English 112
Ian Bodkin
March 8, 2013
The Dark Knight: A Modern Day Batman We have all grown up with our classic super heroes, from comic books to television shows. From children to adults, a favorite super hero will always be Batman. In Christopher Nolan's 3-part trilogy, known as The Dark Knight Trilogy, Nolan gives us a whole new twist on this favorite super hero. Though having some similarities with the classic Batman, such as similar costumes, some of the same classic villains, and even the Bat-Mobile, Nolan redefines each one of these things into a more matured version of the Batman that we all know and love, The Dark Knight.
With a very long four years between Batman Begins, the first of the trilogy, and The Dark Knight, Nolan brought more to the table for his audience. Nolan is known for his movies being dark and very action-packed, which you see in some of his other films like Inception and Memento. Sticking to what he knows best, The Dark Knight has Nolan's trade-marked dark feel to it. The plot of the film is sort of what you could expect from a superhero movie, a fight between good and evil. Batman, played by Christian Bale, raises the stakes in his fight against crime. With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon, played by Gary Oldmen, and District Attorney Harvey Dent, played by Aaron Eckhart, Batman sets out to end the remaining criminal organizations that run the streets of Gotham City. The partnership between these three characters shows to be effective, but soon, they become the target of a reign of chaos unleashed by a psychotic criminal called The Joker, who is played by Heath Ledger.
Though much of this film carries many of Nolan's traits, you can see, even just from the title, that Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, a comic book series from the late 1980's plays a huge role in the influence of this film. In Miller's series, Batman retires after the death of his partner, but then later in the future returns back to his crime-fighting life as The Dark Knight. In Miller's portrayal of Batman, there is a sense of darkness that seems to be stemmed from the death of his partner. Nolan's Batman shares this same sense of darkness, but it comes from the death of his parents when Bruce was very young, which then leads to Batman's fight for justice.
Nolan's film shows us a Gotham City that is