Dark Knight Film Review

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The Dark Knight Review First Draft

What comes to mind when you hear the word Batman? A dark figure looming in Gotham’s alleys? Adam West and Burt Ward ‘ Whamming’ and ‘Powing’ their enemies? Or possibly one of the greatest films of the decade?

It’s fair to say that since the 70s,the original comic character Batman has changed( maybe develop this point), reincarnated with many different looks, and the outcome in my opinion is too camp or too dark. In his latest film, the director Christopher Nolan, seems to have the balance just right in The Dark Knight.( try to vary the opening of sentences) The film starts as a heist movie, a bank raid masterminded by the Joker (Heath Ledger), which is apposite as Heath Ledger steals every scene that he’s in. Christian Bale also does a great performance (can you improve expression here)as Batman/ Bruce Wayne. However it seems that one of the reasons for Heath Ledger being hailed as the star is the contrast between the Joker and Batman that he brings to the role. Batman is very dark and serious (some might say, boring) and in a way that makes him boring; the Joker however is just insane, with his purple suit and constantly changing stories about how he got his scars. (Amoral and psychopathic, he explains ) and he evens mentions in the film how he will just commit homicide for no reason at all and that he just ‘does things’. He is, in terms of the 9/11 analogy, not just a terrorist but worse, an anarchist who just kills and destroys for fun. He is very creepy and completely mesmerising.

The film also features Harvey Dent played wonderfully by Aaron Eckhart who is Gotham’s clean-cut DA who believes in justice and makes a stand against the mob and corruption; surprisingly enough there are a lot of attempts to kill him by the Joker. There is a (The clichéd love triangle……is guaranteed to win approval from sections of the audience…) love triangle in the film between Batman, Rachel (Maggie Gyllenhall) and Harvey Dent. Rachel is Bruce’s oldest friend and she knows that he is Batman, but she feels that Gotham will always need Batman and so that is why she chooses Harvey over Bruce.  (comment on her moral stance. Is it convincing?)

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Gary Oldman (stars in the film) delete? as Jim Gordon, head of Gotham police department, clashes with Harvey Dent as they both have different ways of handling criminals. Jim Gordon is literally law and Harvey Dent is literally Order.

The Dark Knight is a Batman morality tale turned up to 11- exploring the nature and corruption of power, the organization of society in crisis, individual freedom versus collective security, and (most interestingly of all), its allusions to the Roman Empire. If Harvey Dent is a Caesar figure, then the Joker is Caligula. ( The semi-colon is not used to introduce a ...

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