THE MUSIC CREATORS - HANS ZIMMER - JAMES N. HOWARD

- The Batman theme is heard only twice in the film, as Composers Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard decided that a heroic theme that a viewer could hum would ignore the complexity and darkness of the character. Hearing the tune only twice would create what Zimmer calls "a musical foreshadowing."

- Composer James Newton Howard composed an elegant and beautiful score for Harvey Dent, which would serve as a jarring contrast to Two-Face's persona.

THE MAN BEHIND THE CREATION - CHRISTOPHER NOLAN

- David S. Goyer and Christopher Nolan collaborated on the story of the film. The script itself was written by Nolan and his brother Jonathan. After watching The Dark Knight, Goyer stated "I can't believe my name is on a movie this good".

- Just as it was when filming Batman Begins (2005), director Christopher Nolan oversaw every shot himself as there was no second unit.

- As of its release, the longest film Christopher Nolan has directed.

CHRIS NOLAN .contd.

- The false title given to the film during production, Rory's First Kiss, was named after Christopher Nolan's son, Rory. When filming began in April 2007, the production was code-named to thwart onlookers and trespassers. All over downtown Chicago, fliers were posted with this pseudonym (alongside an "RFK" logo) and also listed the address for the film's production offices.

- Despite endless speculation on which actor had been chosen to portray The Joker, Heath Ledger had always been Christopher Nolan's one and only choice for the role.

- CHRIS. NOLAN : "The term 'genre' eventually becomes pejorative because you're referring to something that's so codified and ritualised that it ceases to have the power and meaning it had when it first started. What I'm trying to do is to create modern equivalents that speak to me of those tropes that have more of the original power"

the IMAX experience

- For the first time in feature filmmaking, IMAX cameras were utilized. Christopher Nolan had wanted to shoot in the IMAX format for years, thus using this film as his opportunity to do so. Six major action-heavy sequences, along with various high-altitude shots, were filmed on the IMAX ratio. (These sequences are available on the Bonus Disc of the 2-Disc DVD Edition.)

- The IMAX cameras used in filming proved to be problematic for the crew. Dialog that was recorded on film is very noisy so it had to be replaced during post-production. An IMAX camera is very heavy and it cannot be used hand held. Instead, special mounts had to be created to support the weight. Finally, they had to get the shots right as it takes 5 days to process the negative instead of the conventional negative.

- The first film shot with IMAX to be nominated for an Academy Award for best cinematography and an American Society of Cinematographers Award.

- The 70mm IMAX prints of the film each consisted of 45 reels, which once assembled, were roughly 9.5 miles long and weighed 450 pounds.

Roger Ebert's Review ****/****

“Batman” isn’t a comic book anymore. Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” is a haunted film that leaps beyond its origins and becomes an engrossing tragedy. It creates characters we come to care about. That’s because of the performances, because of the direction, because of the writing, and because of the superlative technical quality of the entire production.


Review .contd.

“The Dark Knight” is not a simplistic tale of good and evil. Batman is good, yes, The Joker is evil, yes. But Batman poses a more complex puzzle than usual: The citizens of Gotham City are in an uproar, calling him a vigilante and blaming him for the deaths of policemen and others. And the Joker is more than a villain. He’s a Mephistopheles whose actions are fiendishly designed to pose moral dilemmas for his enemies.

The key performance in the movie is by the late Heath Ledger, as the Joker.

His clown's makeup more sloppy than before, his cackle betraying deep wounds, he seeks revenge, he claims, for the horrible punishment his father exacted on him when he was a child. In one diabolical scheme near the end of the film, he invites two ferry-loads of passengers to blow up the other before they are blown up themselves. Throughout the film, he devises ingenious situations that force Batman (Christian Bale), Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) to make impossible ethical decisions. By the end, the whole moral foundation of the Batman legend is threatened.

Because these actors and others are so powerful, and because the movie does not allow its spectacular special effects to upstage the humans, we’re surprised how deeply the drama affects us. Eckhart does an especially good job as Harvey Dent, whose character is transformed by a horrible fate into a bitter monster. It is customary in a comic book movie to maintain a certain knowing distance from the action, to view everything through a sophisticated screen. “The Dark Knight” slips around those defenses and engages us.

Yes, the special effects are extraordinary. They focus on the expected explosions and catastrophes, and have some superb, elaborate chase scenes. The movie was shot on location in Chicago, but it avoids such familiar landmarks as Marina City, the Wrigley Building or the skyline. Chicagoans will recognize many places, notably La Salle Street and Lower Wacker Drive, but director Nolan is not making a travelogue. He presents the city as a wilderness of skyscrapers, and a key sequence is set in the still-uncompleted Trump Tower. Through these heights, the Batman moves at the end of strong wires, or sometimes actually flies, using his cape as a parasail.

