The Dark Knight
Modern Masters: Christopher Nolan
Showing May 16 at 3:30pm
PG13 • 2h 32m
A film by Christopher Nolan
Starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger
About the film
With the help of allies, Lt. Jim Gordon and DA Harvey Dent, Batman is able to keep a tight lid on crime in Gotham City. But when a young criminal calling himself the Joker suddenly throws the town into chaos, the caped crusader begins to tread a fine line between heroism and vigilantism.
There’s a beautiful high-angle shot, early in The Dark Knight, that looks down on Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) in full Batman regalia as he perches atop a Gotham skyscraper, surveying the city he lives to protect, then leaping off and spreading his majestic bat wings to swoop down into the night. Bruce’s trajectory is also the film’s. It traces a descent into moral anarchy, and each of its major characters will hit bottom. Some will never recover, broken by the touch of evil or by finding it, like a fatal infection, in themselves.
Richard Corliss
Time
