The Dark Knight (Two-Disc Special Edition) (2008) Rare Joker Cover

Audiences of all kinds flock to theaters on the opening day of super hero movies. These movies have the potential to appeal to both younger and older audience members, each gender, and families. Usually, the hero is what draws the crowds. The general public loves an inherently good and well- developed super hero who triumphs over evil. Of course, some over budget chase scenes never hurt either. However, when it comes to Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, it is the villain that truly makes the movie. The Joker, who was developed in a way he had never been before this movie, drives the plot and the central meaning of the movie by acting as a foil to the hero, Batman. Heath Ledger’s portrayal of The Joker was incredibly different than anything ever done before. In the 1960 Batman television series, Cesar Romero was the actor behind The Joker. His character was dubbed, “The Crown Prince of Crime”. This Joker was seen as a psychotic, yet harmless killer. At this time, The Joker was thought of as amusing. The audience would have been able to better sympathize with him because he just could not seem to be the villain he wanted to be, no matter how hard he tried. In the 1989 Batman movie, Jack Nicholson was The Joker. At this time, the character began to become a little bit darker. His appearance was less clown like and was said to be a result of a chemical accident. Nicholson was still able to stay true to the comic portrayal of The Joker, which was more of a goofy prankster while starting to exploit the more short-tempered and murderous side of the villain. In contrast, Mark Hammil’s portrayal of the Joker in 1990 was incredibly cold and authoritative. In 2008, Heath Ledger created a Joker that had never been seen before. The Dark Knight’s antagonist was completely psychotic, with absolutely no trace of human reasoning or logic. The character was demonic and frightening. The humorous or jokester aspects of the character were not implemented for any sort of comedic enjoyment, but rather to highlight the exceedingly deranged mind of someone who could never be human. The Joker shows his disgustingly psychotic side many times throughout the film. In his introductory scene, the Joker crashes a mob meeting. We may think that The Joker would want to work with the mob since they are both considered “bad guys” however, the mob mocks the Joker for being a “freak” and The Joker proceeds to kill one of the members with a “disappearing pencil trick” that involves a pencil through the brain. Not only does this act show the audience that The Joker is on a whole other level of evil than the typical bank robber, it is also has a symbolic meaning. The pencil represents education and order, which the Joker uses to kill the man by stabbing it into the most logical part of the human body, the brain. By doing this, the Joker is showing the audience that he believes order and logical thought will never overcome chaos.The Joker is not one to take part in organized crime because he personifies anything but organization. The Joker embodies chaos and disorder. We see this in the scene where The Joker blows up the hospital. He has no reason to blow up that building other than the fact that it contains innocent individuals, and causing a havoc on that specific place will upset the general public. He has no internal motivation to destroy the hospital specifically because he does not possess any form of logical thought. When the camera pans back to show The Joker walking away from the burning hospital in a nurse uniform, it allows us to see that the Joker shows absolutely no remorse when blowing up the building. The camera angle allows us to see the accomplished look in his face and the nurse’s costume adds to the sardonic nature of The Joker. While a nurse can be seen as a figure of health and security, the Joker exemplifies contrasting qualities such as traumatization and danger. The Joker’s characteristics of evil, chaos, and disorder allow him to be a foil to Christian Bales’s character, Batman. Batman embodies a high moral standard and the goodness of people while The Joker is the exact opposite. Batman explains that his one rule is that he will never kill anyone. The Joker explains to him, while dangling from a building in one of the concluding scenes, that he would never kill Batman either. The Joker’s purpose was not to kill Batman, like a typical villain, but rather to de-mask, humanize, and criminalize him, making this movie much more dark, yet incredibly more interesting and unpredictable than others of its kind. The Joker acknowledges that if he were to kill Batman, he would no longer have a purpose. This means that the two characters are destined to fight forever, which drives the conflict of the plot. As The Joker says, “This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object.” The Joker is also able to be a juxtaposition to Batman through appearance. Batman is a very large and muscular man whereas The Joker has a very skinny and long frame. While Batman