Heath Ledger has a good deal of dialogue in the movie, and a lot of it isn’t the usual jabs and jests we’re familiar with: It’s psychologically more complex, outlining the dilemmas he has constructed, and explaining his reasons for them. The screenplay by Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan (who first worked together on “Memento”) has more depth and poetry than we might have !

In his two Batman movies, Nolan has freed the character to be a canvas for a broader scope of human emotion. For Bruce Wayne is a deeply troubled man, let there be no doubt, and if ever in exile from his heroic role, it would not surprise me what he finds himself capable of doing.


this is the first movie of nolan which could connect with the masses...[it is not as complex as his other flicks,namely memento,prestige nad there is no boring moment]
this is the one of the rare movies which is praised by critics and also one of the biggest grossers of all time...
it had the most powerful characters in cinema-JOKER..
this movie is one of the most perfect piece of cinema offered by hollywood..
it has made HISTORY!!!


well you see...doing a role as complex and dark as the joker took a lot out of ledger...and he was having trouble sleeping....so he turned to prescription pills.....still then the trouble persisted....he said at a press-meet that sometimes one pill wasn't enough...he needed more to go to sleep....and it was during this time that he overdozed and the world lost a great young talented actor....


i wonder how most people keep saying batman begins wasnt that good...it was the best batman movie...i am a serious comics freak...take it from me...The Dark Knight was superb as a movie....but as a batman movie,batman begins is way in front.....

as for psychological discussions...it discussed fear..watch the scene where bruce meets ra's al ghul...bruce isnt afraid of anything in the world...but he is afraid deeply of one thing that makes him do what he was doing.,...he fears he may have been responsible for his parents' death...and that is the greatest fear one can have....if that's not deep i don't know what is...

also the discussion on what's right and what's easy...justice and revenge...i felt these themes were handled in a very matured manner by Mr.Nolan


batman begins was bad i said tht it is not upto the mark.Speaking of things i was never into comic books i never liked thm spiderman,superman blah blah i was never into thm and Batman begins was not beyond tht but was made a little different thn the typical comic book series .

But the dark Knight i was expressionless when i was watcing the movie i forget the comic charector all tht shit i can only see the charectors struggling with the demons within themselves tht was wht to say awesome.

Actually i was impressed with Nolan's work in Insomania which was a masterpiece according to my opinion compared to those movies batman begins was not upto he mark.

The dialogue in dark knight tht "this city deserves a better criminals" oh wht can u say abt it awesome. "The only way to live is to live without rules " tht's more like "Ayn Rands " philosophy


Speaking of things i was never into comic books i never liked thm spiderman,superman blah blah i was never into thm and Batman begins was not beyond tht but was made a little different thn the typical comic book series .

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True...When I watched this movie the first time, frankly, I was just eyeing in for Heath Ledger as Joker, he was just like an eye candy for me at that time. Everytime he came onto screen after the "Bank robbery scene", I could sense something great , either in his acting or in his dialogue was coming.

There are, infact have been only a few roles in the history of Cinema which DEFINE what should a villian be like, and heath s definitely one of those, not to forget Jack Nicholson's Batman

I was pretty much reluctant I watching TDK, just because of Jack Nicholson. Because I couldnt imagine a role and acting better than Jack Nicholson's Joker, but, hats off to Heath Ledger. I think I may not be wrong in stating that this movie was more of Joker's than of Batman

To understand the story, plot and everything of the movie again, I watched it 3 times again, because every time in the midway, I just got carried over by Joker's acting.

The scene where Joker first stammers and then gives the addresses of Rachel and Harvey inter-exchanged took me a total of 3 watches [Courtesy : Joker, again!!]

But the dark Knight i was expressionless when i was watcing the movie i forget the comic charector all tht shit i can only see the charectors struggling with the demons within themselves tht was wht to say awesome.
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Yeah, it was for the first time ever that the superheroes avoided being stereotypic. Most of the superhero movies, start with the Hero getting all bruised up by the villain but in the end ,against all odds our hero wins.

For the first time, I was literally forced to think and believe what a Superhero undergoes. Batman dosent have to fight only against criminals, he also had to fight against Public Mob, City's resentment against him, the ideologies of inspiring people should remain [ Like he let himself the police to follow him so that the Public face, i.e. Harvey Dent remains a White Knight], He must not kill anybody, even the criminals, which the earlier Superheroes were proud to.
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my opinion compared to those movies batman begins was not upto he mark.

you watch batman Begins that properly, I think the fight between Christian Bale and his teacher was great and tempting too, when his teacher says (Actually I am not able to recollect his name) : " You didnt beat me, you just risked your foot", shows how traps can be set for enemies, which he, Batman, uses very frequently in TDK.

