The Dark Knight (2008)

In this article, we will be looking at 2019’s book “1001 Movies to See Before You Die” and going through each film in a random order that I have chosen. We will be looking at what constitutes this film to be on the list and whether I think this film deserves to be here at all. I want to make perfectly clear that I won’t be revealing details from this book such as analyses by film reporters who have written about the film in question, so if you want the book itself you’ll have to buy it. But I will be covering the book’s suggestions on which films should be your top priority. I wouldn’t doubt for a second that everyone reading this article has probably watched many of these movies anyway. But we are just here to have a bit of fun. We’re going to not just look at whether it should be on this list but we’re also going to look at why the film has such a legacy at all. Remember, this is the 2019 version of the book and so, films like “Joker” will not be featured in this book and any film that came out in 2020 (and if we get there, in 2021). So strap in and if you have your own suggestions then don’t hesitate to email me using the address in my bio. Let’s get on with it then.

The Dark Knight (2008) dir. by Christopher Nolan

If you’re like me and you remember watching “The Dark Knight” in the cinemas when it first came out - rushing to see the next instalment of Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” films because of the ‘calling card’ left behind in the first one and because you wanted to see the showdown between Batman and his arch-nemesis ‘The Joker’ then you are in for a treat because today we’re covering “The Dark Knight” and its surprising legacy (surprising because believe it or not, there were people who were not Heath Ledger in the movie).

The premiere was held in New York City on the 14th of July of that year with a live orchestra playing the score composed by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. The film was then released in Australia where the buzz around native Heath Ledger’s performance ended up earning it over two million dollars on its first day. It went on to be called one of the greatest superhero films ever made with a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with the critics’ consensus reading:

"Dark, complex and unforgettable, The Dark Knight succeeds not just as an entertaining comic book film, but as a richly thrilling crime saga.”

Roger Ebert surprisingly liked it and said that “The Dark Knight” was a "haunted film that leaps beyond its origins and becomes an engrossing tragedy."

On the Empire Magazine List of “Greatest Films of All Time” it was rated at number 15 based on the votes of over ten thousand readers, one hundred or so directors and about fifty film critics. This was followed up by Heath Ledger’s Joker on the list of “Greatest Movie Characters” at number three. Of the last fifteen years, Total Film ranked “The Dark Knight” as the sixth greatest film stating that: “Christopher Nolan's psycho-operatic crime drama was its decade's most exciting blockbuster—and its most challenging.”

Empire Magazine would go on to make “The Dark Knight” the third greatest film of the 21st Century in their list on the subject.

As you can guess, gaining so much acclaim and in the year of 2008, the film not only gained the traction of us audience members and some key critics of film in this century, it also gained the attention of newly elected President Barack Obama and he commented on one of the first scenes in the film comparing it to US politics:

"There's a scene in the beginning in which the gang leaders of Gotham are meeting ... These are men who had the city divided up. They were thugs, but there was a kind of order. Everyone had his turf. And then the Joker comes in and lights the whole city on fire. ISIS is the Joker. It has the capacity to set the whole region on fire. That's why we have to fight it.”

You know you’ve done it when Barack Obama makes an analysis on your film.

Fun fact: “The Dark Knight Rises” came out on the night of my prom and I was forced to go to prom instead. I can’t believe the travesty, can you?