dresses in dark clothing, and prefers to stay in the shadows (like a bat), the Joker dawns bright clothing and makeup that draws attention to his face and scars. While Batman may try to hide his past, The Joker embraces it, telling many different stories of the origins of his scars throughout the movie in order to intimidate people before he harms them. The Joker’s high voice and screeching cackle also contrasts with Batman’s incredibly deep and mysterious voice. Batman is a man of very little words and only speaks when absolutely necessary, while The Joker loves to speak just to be heard. Even when the audience cannot visibly see the Joker in the scene, we can usually hear him or his laugh. In order to know that Batman is in the scene, the audience has to see him first. The Joker enjoys calling attention to himself through his clothing and voice. He does this in order to make a statement. The Joker is trying to force people to see evil as an inevitable and omnipresent human quality which is why he allows himself to be so noticeable through clothing and television advertisements. Batman acts as a more humble juxtaposition who does not want to be seen. The Joker’s laugh also acts as an omnipresent presence which allows that theme of evil to be obvious throughout the entire movie. The overall message of the film is that all humans have the potential to be good in nature and that good will always triumph evil, although the battle is constant. These ideas are constantly challenged by The Joker which drives the plot. The Joker is constantly putting people in places where they have to make impossible ethical decisions in the hopes that they will inevitably make a wrong decision that showcases the evil nature of humanity and make an example of them to the rest of the world. He does this multiple times throughout the film, but his efforts culminate at the finale of the movie when he attempts to pull off his largest scheme. When he forces the two different groups of people onto two different boats, one group of innocent civilians, and the other a group of convicts, to either kill the other ship or die, he expects the evil and selfish nature of humanity to take control of their decisions and blow up the other ship. The ships act as an isolated community, away from the city. The Joker uses the ships as a motivation for the people to leave their human nature behind, in the city, and make and evil decision. Although there is some heated debate on the ships as to whether or not they should push the button that destroys the other ship, both groups decided not to do it. They would rather die themselves than be responsible for killing others. This shows that good overcomes evil and the people on the ship had an inherently good nature. Batman explains this to the joker in one of the final scenes which provides a nice conclusion to the over two hour long movie. There was much competition for the deranged role of “the Joker” in the 2008 Blockbuster, The Dark Knight. However, director, Christopher Nolan, had always had Heath Ledger in mind for the role. It was Ledger’s ability to completely embrace the Joker’s psychotic qualities that contrasted so well with his nemesis, Batman, that drove the plot and highlighted the central meaning of the movie. Without the Joker, there would be no reason for the citizens of Gotham to question their good nature. Thanks to one of the most malicious and immoral villains of all time, the world can rest assured that good will always conquer evil.

First of all, this is a GREAT film, not just a great Batman film.Others have compared Christopher Nolan's two Batman films to the Tim Burton Batman films, so I won't repeat their observations. Let me simply say that everything about this movie, from the script to the casting to the CGI to the acting and ultimately the directing is superb.Now to Plato. The meta-message of The Dark Knight is a meditation on the nature of good and evil, the veneer of civilization, the virtues of principle and the necessity and the danger of bending principle in emergencies, the differences between evil for gain or power and evil for mere destruction and chaos, and the tension between public duty and private loyalty. Finally there is the question of the place for facts and the place for "sacred" myth.(Caution: this review refers to specific scenes and characters.)The mafia in Gotham is evil for gain and power. They want money and they want influence. They also want order. When the manager of the bank objects to the robbery he complains that the usual rules and courtesies among criminals are being violated. The corrupt police officers are evil for gain as well. They too need general acceptance of rules and procedures.The Joker is evil for evil's sake. He sows chaos and disorder and wants to expose the thin veneer of civilization. He seeks only to unmask what he sees as contradiction and hypocrisy in human nature and to demonstrate that so-called good citizens are really evil underneath.Scarecrow, who was featured in Batman Begins and has a minor role in the drug bust scene in The Dark