of a one-disc edition on DVD; a two-disc edition on DVD; a two-disc edition including a Batmask on DVD and BD; a two-disc Bat-pod statuette Limited BD Edition; a two-disc BD edition; and a four-disc Batman Begins/The Dark Knight pack on DVD and BD. Then read what Nolan said in a Dark Knight interview:"As we looked through the comics, there was this fascinating idea that Batman's presence in Gotham actually attracts criminals to Gotham, [it] attracts lunacy. According to the spoken legend, the name really refers to the first kiss of Nolan's son. Although it did not receive a Best Picture nomination, the show's opening song paid homage to The Dark Knight along with the five Best Picture nominees, including host Hugh Jackman riding on a mockup of the Batpod made out of garbage. "[152] Travers says Ledger moves the Joker away from Jack Nicholson's interpretation into darker territory, and expresses his support for any potential campaign to have Ledger nominated for an Academy Award,[152] Travers says that the filmmakers move the film away from comic book cinema and closer to being a genuine work of art, citing Nolan's direction and the "gritty reality" of Wally Pfister's cinematography as helping to create a universe that has something "raw and elemental" at work within it. "[186], According to David S. Goyer, the primary theme of The Dark Knight is escalation. And then the Joker comes in and lights the whole city on fire. [13] The Batpod is steered by shoulder instead of hand, and the rider's arms are protected by sleeve-like shields. Batman has not been seen for ten years. [133] Mattel produced toys and games for The Dark Knight, action figures, role-play costumes, board games, puzzles, and a special-edition UNO card game, which began commercial distribution in June 2008. [58] His original intent was for the Joker to scar Dent during the Joker's trial in the third film, turning Dent into the supervillain Two-Face. | George Newbern. Batman persuades Gordon to hold him responsible for the killing spree and preserve Dent's heroic image. Stars: $6.21M. Rutger Hauer, He starts a new movie project, he ends it, the story comes to it's conclusion, on to the next project. You can see the arc where Alfred leaves the Wayne Manor in that same story. Shôjirô Nishimi, Drama, Sci-Fi. | "[73], While scouting for shooting locations in October 2006, location manager Robin Higgs visited Liverpool, concentrating mainly along the city's waterfront. This film had many posters to promote this film, of many Ridley Scott Robert Z. Leonard Coleman Reese, an accountant at Wayne Enterprises, deduces that Bruce is Batman and tries to go public with the information. Composition began before shooting, and during filming Nolan received an iPod with ten hours of recordings. The story can perfectly be left here, like the closing of a circle.More than that! Christian Bale, Melinda McGraw appears as Barbara Gordon, Gordon's wife, while Nathan Gamble appears as James Gordon Jr., Gordon's ten-year-old son. Klavan supports this reading of the film by comparing Batman—like Bush, Klavan argues—"sometimes has to push the boundaries of civil rights to deal with an emergency, certain that he will re-establish those boundaries when the emergency is past. The defunct Van Buren Street post office doubles as Gotham National Bank for the opening bank robbery. Former Batman actor Michael Keaton wouldn't confirm his return as the Dark Knight in the upcoming Flash movie, but he hasn't denied the possibility. And that's what a true hero movie is made of, that is the feeling it has to evoke! Stars: [224][228], Overseas, The Dark Knight is the highest-grossing 2008 film[229] and the fourth-highest-grossing superhero film. [224] Notably, it topped the box office during the second-biggest weekend of all time in North America (aggregated total of $253,586,871)[225] and it was the only 2008 film that remained on top of the box office charts for four consecutive weekends. The Dark Knight is perhaps the most powerful exploration of guilt the modern American blockbuster has given us. "[105] In creating the "anarchical" look of the Joker, Hemming drew inspiration from such countercultural pop culture artists as Pete Doherty, Iggy Pop, and Johnny Rotten. 170 min Ariel Winter, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., [240], The film also sold Blu-ray copies worth 370 million yen (US$4.1 million) in Japan, placing it 3rd out of 10 in the top 10 overall Blu-ray category. Roger Ebert noted, "Throughout the film, [the Joker] devises ingenious situations that force Batman, Commissioner Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent to make impossible ethical decisions. Alonso Duralde at MSNBC, however, referred to Bale's voice in The Dark Knight as an "eerie rasp," as opposed to the voice used in the Batman Begins, which according to Duralde "sounded absurdly deep, like a 10-year-old putting on an 'adult' voice to make prank phone calls. 