The dialogue in dark knight tht "this city deserves a better criminals" oh wht can u say abt it awesome. "The only way to live is to live without rules " tht's more like "Ayn Rands " philosophy

+100...Well dialogues like " When the chips are down, these Civilizations eat each other" , " I just took Gotham's White Knight and brought him down to our level.",
" Madness is like gravity, all you need is a little push", "This is what happens when an Unstoppable force meets an immovable object", "I am not gonna waste my time in a fist fight with you" , "You complete me", these dialogues actually influence you. After some analyzation I inferred that these things actually happen in our life, obviously not with a Joker, but in people's behaviors....

I love JOKER....i love his dialogues....i love Heath Ledger....i have seen TDK thrice in the theater....on the other hand i have read Fountain Head thrice...and Atlas Shrugged...once...but some parts i read it again and again....and i can't compare...Joker with anyone from Ayn Rand's character.....Plzzzzzz leave Ayn Rand out of this.......

ANALYSIS OF THE DARK KNIGHT

According to David S. Goyer, the primary theme of The Dark Knight is escalation. Gotham City is weak and the citizens blame Batman for the city's violence and corruption as well as the Joker's threats, and it pushes his limits, making him feel that taking the laws into his own hands is further downgrading the city. 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. By the end, the whole moral foundation of the Batman legend is threatened."

Other critics have mentioned the theme of the triumph of evil over good. Harvey Dent is seen as Gotham's "White Knight" in the beginning of the film but ends up becoming seduced to evil. The Joker, on the other hand, is seen as the representation of anarchy and chaos. He has no motive, no orders, and no desires but to cause havoc and "watch the world burn". The terrible logic of human error is another theme as well. The ferry scene displays how humans can easily be enticed by iniquity.

The Conflicted World of Batman - 1

The one thing that has always been a virtue about the Batman franchise is in its focus on the conflicted mind of Bruce Wayne/Batman (Christian Bale). Bruce Wayne is an idealist who believes he can alter the world’s crime ridden roots through the donning of a mask and a cape. But how far will he proceed with it? This is the question that is at the heart of the story of The Dark Knight.

His struggle with his sense of duty is truly put to the test in this film by many facets of Gotham City but none more powerful then the likes of the psychopathic and antagonistic mind frame of The Joker (Heath Ledger). Within the first five minutes of the film, the audience is quick to ascertain that this is not the same Joker as Jack Nicholson undertook only 19 years earlier in Tim Burton’s Batman.

The Conflicted World of Batman - 2

The Joker is not played for laughs by the late Ledger but rather as a character who believes in tipping the scales of structure and balance. He is not in it for the money (which is emphasized in a scene that will be truly difficult for a capitalist to watch) but rather is an instigator and a threat to the goal of a morally structured world. Things are not simply black and white and the character of The Joker is quick to point this out. He alters certain individual’s perceptions and forces them to become entities of their psyche that they may not want to admit they possess. Though his screen time presence is lacking, during the times in which he does appear onscreen becomes a highly intoxicating treat and truly works as the best moments of this film. He is utterly unforgettable and, dare one say it, the best Joker ever.

THE DARKNESS OF FILM - 1

The Dark Knight does live up to its title. It is extremely dark (though the city is not as malicious looking as it appeared in the first film). The violence at times is stark and unrelenting but in a non-exploitive sort of way. It mirrors the society that Gotham City has become. The city has spawned violence as a result of its own corruption and misdeeds. It truly captures the understanding that violence begets violence.

Gotham City is a barren landscape and, as a result, contains only three men willing enough to take on the role of cleaning it up. In the film, all three men represent different modes of the male perspective. Harvey Dent is the idealist who believes change can occur through effort and determination. Batman, on the other hand, desires alterations but is conflicted on how to go about achieving it. Lieutenant Gordon (Gary Oldman) covets modifications but is also a man who understands the corruption and decay that probes the individual. He is an idealist but with a greater sense of awareness and understanding then Dent and Batman. These three characters help to complete each other and yet remain individualistic in their beliefs and actions.

The Darkness of the Film - 2

Christopher Nolan, the director, has achieved a tremendous feat with his latest release. He has taken a film franchise which only ten years ago was mocked and ridiculed and turned it into something artistically respected. It has rejuvenated the franchise and, as a result, has become the best franchise going at the present moment. For all of its minor problems, this entry is sure to entertain the masses. The film has a rousing score and contains performances that are truly great but, at times, overshadowed by all of the great action sequences (which may or not may be a bad thing?).

Though the film does sort of lose itself in the final thirty minutes, the film still does leave the viewer with great expectations for a third entry in the series. Perhaps the anticipation will not be as tantalizing as the original films ending (with the introduction of the Joker playing card) but it does add another depth to the already impressive lengths this franchise is attempting to strive for. Let the anticipation begin.