Directed by:
Christopher NolanCinematography:
Wally PfisterCast:
Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy, Eric Roberts, Ritchie Coster (more)VOD (5)
Plots(1)
With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to destroy organized crime in Gotham for good. The triumvirate proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to a rising criminal mastermind known as the Joker, who thrusts Gotham into anarchy and forces the Dark Knight ever closer to crossing the fine line between hero and vigilante. (Warner Bros. US)
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Reviews (19)
The Dark Knight is a great film, but great doesn’t mean the best ever or the best in the last few years, and personally I have serious doubts it’ll be the best film of the year (it already has one competitor in In Bruges). Heath Ledger’s performance is clearly the one that has received the highest praise, his is the role that attracts most of the attention, but Aaron Eckhart is head-to-head with him and actually his character might be a lot stronger as a result. The plot moves forward very (sometimes excessively) fast, to the point that I wouldn’t have minded a longer runtime.
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Endless chaos in the hands of one man, good and evil that lack boundaries, fantastic hi-tech toys, great actors, dry bon mots, one magic act, and most importantly two and a half hours of undiluted adventure where Nolan jumps from one peak to an even higher one to develop a meaningful plot, all while remembering the action that makes the weak ones wet. Since The Bourne Ultimatum, there’s now a film that resolutely rejects notions like "time-out" and "dead spot." And then there’s the oppressive music before the Joker does another number... I could go on forever. Film of the Year? Probably.
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What Nolan sketched in Batman Begins leads to absolute perfection in this film. The scheme of the struggle between good and evil is dissolved, and Batman definitely loses his mythical essence and becomes a truly dark figure of a cursed outcast. Definitely the darkest comic book film ever, mainly thanks to Ledger, whose Joker is a brilliant materialization of elusive and indestructible evil. The only weakness is the somewhat overwhelming plot, which loses a bit of pace between the two climaxes. I salute the way Nolan was able to turn a comic book film into a captivating and raw thriller in the best tradition of M. Mann, Coppola or De Palma. In my opinion, The Dark Knight is truly one of the best Hollywood movies. Edit 2012: after my "obligatory enthusiasm" subsided, The Dark Knight lost a bit of its gloss - nothing has changed for me about its qualities, but there is something about its coldness, brilliant calculation and bulletproof planning that prevents me from losing myself in the film... The character of Harvey Dent also still seems as wooden and flexible to me as is required for the perfect trick at the end. Ta-da! I’m giving it one star less.
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Hans Zimmer spent three months searching for the right tone to express the Joker's mad, insidious and evil nature. Together with Heath Ledger’s performance, the monotonous motif, which sends chills down one’s spine, is as powerful an aspect of the film as everything else combined. A few years ago, Warners hoped to revive their half-dead comic book icon. Nolan delivered. As his success assured him that he was going in the right direction, this time he decided to push things even further, bring us to our knees and become not a king of comic book adaptations, but of noir crime dramas with comic book roots. For Warners, this film is a bandage on the financial wound inflicted by Speed Racer and will rank among the company’s most important feature movies. The Dark Night is even more dynamic, polished, dark and epic than Batman Begins.
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Great. A comic-book version of Heat spiced up by a face-painted nutcase played by the breathtaking Heath Ledger. The Nolan brothers took the mythology of the Dark Knight and played with it in a way that is probably unparalleled. The psychology of the characters, their behavior and reactions are all set in a story concerning the struggle between total anarchy and greatly distorted good. Personally, I admit that before the film I wasn't thrilled about Eckhart's Harvey Dent being incorporated into a work that was supposed to belong mainly to the Joker, but I ended up captivated by the state prosecutor’s transformation (and I was especially surprised about the motive). The coin-tossing scenes were atmospheric to the point of being spine-chilling. I was also pleased that Christian Bale performed a bit of action without the Batman costume (the Lamborghini ride) and I was pleased with the greater scope of Gary Oldman's role. The Dark Knight is a clever summer blockbuster that could unleash a new wave of comic book movies. And that's good. "I thought my jokes were bad."
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Gallery (478)
Photo © Warner Bros Pictures
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