On this file picture launched by Warner Bros., Christian Bale stars as Bruce Wayne in “The Darkish Knight.” Stephen Vaughan, Related Press
“You both die a hero otherwise you dwell lengthy sufficient to see your self grow to be the villain,” Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) tells Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and Natascha (Beatrice Rosen) throughout a scene from “The Darkish Knight.”
Directed by Christopher Nolan, “The Darkish Knight” interrogates what it actually means to be a hero, how folks grow to be villains and decide the suitable alternative in sophisticated circumstances — even when it means going in opposition to private pursuits. It’s the second film in Nolan’s Batman trilogy.
And it’s additionally simply an entertaining film. The Biggest Movies charges it 97th on its listing of finest movies ever and CinemaScore gave it an A rating, per Indie Wire.
Director Steven Spielberg mentioned to Deadline about Nolan’s movie, “That film would have undoubtedly garnered a finest image nomination right now.”
The movie commonly tops lists of biggest superhero films of all time from trade web sites like Collider and Parade. So, on its fifteenth anniversary, right here’s a better look into “The Darkish Knight” and why it's so extremely rated.
Why is ‘The Darkish Knight’ so extremely rated?
The principle components of “The Darkish Knight” that make the movie so good are character growth and storytelling.
Character growth in “The Darkish Knight”
Three characters specifically make the movie the masterpiece it's: Batman/Bruce Wayne, Harvey Dent and the Joker (Heath Ledger). Spoilers forward, so be at liberty to skip this part if you happen to haven’t seen the movie.
Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, grapples with whether or not or not he ought to proceed being the vigilante who protects Gotham. He’s in love with Rachel and sees his longtime ally Jim Gordon’s appointment to police commissioner and Harvey Dent’s success as district legal professional as his ticket to depart Batman behind.
Though Rachel and Harvey are in a relationship, Batman sees a chance to dwell the life he imagined with Rachel.
However that’s not what occurs. Batman is put able the place he not solely has to proceed being the Batman, however he additionally chooses to be seen because the villain. For him, it needs to be sufficient that he is aware of he’s making an attempt to avoid wasting town of Gotham even whereas the police start a manhunt for him and people who as soon as admired him activate him.
Harvey’s character goes via a distinct journey.
When the viewers meets Harvey, he’s a golden boy of kinds. With a wonderfully pleated go well with and a mile-high document of prosecuting town’s mid-level mob figures, Harvey is actively positioning himself as a distinct form of hero.
As a substitute of being a shadowy determine like Batman, Harvey does his work within the mild. That's, till he turns into the villain.
When Rachel dies as a result of she isn’t rescued in time and half of Harvey’s face is burned by the oil explosion, he turns into corrupt — just like the Joker deliberate.
Harvey’s signature attribute turns into tied to the coin his father gave him. At one level, the two-headed coin represented him making his personal luck, and its symbolism shifted when Harvey shifted. It turned the automobile for his misdeeds and consultant of his transformation.
Harvey’s character is one thing of a foil to each Batman and the Joker. Though Harvey tries to be the hero in mild whereas Batman is the hero in the dead of night, he fails. And though Harvey makes an attempt to carry order amid the Joker embodying chaos, he fails.
Then, there’s the Joker himself. He’s one of many biggest supervillains of all time as a result of he’s unpredictable, a mastermind and he has a relentless dedication to chaos.
Batman needs nothing greater than to avoid wasting Gotham whereas the Joker is dedicated to destroying Gotham, however not for cash — he’s invested within the very thought of chaos. This modifications his incentives.
Within the movie, there’s a scene the place the Joker lights an absurdly excessive pile of cash on fireplace and watches it burn. This second embodies his dedication to chaos and exhibits the Joker can’t be purchased or persuaded, which makes him troublesome to affect and defeat.
The Joker additionally doesn’t use destruction as his essential type of violence — he makes use of manipulation. He creates circumstances during which good folks like Harvey grow to be evil and push folks to their limits to seek out what sort of individual they’ll select to be ultimately.
That’s why the Joker locations free residents of Gotham and incarcerated residents of Gotham on two completely different boats. He needs to see what they’ll select when life or demise is on the road.
In the end, each teams of individuals select to sacrifice themselves and save the opposite group, so the Joker’s experiment fails. The Joker additionally fails to show Batman right into a villain, however he succeeds in corrupting Harvey Dent.
Storytelling in “The Darkish Knight”
One more reason “The Darkish Knight” is so extremely rated is because of the movie’s storytelling. There are a number of completely different plot traces like Harvey’s story, the love triangle between Harvey, Bruce and Rachel, Bruce’s grappling with whether or not or to not be Batman, the Joker’s origin tales and the Joker’s relationships with town’s mob bosses.
All of those tales collide into one another and are broadly linked by themes like good versus evil, heroes versus villains, chaos versus order and crime versus justice.
What units “The Darkish Knight” aside is how delicate a few of these connections are.
For instance, nobody actually is aware of who the Joker is. The Joker modifications his origin story primarily based on who he’s speaking to, his id is hid by make-up and he’s an elusive form of determine. This can be a mirror to Batman who actively conceals his id and eschews public life, however the two aren’t an ideal match as a result of they resolve to be completely different folks even with having a few of these key similarities.
And that makes the story of “The Darkish Knight” fascinating. Whether or not or not an individual turns into a hero or a villain isn’t fairly the fatalism Harvey espouses, it turns into an energetic alternative that characters within the story continually should make.
There are different nice components of the movie just like the rating and the tempo. What makes it most compelling is how characters have to decide on again and again who they’ll be.
When was ‘The Darkish Knight’ launched?
It was launched on July 18, 2008.
‘The Darkish Knight’ funds
“The Darkish Knight” had a funds of $185 million, in accordance with Field Workplace Mojo. It grossed a bit over $1 billion worldwide.
‘The Darkish Knight’ streaming platforms
“The Darkish Knight” is streaming on Max.