Knight, is a deranged psychiatrist whose evil comes from desire for power over others as he uncovers the weaknesses in the minds of others.The Mayor is out for power but does not resort to evil. Police Lieutenant James Gordon represents incorruptible good. This is ultimately stressed when Gordon must make a choice between public duty and personal relationship. Batman faces that same dilemma when he must decide whether to rescue Harvey Dent or Rachel Dawes. Likewise, the passengers in the ferries must choose between what they are told will be personal survival and the deaths of others, in another of The Joker's nefarious experiments. When the Wayne Industries accountant is about to reveal the identity of Batman, The Joker announces that the accountant must die, and citizens try to assassinate him. Personal safety trumps adherence to the good sometimes, but not all times.Batman seems weaker than The Joker because he adheres to rules. The Biblical injunction, "Justice, justice shall you pursue," has been understood as demanding that justice be pursued justly. Evil, especially evil for its own sake, makes no such demand. We see this every time terrorists deliberately target innocents and hide themselves behind children knowing that those in pursuit will not purposely aim at innocent bystanders. This gives evil a huge temporary advantage.Yet sometimes the good must bend and even break the rules. Abraham Lincoln suspended the right of habeas corpus during a critical interval during the Civil War. Batman asks Lucius Fox to preside over such a broken rule to locate and catch The Joker. When and how can we know when good can break rules to catch evil? Batman answers by creating a mechanism to restore the rules as soon as the crisis is over.Alfred Pennyworth indirectly poses the question, "Knowing that evil, if attacked, will double its efforts and create even more destruction, is it really wise to go after evil?" The bad guys cause huge destruction after Batman and Gordon squeeze the mafia, creating enormous conflict and guilt in Batman. But without disturbing the hornet's nest, evil would prevail anyway. So the battle must be joined in any event.Harvey Dent is extremely complex. He berates Gordon for compromising his police unit by accepting some corrupt officers to his staff. Gordon answers by claiming that sometimes those who know corruption can be the most effective in fighting it. Dent is identified as the "White Knight" whose public persona will rally the public against evil. But Dent himself participates in an untruthful diversion to help trap The Joker. Even he compromises good for the sake of fighting evil.When Rachel and Dent are being held in danger Batman and Gordon each race to save them. Batman declares he is going to save Rachel but is tricked into going to Dent's location. Rachel dies and Dent is severely injured. In a brilliant make-up creation the right side of Dent's face remains normal and the left side is severely and dramatically changed. He has physically transformed from a White Knight into his derisive nickname, "Two Face." Reminiscent of Jekyll and Hyde, Dent's nature is now permanently divided.The death of Rachel has destroyed Dent's belief in good and has dissolved his commitment to the public's welfare. Now he only thinks of his own personal pain and loss. But he is not a creature of pure evil. His hurt and grudge turn him into a near nihilist. The lucky coin with two heads has been transformed. One side is now ruined and becomes for him the oracle of ethics. Life and death depend solely on chance; solely on the flip of a coin.Furious at Gordon for the actions of the corrupt police officers in Gordon's unit who betrayed Rachel, Dent finds Gordon's wife and children. Recognizing that Gordon's young son is dearest to him, Dent demands that Gordon reassure the son as Dent flips his coin to decide the boy's fate.Batman, for whom good and evil, life and death, are not decided by chance, intervenes. In their fight Dent and Batman both plunge to the ground from a height. Batman survives and tells Gordon that the myth of Dent's goodness must become the rallying point for the city. Dent remains the White Knight, while Batman allows himself to become The Dark Knight, spurned by the public, identified wrongly but necessarily as the source of evil, who can then secretly work for the good. Only Gordon and his son know the true story behind this myth. Gotham thus gets the hero it deserves.The Joker is captured but his fate is left hanging, literally and figuratively. We do not even know for certain whether Dent died, or unconscious, has survived his fall. All we know for sure is that the complexity of fighting evil and the compromises permitted for good are unsolved. Civilization continues but only barely. The Joker has destroyed Rachel, transformed Dent, and caused everlasting turmoil and doubt within Batman.The need to resort to myth over facts after arguing previously for the absolute value of Truth, ends Plato's Republic, with the famous story of the myth of the cave. We too are left in the dark, in the company of