The Dark Knight - Detailed Analysis & Review

The Dark Knight has a reputation for being one of the great superhero movies, and it is completely deserved. Revisiting this movie for the first time after my initial viewing I was blown away by the writing. This is a masterpiece of thematic story-telling. With fantastic performances, especially from Heath Ledger as The Joker. So let's see what Batman is up to this time as we discuss The Dark Knight.

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Transcript

Welcome to Nerd Heaven.

I’m Adam David Collings

The author of Jewel of The Stars.

And I am a nerd.

This is episode 93 of the podcast.

 

Today, we’re talking about the movie  The Dark Knight

 

The description on IMDB reads

When the menace known as the Joker wreaks havoc and chaos on the people of Gotham, Batman must accept one of the greatest psychological and physical tests of his ability to fight injustice.

 

The screenplay was written by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan (who are brothers)

With story by Christopher Nolan and David S Goyer

It was directed by Christopher Nolan

And it was first released on the 14th of July 2008

 

In 2008 I was raising a very young family. I had just bought my first house or was shortly about to. I wasn’t made of money. Consequently, instead of buying this movie on DVD as I did with Batman Begins, I hired it from the local video rental place because that was cheaper. And forget the cinema. I didn’t go to the cinema for years when my kids were little. So I’ve only ever seen this movie once.

 

I remember continuing to enjoy the serious tone, but it didn’t have that origin backstory element that I loved so much in the first movie.

So I was really interested to see how I’d react to a rewatch after all these years.

 

The movie has a very silent beginning. So much so I had to keep checking that the sound was working on my computer.

 

We know from the ending scene of Batman Begins that this movie would introduce The Joker as its villain. The Joker is well known as the most famous, most iconic Batman villain. And this in large part thanks to the Adam West TV show, I believe.

 

I think it was smart to use lesser-known villains in the first movie, like Falcone, Scarecrow, Ra's Al Ghul and Even Victor Zzazz. It expanded the world for those not familiar with the comics and gave Batman room to really shine as he came into his own.

 

But this was the time to introduce his famous arch-nemesis.

 

When we first see a criminal wearing a clown mask our natural inclination is to think, this has got to be the joker, or someone who works for him, right?

Turns out these guys are working for him, but it’s not a close association. He planned this heist, and he wants a cut.

 

He calls himself The Joker because he wears makeup to scare people, like war paint. We’ll come back to this.

It’s a shock when one robber is killed by another as soon as he’s finished his work on the security system. And it would seem to make sense at first. One less person to split the money with, and these are hardly moral people. Unless something goes wrong and you need that guy again, or if you get a bad reputation for killing your team members and nobody wants to join your crew for future endeavours.

 

Turns out, this is a mob bank. One of the workers has a shotgun. I have to admit, the idea of the mob owning a bank is a concept I’m struggling to get my head around.

 

Looks like none of these crooks really know the full plan. Half of them are instructed to kill the other half.

 

The mob guy makes a good point. If you work for someone like the joker, who orders his own people dead, he’ll only do the same to you.

 

Except the guy he’s talking to ends up being the joker.

In the end, he doesn’t have to share the money wi