Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: The Dark Knight (2008)

4/26/2015

The Dark Knight (2008) - Nolan's best Batman

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Action Movie of the Year + Best Superhero Movie of the Year + Best Villain of the Year: The Joker (Heath Ledger) + Most Profitable Movie of the Year: 217 mil. $ range

The dark, exciting poster for Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight

QUICK REVIEW:

Gotham City is terrorized by the Joker, and the new district attorney Harvey Dent looks like the metropolis' only hope. But when Dent SPOILER loses his wife and burns off half of his face in an accident, he becomes the bitter, resentful Two-Face. - And Batman will have to take the trash out!

Christian Bale (Rescue Dawn (2006)) had by British master filmmaker Christopher Nolan's (Interstellar (2014)) second Batman movie grown into a cult character as excess yuppie Bruce Wayne. Aaron Eckhart (Thank You for Smoking (2005)) is also good here as the torn man Dent.
Quality-wise, Dark Knight is nearly a schematic reflection of Nolan's first Batman movie, Batman Begins (2005), with one major exception; the Joker. Cillian Murphy's Scarecrow was neat as the villain of the first film, but Heath Ledger's (Brokeback Mountain (2005)) anarchistic heavy is larger-than-life. A truly great performance, and Ledger's only Oscar-win. Unfortunately, he died tragically of an overdose six months prior to the release of the film and therefore never received the statue in person.
Ledger's premature demise has most certainly contributed to the undue celebration of The Dark Knight that has since ensued: The film still rests at #4 on IMDb's Top 250! Knight is great entertainment for sure, but held up against the greatest Batman movie to date, Tim Burton's Batman Returns (1992), I still far prefer Burton's colorful, Gothic fantasy adventure over Nolan's stark realism and seriousness.
Knight is co-written by Nolan and his brother Jonathan Nolan (Interstellar), with David S. Goyer (Blade (1998)) contributing story.

Related reviews:

Batman: Batman Returns (1992) - Burton gives us the ultimate, Gothic spin on Gotham City and its sinister characters
Batman (1989) - A huge, glitzy, empty joker
Batman the Movie (1966) or, Batman and Robin: Kapow!!!
Christopher Nolan: 2014 in films - according to Film Excess
Interstellar (2014) - Nolan heads to space in oppulent, exciting epic
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) or, Batman and the Storm, Darkness, Anarchy, Evil, Depression

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess
Batman Begins (2005) or, Modern, Dark, Smooth Batman

Watch the great trailer for the film here

Cost: 185 mil. $
Box office: 1,005 bil. $
= Big hit
[The Dark Knight broke records galore: With 8 Oscar nominations, it is the most Oscar-nominated film based on a comic or graphic novel to date, beating Dick Tracy's (1990) 7 nominations. Dark Knight was 2008's highest-grossing film and remains the 4th highest-grossing superhero movie, (almost certain to be bested soon by Avengers: Age of Ultron.) It made 534.9 mil. $ (53 %) of its total gross in the US, where it had an earth-shattering opening weekend of 158.4 mil. $. The film was re-released traditionally and in IMAX in early 2009, which made it break through the 1 bil. $ mark.]

What do you think of The Dark Knight?
And Nolan's other films?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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4/26/2015

The Dark Knight (2008) - Nolan's best Batman

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