“The Dark Knight” It all started here! Christopher Nolan, who completely overturned the standard of American comic book movies.

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2018.03.15Akira Murayama

"The Dark Knight" synopsis

The ultimate evil has descended on Gotham City. The man, who calls himself the Joker(Heath Ledger) and grins fearlessly and believes that crime is the best joke, sneaks into a gang of bank robbers, kills them all, and steals a large sum of money. Batman(Christian Bale) protects this city. He works with Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) to successfully bust a Mafia money laundering bank.

Even so, a savior appears in a city that is becoming more and more covered in evil day by day. Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) is the new district attorney. Dent, who has a strong sense of justice, supports Batman and vows to completely eradicate crime. The Joker appears at a meeting of mafia bosses who are suffering from a lack of funding. "I'm going to kill Batman." The condition is half of all mafia assets. However, Joker's true purpose was not money. I want to crush the disgusting justice system, corrupt noble people, and enjoy watching the world fall into ruin from a privileged seat.

The survival The Game set by Joker has finally begun. The opening signal is the assassination of the police chief. The Joker threatens Batman with killing civilians if he doesn't reveal his true identity, and chooses Dent and Assistant Prosecutor Rachel (Maggie Gyllenhaal) as his next targets. However, that was just the beginning of the full course of evil he had prepared...

Index

A “Batman movie” that omitted the word “Batman”

The movie The Dark Knight(2008) was epoch-making in many ways. It's the first time a comic book hero movie has grossed more than $1 billion, and it's also the first time a comic book villain has been nominated for an Academy Award. Moreover, Heath Ledger, who played the Joker, won the award.

Also, the success of ``The Dark Knight'' gave director Christopher Nolan almost free-hand freedom to stick to almost 100% auteurism even though it is a Hollywood blockbuster. Without ``The Dark Knight,'' Marvel would not have made the leap forward, and the current balance of power in Hollywood would have changed significantly.

So, what made The Dark Knight different from previous movies, especially American comic book hero movies? The easiest way to understand this is to compare it with Nolan's previous film Batman Begins (2005).

First of all, although ``The Dark Knight'' is a ``Batman'' movie, it does not have ``Batman'' in the title. ``Batman Begins'' directly represents the origin of Batman, and literally translates to ``The Beginning of Batman.'' When Tim Burton filmed the film in the 1990s, and later when Joel Schumacher took over, it always had "Batman" in the title. This is an obvious thing that no one should question.

However, Nolan cut out the hero's name from his new reboot of the series. Of course, "The Dark Knight" is the nickname given to Batman in DC Comics since 1940, and the title of the graphic novel published in 1986 by Frank Miller, who brought realism to the original work, is also " Batman: The Dark Knight Returns ." This is the most famous nickname for Batman. However, it must have been a courageous decision for Warner Bros. to avoid removing the word "Ultraman" from the title of the "Ultraman" series.

In any case, the title ``The Dark Knight '' can be said to be a sort of farewell to past `` Batman '' movies, even though it is a Batman story. In fact, the Gotham City of " Batman Begins" still reflects the American comic book feel, being a glittering dark fantasy city where the near future and the past coexist. Gotham City will also undergo a transformation with a completely different approach in ``The Dark Knight.''

“The Dark Knight” changed the standard for “realism” in hero movies!