The Dark Knight, at the end of this superb film.We can only wonder what the sequel might have been, with The Joker and Two Face challenging Batman, had Heath Ledger survived.Speaking of Heath Ledger I want to mention a few things about his performance as The Joker. There is a small pantheon of presentations of psychiatrically deranged individuals in film. Among the best are Olivia Thailand in Snake Pit, Gregory Peck in Spellbound, Jack Nickelson in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. Ledger's perhaps surpasses them all.For those with a psychiatric or medical background like myself, the use of his slight head tics and the seemingly random movement of his tongue suggest that The Joker has been in a psychiatric institution and medicated with drugs that left him with a case of tardive dyskinesia, a rare but serious and irreversible movement disorder that can be a side effect of certain psychotropic medications. This touch, which I believe was meticulously and masterfully added to the portrayal by Ledger, makes The Joker both more convincing and more dangerous.I am told that Ledger immersed himself in The Joker's state of mind before and during the filming. It is not unknown for an actor to have difficulty extricating himself from such a wrenching and demanding role. Joaquin Phoenix and Faye Dunaway have each spoken about this as they worked to emerge from Johnny Cash and Joan Crawford. If this was so for Ledger then The Joker got an undeserved bitter laugh while we have only tears. Addendum July 23, 2008: One of The Joker's henchmen must have gotten into my spell checker to change Olivia De Havilland into Olivia Thailand. Sorry for that.I want to expand on one point distinguishing Batman from Dent. When The Joker reveals the locations of Rachel and Dent, Gordon asks Batman which location he is going to. Batman says Rachel's but I believe he is aware of The Joker's double crosses and switches, and knowingly goes to Dent's location. That Batman expresses no surprise at finding Dent rather than Rachel confirms this view. Bruce Wayne would have rescued Rachel but Batman, a true hero, puts his public duty above his private preferences.After Rachel is killed Dent loses his sense of public duty and loses faith in goodness. Batman, equally in love with Rachel and equally convinced she will marry him, retains his public duty and goodness, though he is burdened with grief and guilt. Perhaps a White Knight cannot endure crushing disappointment. Perhaps only a Dark Knight, who has already experienced the crushing loss of viewing the murders of his father and mother, and holding himself responsible for that tragedy, can make his way through darkness without losing his way.A final note, in response to a commenter who took issue with my portrayal of Gordon as incorruptibly good, I agree that Gordon made pragmatic choices, and refer to them in the essay. But as a person he is beyond bribery and never loses sight of his duty to the citizenry. So how about personally incorruptible but one who made some seemingly necessary but ultimately unwise alliances.

I'm really not the biggest fan of Christian Bale at all but he does a great job of becoming his character enough in the film that you forget he is him and just see him for the character he's portraying instead, which he does a great job with. Without argument though, Heath Ledger steals the entire film with his darkly mesmerising portrayal of a genuinely unnerving Joker - the only Joker in any Batman realisation I've ever found genuinely scary (or anything at all other than silly or funny with the previous versions). And this darkness is one of the pillars that makes Nolans Gotham in this film so great - it's dark, gritty and murky and feels heavy and undefined as both good and bad forces try to manipulate the city and her people for better or worse to follow the right truth - there is genuine tension in the film and both Ledger and Bale along with their support cast all handle it extremely well with great realism. Still one of the best Batman films to date, for sure!

Some People Want to watch the World Burn?? Or maybe Watch the Best Batman FilmThis Film is Superb, nothing i can say that already has not been said about the performances in it, Joker is excellent, It does not get any better.The Set is very nice, Steelbook with Art card extras inside a sturdy cardboard caseThe 4k transfer is a step up from Begins, this time we get Imax footage and this makes a hell of a difference, the quality is outstanding , a must own 4k disc imo, The sound is Dts Hd master and makes great use of the Hans Zimmer score, A must own film and set imo

Kurz und knapp einer der besten Filme überhaupt. Ich kann nicht sagen das ich ein Comicfan bin und habe die früheren Batman Filme nicht gemocht. Was hier aber Christopher Nolan abliefert ist ein Meisterwerk auf ganzer Linie. Grandiose Schauspieler, Grandioses Drehbuch und legendärer Soundtrack. Mittlerweile habe ich den Film sicher über 20 mal gesehen. Auch jetzt gibt es noch Gänsehautmomente. Für mich definitiv eines der größten Meisterwerke ever.