75 min Also, it generated the longest and more memorable viral campaing on the Internet, going from leads, hints, through promotions, videos, audio files, special websites and a web series called Gotham Tonight. [68] The use of IMAX cameras provided many new challenges for the filmmakers: the cameras were much larger and heavier than standard cameras, and produced noise which made recording dialogue difficult. [16][107], Hemming and Ledger's Joker design has had an impact in popular and political culture in the form of the Barack Obama "Joker" poster, and has since become a meme in its own right. It's thrilling and very meaninful in it's message. As much as he introduced villains in his movie that never appeared on the big screen (Ra's Al Ghul and Scarecrow), he was eager to fix the messy stuff that the Burton/Schumacker franchise did with the old ones. And fortunately, it was accepted. IT BEGINS AGAINAnd so we are in the year of 2003 and WB and DC comics decided to take a ride in the comic book movie business train again and reopen the possibilities of a brand new Batman movie. – The Misconceptions of Me, Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time, List of accolades received by The Dark Knight, Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor, Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, "Academy Awards Database – ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE, 2008", "Dark Knight: Christian Bale: Batman/Bruce Wayne", "A Director Confronts Darkness and Death", "IESB Exclusive: Heath Ledger Talks the Joker! A man brutally murdered comes back to life as an undead avenger of his and his fiancée's murder. [57], Before the release of Batman Begins, screenwriter David S. Goyer wrote a treatment for two sequels which introduced the Joker and Harvey Dent. Stars: Aaron Eckhart recalled, "Chris looked at me and he said, 'Heath is doing something special.' Created and composited by Doğan Can Gündoğdu www.frame-tale.com Additional 3D Modelling by Günışığı Cihangir Music by Massive Attack The Dark Knight… The Dark Knight Rises - Opening Credits Project on Vimeo Richard Donner Ernie Hudson, Votes: [102] In response, letters sent to the city's residents promised that the sound level would approximate noise decibels made by buses. Stars: | He would spit in Tommy Lee Jones senil face and say he was nothing but a clown in an overproduced crap festival with bubblegum affected faces.Ooor all that was a little bit harsh and I'm just making it more colorful, but fact is HE MADE IT!Before this movie was released, two tragedies striked the production. Adjusted for ticket-price inflation though, it ranks 28th. [131] In March 2008, Harvey Dent's fictional campaign informed fans that actual campaign buses nicknamed "Dentmobiles" would tour various cities to promote Dent's candidacy for district attorney. "[83] In addition, Nolan chose to edit some of the IMAX sequences using the original camera negative, which by eliminating generation loss, raised the film resolution of those sequences up to 18,000 lines. R The Dark Knight Returns was even used as source of inspiration in the next two movies, I guess it was the only comic from Batman that the creative team, the Nolan brothers and Goyer used to link all three. It became huge from night to day, just like that. [134], Warner Bros. devoted six months to an anti-infringement strategy that involved tracking the people who had a pre-release copy of the film at any one time. Harvey Dent is seen as Gotham's "White Knight" in the beginning of the film but ends up becoming seduced to evil. Stars: Gene Hackman, Eric Roberts plays Sal Maroni, an Italian mafia boss who takes over Carmine Falcone's mob, and Ritchie Coster portrays the Chechen, a Chechen mafia boss in charge of drug-trafficking for the mob. and in the end of the 80's and beginning of the 90's we had two major Tim Burton movies (Batman and Batman Returns) and during the 90's... two major aberrations in the form of flicks by director Joel Schumacker (Batman Forever and Batman and Robin) that we shouldn't waste our breath talking about, let alone watch it.And then, the Batman franchise in the live action movies came to a halt for the next 7 years. [152] Travers praised all the cast, saying each brings his or her "'A' game" to the film.  It was then distributed to 4,366 cinemas, in the U.S and Canada, breaking the previous record held by … You can almost imagine what he smells like.