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The Dark Knight (DVD)
Year: 2008
Rating: M
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman
Release Date: December 10, 2008
Distributor: Warner
The Film: 5.0
The Disc: 2.0
FILMINK rates DVDs and Blu-rays out of 5
With the figures all added up, The Dark Knight has undoubtedly been the biggest film of 2008. At the Australian box office, it hammered other juggernauts like Sex And The City, Iron Man and Indiana Jones. In a rather nice coincidence, it's also arguably the best film of the year, rating with critics and audiences alike in large and rather staggering ways. The combination of such across-the-board artistic and commercial success makes the film just about as rare as hen's teeth, and for that, The Dark Knight is truly something special. In short, people love the film, and the admiration is wholly justified. While comic book adaptations such as its predecessor Batman Begins, X-Men, Spider-Man and Superman Returns revealed new, socially conscious possibilities for the much maligned genre, as well as new levels of quality, The Dark Knight ups the ante in ways that nobody could really have predicted.
Seemingly channeling crime epics like Heat, Prince Of The City, Scarface and The Untouchables, co-writer/director Christopher Nolan tells an absorbing "city story", as crime-riddled Gotham City is gripped by a rolling barrage of attacks from the maniacal, anarchic Joker (nothing more really needs to be said about Heath Ledger's extraordinary performance) just as District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart - in a brilliant performance - is the real heart of the film, providing its most potent story arc) is emerging as its saviour. Amongst the madness and white-knuckle suspense, Batman (Christian Bale proves again how perfect he is for the role) becomes just one part of a much bigger, expertly crafted story.
Boasting an intensity never glimpsed in a comic book adaptation before (all achieved with mood, performance and the power of suggestion, as opposed to overt violence), The Dark Knight is a wholly uncompromising vision. Sadly, this double-disc DVD release doesn't really do the film justice. Though interesting, the featurettes are all technical in tone, with no discussion of themes, performance or subtext - for such a rich film, that's a massive disappointment. The most fun comes with Eric Roberts' performance in one of six episodes of Gotham Tonight, the news programme hosted in the film by Anthony Michael Hall.
