Top 100 Movies Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight. You may or may not know it – but I’ve been systematically walking my way through the Top 100 movies of all time (as defined so by this Hollywood Reporter piece) and watching and reviewing movies as we work our way from bottom to top. And today we are covering Christopher Nolan’s movie The Dark Knight. Which, I am no stranger to at all. I believe this movie to be the only super hero movie to be nominated for a Best Picture award at the Oscars… no? And I actually would argue this movie is one of the 10 best movies of all time. It’s right up there with Se7en in my mind. Just unbelievably good on every level. The Zimmer score was crazy good. Heath’s role as the Joker was inspired. I’ve already done a deep dive on the entire Dark Knight trilogy… if you are interested.
Detailed Dark Knight Movie Walkthrough
In Gotham City, a gang of masked criminals stages a dramatic bank robbery, only to betray and eliminate each other, leaving the cunning Joker as the sole survivor. It’s one of the most brilliantly shot sequences in cinematic history. It is IMAX negative brilliance. The enigmatic Joker sets out to challenge Batman, the district attorney Harvey Dent, and police lieutenant Jim Gordon, who join forces to rid the city of organized crime. Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne, Batman’s alter-ego and wealthy playboy, hopes that Dent’s success as Gotham’s hero will allow him to retire and pursue a romantic relationship with his childhood friend Rachel Dawes, despite her connection with Dent.
As the mob bosses of Gotham convene to protect their interests, the Joker crashes their meeting and offers to eliminate Batman in exchange for a share of their fortune. Batman, with the assistance of Wayne Enterprises CEO Lucius Fox, embarks on a mission to apprehend a key player, Lau, in Hong Kong. The successful capture of Lau enables Dent to bring down the crime families, but the Joker’s deadly attacks continue. He demands that Batman reveal his true identity, threatening further chaos and destruction.
Wayne grapples with the Joker’s motivations while his loyal butler, Alfred Pennyworth, suggests that some people simply revel in chaos. Get that? Some people literally are just anarchists. Important detail. In a rather stupid move, Dent claims to be Batman in an attempt to lure out the Joker. Which, causes the Joker to attack Dent’s convoy… which allows Batman and Gordon to capture the Joker. But is the Joker playing 4D Chess? Yes. Yes, he is. Why? Because the Joker reveals that he has trapped Rachel and Dent in separate locations rigged to explode. Batman is forced to make a decision. Minus the fact that the Joker has lied about which person is where. Batman races against time to save Rachel, while Gordon and the police pursue Dent. However, the Joker manipulates their efforts, resulting in Rachel’s tragic death and Dent’s transformation into the vengeful Two-Face.
As chaos engulfs the city, the Joker wreaks havoc and attempts to expose Batman’s true identity. A tense standoff ensues when the Joker threatens to destroy a hospital unless a particular person is killed. Amidst the chaos, Dent succumbs to the Joker’s manipulation and takes the law into his own hands, seeking revenge on those he deems responsible for Rachel’s death. The Joker unveils a shocking plan involving two ferries filled with civilians and prisoners, forcing them to choose between sacrificing one group to save the other. And surprisingly (if not realistically), to the Joker’s surprise, the passengers refuse to turn on each other. Huh.
Batman manages to subdue the Joker without resorting to lethal measures, but the Joker’s plan to corrupt Dent has succeeded. Dent, now consumed by darkness, takes Gordon’s family hostage, blaming the commissioner for Rachel’s demise. Employing his signature two-headed coin, Dent carries out his own twisted form of justice, targeting corrupt individuals. In a final confrontation, Batman intervenes to save Gordon’s son, resulting in Dent’s tragic fall.
Believing that Dent’s image as a hero must be preserved to inspire hope, Batman takes the blame for Dent’s actions and assumes responsibility for the city’s well-being. With the truth concealed, the city mourns Dent as a fallen hero, while the police launch a manhunt for Batman. Alfred destroys a heartfelt message from Rachel to Wayne, and Lucius Fox dismantles the invasive surveillance system that aided Batman in capturing the Joker.
“The Dark Knight” concludes with Gotham City in a state of mourning and uncertainty, as Batman remains in the shadows, protecting the city from the shadows while bearing the weight of Dent’s legacy and the truth he conceals.
Dark Knight is Empire Strikes Back Brilliance
The darkness of The Dark Knight; the mourning, the deaths, and chaos, of The Dark Knight is utterly perfect. But look at this string of brilliance: Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises… I mean, I would have retired after creating any ONE of these handful of movies. But to run them back, to back, to back to back…? Just utterly incredible.
Top 100 Movies Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight
The thing that moves me wrt The Dark Knight is how Nolan has defined the world as embracing the chaos and anarchic mindset of the Joker. That the world is being held sway by insanity really makes sense in the world today. Turn of the previous Millennium, Modernism, we had the world on a string. We had developed the Scientific Method, and we were gods. The natural elements themselves had been tamed by man. We were gods. We had unlocked the details of DNA and we went on to go to the moon. We were unstoppable, we. were gods. Then came World War I. Trench warfare, and Mustard Gas… carnage. Just prideful slaughter and blood orchestrated by power hungry oligarchs that didn’t give a rat’s ass for the common man.
Huh. Wha? Didn’t we conquer the atom? Couldn’t we have orchestrated the death of sin, the death of hubris, couldn’t we have solved war? Wait, enter World War II, the sequel?? What is happening?? Couldn’t we have scienced the death of war? Uh, yeah, that’s sort of what Hitler was doing. It was the Final Solution after all. The pridefulness of life… (cough “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.”) It wasn’t a detour, it was a straight line. It wasn’t a dashing of the scientific method, is was a natural conclusion there of.
And now we have abandoned Truth. We’ve instituted “Alternative Truths” and we’ve embraced the Joker’s anarchy. Literally. Today. Right now. We smothered ourselves in the insanity of his way. It is the story of the Dark Knight. And in order to intervene … we need a hero. Someone that will sacrifice himself on our behalf. Someone that will take the sins of society, and will be banished on our behalf. Who is that? It’s The Batman. I’m sorry, if you missed all the Christ references in this movie, you just weren’t paying attention.
I gotta say – that The Dark Knight is not even breaking the top 50 best movies of all time is hilarious to me. Really makes me VERY VERY CURIOUS about all of the movies that bested this Nolan Movie. (To the list’s credit, it does include Memento at #90, Inception at #84, and the Dark Knight here at #57?? . So it’s not a horrible showing… but I mean. No The Prestige? Maybe it’s #1? Nope. Not on the list at all, just double checked.)
The Dark Knight is Absolutely Top 10 Material
A comic book movie literally cannot be in the top 100 movies of all time. It’s impossible for a movie based on a comic book to carry the gravitas and the pathos necessary. This is fact. Save for this little detail that not only did Nolan figure out how to thread the needle of the top 100, but also the top 10. It’s a story about evil and chaos, and making sacrifices for the greater good. Oh, all the while simultaneously, amongst the anarchic evil inherent in society today, it requires us all to believe in the people all around us for good. Which, is almost like the two sides Two-Faced’s coin. Horrible evil. Hopeful good.
Edited by: CY