©2014 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
“The Dark Knight” It all started here! Christopher Nolan, who completely overturned the standard of American comic book movies.
2018.03.15
Why Gotham City in The Dark Knight is almost 100% Chicago
Now, what I would like to clarify here is an examination of how Nolan approached the city of Gotham City in The Dark Knight. Both ``The Dark Knight'' and ``Batman Begins'' were filmed mainly in Chicago, but the big change in ``The Dark Knight'' is that Nolan depicts Gotham City almost entirely as ``Chicago.'' be.
The name Gotham City was originally given by Bill Finger, the creator of Batman. Although it was modeled after New York, rather than explicitly stating that the setting was New York, they were looking for a fictional city name that would make everyone feel like it was their own city. They named it "Gotham City" after the name of a store that happened to be listed in a New York City telephone directory.
However, "Gotham" has also been a nickname for New York since the early 19th century, so the original Gotham City naturally assumed the image of New York (although in the DC Comics world it is located in New Jersey, the neighboring state of New York). .
“The Dark Knight” ©2014 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
It takes less than five minutes to walk through downtown Chicago to see how Nolan wanted to adapt Gotham City to the real-life Chicago for his realistic take on The Dark Knight . Chicago is known as the birthplace of the skyscraper, and is packed with old and new skyscrapers, but no matter where you turn to the right or left, you'll come across a filming location for The Dark Knight. It's like visiting the famous places in Chicago, the city of architecture.
For example, the opening bank robbery scene is set in a huge former post office building near Chicago 's Union Station, famous for the staircase scene in The Untouchables (1987). Furthermore, the intersection where the Joker is waiting to pick up his companion's car on his way to the robbery is only about 300 meters away from the filming location, and is located on the same street. It can be said to be the best spot to meet up before the robbery.
Of course, there is a practical advantage to having the film crew travel to a location in the same place, as it shortens the time it takes for the crew to get around. But what is surprising is that Nolan has managed to capture the downtown Chicago, a city well known in the United States, almost exactly as it is, without any special editing or embellishment. The hard appearance and energy of the city of Chicago are directly linked to the realism and persuasiveness of "The Dark Knight."
Nolan's approach was actually abandoned after making The Dark Knight. The final film in the trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, was primarily filmed in Pittsburgh, but also incorporated scenes from other cities such as New York and Los Angeles to create the fictional Gotham City. It is true that Nolan took a realistic approach with his ``The Dark Knight Trilogy,'' but the fact that he linked Gotham City to Chicago to the extent that it is a unique American comic book movie that has the feel of a true crime movie. It was only about ``The Dark Knight.''
Follow official SNS
