Day 2: The Dark Knight

Easily one of the greatest films ever made. It also just happens to feature a vigilante that dresses up as a bat.

For anyone who has witnessed the near perfection that is The Dark Knight, the fact that the film is based on a comic book superhero is irrelevant. With his previous entry into this franchise, Batman Begins, director Christopher Nolan showed audiences and critics alike that a comic book story could be told with a realistic approach, and still be an artistically relevant film.  With his follow up, he took this one step further and created an epic 2nd installment, that both continued the story, and delved further into the characters that were introduced in the previous film. The film is also notable for it's use of the IMAX format cameras to film the opening heist scene, including our introduction of the film's villain. 

There is so much to love about this film, that it's really hard to go through each specific thing individually.  But here's a brief rundown of the finest aspects...

Heath Ledger's Joker is easily the standout character, and his portrayal of Batman's most iconic nemesis is possibly the most iconic representation of the character (sorry, Jack Nicholson & Mark Hamill).  Spinning the idea of a villain that dresses like a clown on it's head, Ledger created a fully realised multi-dimensional terrorist of a villain, and the perfect foil for the film's hero.  While possessing a lack of physical strength compared to Batman, Ledger showed his Joker to be equal to, or possibly even superior to Batman, in terms of his mental prowess.  Ledger completely disappeared into the role, and it's a tragically beautiful performance, when realizing that Ledger was never even able to see the finished film, due to his passing.  The role won him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2009* and rightfully so, which at least allowed his final (full) performance, to be an exclamation point, instead of a question mark.

* Ledger won his award posthumously, on February 22nd, 2009, which also happened to be my wedding day.  While not to diminish the amazing day that it already was, watching the award ceremony and his win in particular was a nice cherry of top of that amazing day.  And thankfully, my wife chose to stay married to me, even though I was checking Oscar results continuously throughout that evening.

Heath Ledger as the Joker and Christian Bale as Batman in The Dark Knight

Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman (again!) all continued to deliver fantastic performances, as their respective characters of Lieutenant James Gordan, Alfred Pennyworth, and Lucius Fox.  It's really not a mystery as two why these three amazing actors were originally cast.  What is a mystery, is how they are constantly adding layers and layers of depth to these characters, that were already pretty fully realized to begin with.  These portrayals show just how talented these three actors are, and why they are each icons within the industry.

Aaron Eckhart and Maggie Gyllenhaal both turned in fantastic performances as Harvey Dent and Rachel Dawes (Gyllenhaal thankfully took over the role from the less talented Katie Holmes). Also notable were lesser supporting roles and cameos from the likes of Nestor Carbonell, Keith Szarabajka, Cillian Murphy (reprising his Scarecrow character from the previous film), Anthony Michael Hall, and the always brilliant William Fichtner.

Christian Bale continues to make his Batman the most genuine representation of the character to date*.  Bale does a fantastic job balancing the heroic motivations of our hero, with the quiet and occasionally rage-filled frustrations when kept in check by Ledger's Joker.

* While many fans often complain about the "Batvoice," it's ridiculous to think that in such a realistic interpretation of this world, that a hero trying to keep his identity a secret, wouldn't adapt an unrecognizable voice to use when out and about as his alter-ego.  This is similar to the ridiculous way in which nobody recognizes Clark Kent is Superman, because of a pair of glasses?????  Michael Keaton deepened his voice just slightly, and people ate it up like free steak.

Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard both delivered a fantastically written score, which is iconic in it's own right.  And the fantastic makeup and special effects were nominated (rightfully!) for Academy Awards for their work, but ended up losing (blasphemy!) to other films.

All-in-all, you most likely have seen this film.  If you were anything like the 22 million people that braved the crowds, you saw this film on it's opening weekend or opening night (like me).  If not, you were probably one of the people who saw the film during it's theatrical run, helping it become the third highest grossing film, behind those two Jim Cameron films (more on that at a later time).  If you happen to find yourself in the minority, having never seen the film, stop what you are doing immediately, and experience this film in all of it's magnificent glory.  As always, feel free to use the following links to purchase your own copy on DVD or BluRay (including a nice steelbook edition DVD and a sweet special edition BluRay with miniature replica Batpod), or add the film to your Netflix list.  For viewing pleasure, you can watch the opening scene in HD below.