The Dark Knight is a 2008 superhero film directed, produced, and co-written by Christopher Nolan. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film is the second part of Nolan's Batman film series and a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins. Christian Bale reprises the lead role of Bruce Wayne/Batman, with a returning cast of Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth, Gary Oldman as James Gordon and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox. The film introduces the character of Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), Gotham's newly elected District Attorney and the consort of Bruce Wayne's childhood friend Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal replacing Katie Holmes from the first film), who joins Batman and the police in combating the new rising threat of a criminal mastermind calling himself "The Joker" (Heath Ledger).Nolan's inspiration for the film was the Joker's comic book debut in 1940, the 1988 graphic novel The Killing Joke, and the 1996 series The Long Halloween, which retold Two-Face's origin. The nickname "the Dark Knight" was first applied to Batman in Batman #1 (1940), in a story written by Bill Finger.[5][6] The Dark Knight was filmed primarily in Chicago, as well as in several other locations in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Hong Kong. Nolan used an IMAX camera to film some sequences, including the Joker's first appearance in the film. On January 22, 2008, some months after he had completed filming on The Dark Knight and six months before the film's release, Heath Ledger died from a toxic combination of prescription drugs, leading to intense attention from the press and movie-going public. Warner Bros. initially created a viral marketing campaign for The Dark Knight, developing promotional websites and trailers highlighting screenshots of Ledger as the Joker.A co-production of the United States and the United Kingdom, The Dark Knight was released on July 16, 2008 in Australia, on July 18, 2008 in North America, and on July 24, 2008 in the United Kingdom. Considered by film critics to be one of the best films of the 2000s and one of the best superhero films ever,[7][8] the film received highly positive reviews and set numerous records during its theatrical run.[9] With over $1 billion in revenue worldwide, it is the 19th-highest-grossing film of all time, unadjusted for inflation.[10] The film received eight Academy Award nominations; it won the award for Best Sound Editing and Ledger was posthumously awarded Best Supporting Actor.[11] The Dark Knight Rises, the final film in the trilogy, was released on July 20, 2012.Contents [hide]

Batman definiteley goes 21st Century without Robin. His alter Ego Bruce Wayne is a cool Multi millionaire featured on his Yatch with a Martini. Christian Bale is well cast in this role with similarities to 007. Alfred his ever faithfull Butler and confidante is portrayed with great pleasure by Michael Caine, with his extenuated Cockney accent. The Manor has become a huge complex with enormous empty vaults, but there is still some of that Retro camp, and Gotham City flashes the old Bat Symbol light to summon their defender in an otherwise age of advanced technology.Maggie Gyllenhaal is superb as Rachel Dawes, an admirer and political journalist, but one of the most striking aspects is Aaron Eckhart in the uncharacteristic role of a hardnosed good guy Senator Dent, who is horrifically burnt, and plays the final scenes with half of his face without skin, showing sinew and bones. There are a few character twists which give the film dramatic credibility, and Batman becomes anti-hero as the Dark Night is accused of betrayal.We are never told how, in a world of such corruption and international deception, Bruce Wayne is the only one to make a fortune entirely honestly, but here he meets his match in the form of the psychopathic Joker, played by Heath Ledger. His twisted humour ranges from stealing enough money to fill a wharehouse, and burning a fellow con-man on top of it, to giving two ferry ships the choice of sacrificing themselves, or blowing up the other. One is full of so called decent Citizens, and the other full of Criminals. Which group will show the most humanity?Although Heath Ledger plays the joker suffering from a childhood traumatic disturbance, like a malicious, murderous clown, with tremendous self defence skills, I think I prefer Jim Carey's over the top wacky characterisation in an earlier version of the Batman saga.Torn betwen self interest and public image, Commissioner Gordon, is played convincingly by Gary Oldman, and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox gives Batman some High Tec Police assistance to locate the Joker by tracking on screens, every mobile phone in the city. Part of the dark ironic cynical humour, is that by eliminating several 'gangs' the Joker is a more effective crime fighter than Batman.The second disc in this collection includes some interesting commentaries by director Christopher Nolan, gallery shots, and behind the scenes planning and staging.