There are a lot of windows in the Gotham City of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. As metaphor, as motif, as symbol, as literal implication. Look how they open up.
Key one-sheets leading up to the movie’s release saw Batman surveying Gotham through one, fist-shattering another, blowing out a whole bunch of them with a flaming Bat-symbol.
The film’s wrong-footing (hang on, it’s broad daylight!) opening shot contains thousands of the glinting things, staring back at you.
“Frankly, there’s a lot of windows up here,” says a cop checking for snipers during Commissioner Loeb’s funeral. Batman crashes through one in Hong Kong and hurls himself out of a two-way to save DA Dawes.
And as The Joker conducts his final atrocity, Commissioner Gordon quizzically comments: “Why’d he choose a spot with such big windows?” All the better to see Gotham with…
The metaphor is clear and eloquent, Christopher Nolan and co-writer/sibling Jonathan framing moral murk with piercing clarity.
No matter how posh your 25th-floor penthouse you’re just thin glass from the street below and all its mayhem. Gotham is a city of glasshouses and danger could come from any window.
And as The Joker’s pawns abseil out from a skyscraper window, camera plunging over the edge, your trembling knees and churning stomach posit a question: when you peer through the window and into a void this deep, does it peer into you?
Yes. It’s pretty heavy for a blockbuster. Yes. It sets a high, high bar.
Next: The IMAX effect
Comments
MrPeaut23
Dec 14th 2009, 12:00
Joe Gordo-Levitt as the Riddler, I always said it. He's a young investigator who through investigating the joker origins and batman sees the anvantages to himself of knowing said information. Keep the young villians, Joe is 28 and that could work better than Daniel Day!
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StephenToman
Dec 14th 2009, 12:47
The logical threequel, I think, would be to focus more on the underworld/criminal side of things. It's certainly been going that way - now that the joker has stirred things up, Harvey is dead and Batman has gone into hiding, how does Gordon (the unsung hero of Begins and the Dark Knight) handle the s**t-storm (along with the fake man-hunting his friend)? Nolan has developed his Gotham to such an extent that he could probably abandon the idea of comic book villains altogether. Although Scarecrow would fit in with this idea, and Cillian Murphy would be a welcomed return. Batman could literally become a 'watcher' over Gotham, a myth almost. There's a lot to play with. Or alternatively, we could just throw in far too many villains, make it 2 hours too long and bugger it all up good and proper.
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nige9
Dec 14th 2009, 13:18
: Blockbuster of the Decade - The Dark Knight. It's too long, too preachy and convoluted with too much moralizing.., and, with the greatest respect, the dead one overacts.
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mrblonde
Dec 14th 2009, 15:10
Apart from the odd detractor with the odd criticism, it's hard to deny that most people were happy with The Dark Knight which was reflected in it's overall box office returns and that it is a film that people will still be watching years to come from now.The main criticisms directed towards the film such as it being too long or Bales voice as Batman I've never really understood.Alot of modern blockbusters clock in at around 2 hours 30 minutes these days and besides the fact that I actually really like Bales Batman voice (especially in Begins)I can't understand being able to get past a full grown man dressing up as a Bat but not being able to get over a gravelly voice.I personally think that Jackie Earl Haley's Rorschach voice was just as gravelly if not more so but didn't face the same criticisms. But that's just my opinion. Good selection of possible villains chosen by Total Film. I also think as one post suggested, that a 3rd film should focus on the underworld/criminal side of Gotham. Wouldn't mind seeing either The Penguin or Black Mask taking on the same role as Sal Maroni and Carmine Falcone in the 2 previous films.Hush would also be a pretty good fit for Nolan's films ( To be played by Michael C. Hall possibly).Hope they put Selina Kyle/Catwoman in the 3rd film in some capacity aswell maybe with Emily Blunt taking on the role. Would also really like to see the Batcave make a return in the 3rd and to see Gotham City bring back places such as Arkam Asylum and The Narrows to make it feel more like it's own unique city like in BB. Whatever they decide to do for the 3rd film, I think it's going to have it's work cut out matching the performances,direction and story of it's predecessors. Can't wait to see it though.
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BabyDiego
Dec 14th 2009, 16:15
Doesn't he speak all gravelly because of a voice modulator in his helmet?
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RoyMantooth
Dec 14th 2009, 19:33
i like nige9's ball (guts) XD. i felt the same way coming out of the theatre: that all the presentation was so obvious that it didn't leave much simmering in my mind afterward. articles like yours, TF, though, help rejuvenate speculation into the intricacy of gotham and nolan's film. it's a blockbuster, but at least its working with viewer psychology more than most. the best campaign a blockbuster has put out was the joker's defacing of moral figures like dent. then it just got played out by tweens
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mrblonde
Dec 15th 2009, 0:27
In response to BabyDiego, I think I remember there being talk of it supposedly being a voice modulator in his helmet that gave the gravelly voice effect. It just wasn't brought up in the films story I don't think. It would also maybe explain why he talks with a gravelly voice when talking to Lucius Fox towards the end of the film when it was just the 2 of them alone and he didn't have to diguise his voice. The vice like mechanism in his gloves which allowed him to bend the drug dealers gun at the beginning of the film was also explained by Nolan and the costume designer in interviews but was not actually mentioned in the film either.
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BabyDiego
Dec 16th 2009, 0:54
I seem to recall it being mentioned in Batman Begins, but I could be wrong?
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BabyDiego
Dec 16th 2009, 0:55
Plus I felt it is one of the bravest and best films ever made, nevermind the decade
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