Similarities Between The Dark Knight and the 9/11 Attacks

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Introduction:

In 2005 Christopher Nolan spearheaded the commercial re-boot of the Batman franchise with the movie Batman Begins, the movie achieved wide critical acclaim, and, subsequently generated, talk of a sequel. In the summer of 2008, after a vast amount of advertising and viral marketing, the highly anticipated sequel was finally released. The film 'The Dark Knight' grossed almost $67,165,092 in its first day and went on to break countless box office records. Later the next year the film won 2 Oscars and was nominated for a further 6, one award won was the 'Best Supporting Actor' award which the late Heath Ledger posthumously received, for his portrayal of the 'Joker'. Due to Ledger's untimely death the film gained even more publicity and Heath's performance was spotlighted, many people thought this might take the focus off what might be a great film and onto Ledger's performance alone. The film was released, and, although Ledger's performance was nothing short of astonishing the spotlight and focus was not taken off the film itself and the movie subsequently gained wide, and thoroughly deserved, critical acclaim. In my opinion an exceptional solo performance isn't capable of taking focus off a good film if it is itself worthy of credit, the performance is simply a different aspect of the film.

''Nevertheless, according to Gustin Wyatt (1994), sometimes a stars uniqueness functions as 'excess', uncoupled from either plot or character development, as with Jack Nicholson's quirky turn as the Joker in Batman (1989)''. (Pam Cook: 2007, p.131).

This statement being even more relevant with Heath Ledgers performance. Both Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008) were released after the terrorist attacks of September...

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...revolutionize a whole new genre of movie, a genre which is fast becoming more and moe popular. 'As filmmaking technology has made it more and more feasible to bring the worlds of the comics to movie theaters, the comics themselves have begun to provide a broader and richer array of material.. from which films might be made' (Booker 2007: Paul Benton, Lecture notes). All the mentioned arguments throughout this essay on top of; the star performances, unique marketing and special effects, help make The Dark Knight a truly great film. Prior to the movies release it was questioned wether the film could sustain the 'increasing moral weight imposed upon it', the movie to date has more than dealt with this pressure, and has become a focal point for many discussions and essays, and finally it is because of the morals and ethics within the movie that I have written this essay.

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