The Dark Knight

Released: July 18, 2008

Studio: Warner Bros.

Genre: super hero/action

Box Office (numbers in millions):

Domestic: 535.20 Worldwide: 1004.90

Adjusted for Inflation:

Domestic: 730.08 Worldwide: 1253.10

Directing: Christopher Nolan

Screenwriting: Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan

Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart

Review:

This is “considered to be one of the best films of the 2000s – and one of the finest superhero films ever. The Dark Knight took comics into the realm of the serious movie.” ^MSN Director Christopher Nolan “never saw it as a superhero film. It’s closer to a Michael Mann crime epic except…you get a bloke dressed as a bat and a psychotic clown in a police interrogation room.” ^EM’18

The film is “easily as influential on the genre as that other summer ’08 comic-book movie, Iron Man.” ^EM’18 It is also the runaway favorite for best superhero movie of all time, showing up on all 19 lists (and topping 12 of them) aggregated to make the Dave’s Movie Database list of top superhero movies of all time.

“Superhero films don’t typically garner Oscar nominations, but this one received eight and won two of them.” ^MSN Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning performance as The Joker has been hailed as one of the best ever performances in a superhero film.

The story is “set within a year after the events of Batman Begins,” ^IMD the 2005 which kicked off Nolan’s Batman trilogy. “Lieutenant James Gordon [Oldman], and new District Attorney Harvey Dent [Eckhart] successfully begin to round up the criminals that plague Gotham City, until a mysterious and sadistic criminal mastermind known only as ‘The Joker’ appears in Gotham, creating a new wave of chaos. Batman’s struggle against The Joker becomes deeply personal, forcing him to ‘confront everything he believes’ and improve his technology to stop him. A love triangle develops between Bruce Wayne [Bale], Dent, and Rachel Dawes [Gyllenhaal].” ^IMD

Sources:

^EM’18 Empire (3/20/2018). “The 100 Greatest Movies”
^MSN MSN Entertainment (7/19/2018). “100 Best Movies” by Shahnaz Mahmud

Awards/Honors/Lists:

Dave’s Movie Database Lists:

Dave’s Movie Database Genre Lists:

Box Office:

Oscars:

Wins: 2: Best Supporting Actor (Heath Ledger), Best Sound Editing

Nominations: 8: Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Production Design, Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects