The Dark Knight (2008)

The Dark Knight is the second installment of the batman trilogy. It is part where batman faces one of his biggest rivals - The Joker. Considered as one of the greatest super hero films of all times. This film is on the top 10 list of my favorites.

Cast

Heath Ledger, Aaron Echkard, Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman Michael Cain, Maggie Gyllenhaal

Plot and Summary:

Act-1 :The Beginning

The film begins with the bank robbery by the joker. He takes out all his gang members one by one and when he leaves the manger of the bank ask him" criminal used to believe in honor, what do you believe in?". The joker says" I believe in whatever doesn't kill only makes you stranger". There is a similar quote from Friedrich Nietzsche "what ever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger". The character of the joker is revealed in the first lines he says,he has become stranger( a freak, probably from the incidents of his past). Though we don't know much about the Joker, How he came about to be the joker. All this adds to the depth of his character, Though out the film he narrates some incidents of his life( though we don't know if it is true or he is trying to intimidate his victims)

Batman has cleaned up Gotham city and the crime rates have gone down. People are running scared of him and we can see from the first scene that people are admiring him and copying him. Rachel has developed a growing interest towards the new DA of Gotham Harvey dent(played by Aaron Echard). Batman meets Jim at the bank and gets to know about the Joker.

The Jokes meanwhile gives an entry to a mobmeeting. Its about the bank robbery and Mobs Chinese investor Lau tells them that he has moved all the money to a secure location. The joker enters with a laugh " ah haha he he oh hay hay and i though my joker were bad". He tells that the bat man has no jurisdiction and the investors plan won't work. He tells his plan to kill the batman and wants half of the mob's money. The members ridicule him and joker walks out leaving his card.

Batman pursues Lao in China and brings him to Jim and Harvey. Lao agrees to give information about the entire mob and all the members are convicted and sent to arkham. The mayor congratulates Harvey for the biggest conviction in the history of Gotham, A dead body of Batman lookalike hangs out with jokers card. It says" batman should turn himself in or people will die every minute he doesn't.... I am a man of my word". The joker proves his words by bombing the judge and poisoning the commissioner .He then comes to Bruce wayne's place trying to capture dent. But ends up capturing Rachael. This is where for the first time batman and joker meet in a brawl.

The next day is the funeral of commissioner Loeb and the joker warns the death of the mayor. In the event Jim Gordon is killed and Harvey and Batman decide to give up Batman's true identity in the press conference the next day. Harvey plays the fearless DA in the film he is not afraid of the mob or the joker. He is portrayed in the film as the character opposite to the batman( Refereed as White Knight by Gordon and Joker many times) ,but ends up as Two face at the end . His transformation and the scenes where he shows his dark side is beautifully portrayed in the film.

Act-2 : The Birth of two-face

On the day of the press conference Harvey tells the police that he is the Batman which shocks Rachael and Bruce. An epic chase happens between batman ,joker and the police. The visuals are amazing, a truck flips out upside down, the bat mobile turns into the bat pod. Finally the joker is captured and Jim is alive! ( the science which Nolan uses to show these visuals in the scenes are truly amazing). In the end of the chase the Joker walks to the batman and wants him to hit Him ram him with his bat pod, we can clearly see the the fearlessness and madness that he is possessed with

The scenes doesn't end there joker's true play begins after he is held captor. Both Rachel and Harvey are held by joker's men rigged to a time bomb. Jim tries to get answers from joker but fails finally. Jim than locks batman and joker in the room. Joker tries to lure batman telling him about the cops and their rules. " to them you are are a freak like me, they need you right Now. But when the chips are down these civilized people will eat each other."After he finishes this we can never believe he is a mad man. he gives an honest and almost convincing argument to batman about the cops to which any weak mind can yield to.

Though he gives the location of the two of them in the end , Only Harvey survives and he is half dead. On his last minutes he hears Rachael's answer to his proposal and she says yes. Now Harvey is filled with anger and Regret and there is nothing else left for him.

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Earlier when Bruce had told to Rachael that it is time for batman to give up. Gotham has a hero with a face it's Harvey. She tells him she will wait for that. On the day of the press conference she writes a letter to Bruce saying that she is going to marry Harvey. She gives it to Alfred and walks out. After she gets murdered by the joker Bruce is broken and tells Alfred that she was going to wait for him. Alfred walks out with the letter telling him its not the right time(he latter burns it at the end - Sometimes the truth is not always good enough)

The jokers second act continues in the hospital. he goes to Harvey and try turn him on. He explains the corruption of the cops and makes him believe that he was never part of the plan to kill Rachael. Finally he gives the gun to Harvey and says

"Introduce a little anarchy , upset the established order and everything becomes chaos. Any  you know the thing about chaos its Fair". Again a very convincing argument, but he wins this time and Harvey is now two face trying to get Gordon . The Joker  calls the last remaining of the mob bosses and tells that he is going to run the things here on. He burns a billion dollars in front of him " all you care about is money,this city needs a better class.of criminals. Everything burns". We can see the ture nature of the joker. He is not corrupt, he doesn't want power, he is not after money. It all comes down to what Alfred says in the film.

Alfred is one of the main characters in the film. He is very perceptive and advice Bruce what to do ( a mastermind bind behind the doings of batman). We don't really the history of Alfred's previous work, be he seems to know a lot about the criminal mind. When Bruce tells Alfred about criminals he tells him "perhaps this is a criminal you don't fully understand master Bruce"" because some men don't look for anything logical they just want to watch the world burn". At time when Bruce prepares for turning himself in he says" Endure it master Wayne because that's the point of being the batman. He can be the one thing no one can't. An outlaw".

Act-3: The Finale

The joker sets up his final act in the ferry's. There are two of them one with the inmates of arkham and another with the people trying to get out. He gives the trigger of the bomb of the each other boat to the other and asks then to pull of the trigger before midnight else both of them die at midnight. In the mean time batman tracks him and comes to him. Exactly at midnight he pins batman down and asks him to watch the people kill each other. But to his disappointment nothing happens and he tries to pull the trigger himself when batman stops him. The batman finally speaks at last
"This city just showed you its full of people ready to believe in good"

The joker finally reveals his actual plan involving Harvey dent- " you think I was gonna bring this all for a fist fight against you. I took Gotham's white knight and brought it down to our level, you see madness is like gravity all you need is a little push".

Harvey takes Jim's wife and kids as hostage and plans to murder them as a revenge for Rachael. Batman finally stops killing Harvey. Finally at the climax batman takes the blame of Harvey's murder and flees. The film ends with a beautifully line (which sums up the full film and ties all the loose ends) from Jim Gordon when his son asks him why are the police chasing batman

"Because he can take it, because sometimes the truth is not always good enough, because he is not the hero we want but the hero we deserve, a silent protector, A DARK KNIGHT!"

Verdict:

I think this is not a superhero film, this is more of a super villain film. The joker is the essence of the film as he himself says in the movie to batman-you complete me. I couldn't really understand the Jokers character till the end, I think that's what makes his character so intriguing, so real. A madman can never be portrayed in a better way.

 Heath Ledger has taken this character to another level. I couldn't see heath ledger acting in it. He has become a totally different person altogether(it reminds me of something that Liam Neeson tells in the batman begins). He bagged an Oscar for the best supporting role in the movie, unfortunately he was not alive to receive it. It will be remembered for years to come as one of the greatest performance of anyone in a movie.

That is not only the main reason for the success of the film, its the way it was made and the screenplay, it is so fast paced that you don't know where it starts and when does it it end.

The visuals and the backgrounds are so perfect. Hans Zimmer gives background score a complete new outlook. One thing wrong, I cant say wrong, is the expectation it had created for the finale.

I think this is my most detail analysis of any film and there are still more to write about about this film but it would be spoiling the whole point(is there anymore to spoil?). So if anyone haven't watch it. Please!  I can't be more direct.