This month, as part of my Best of 2008 coverage, I'm going to look back at some of the entertainment world's big headlines. The first one on my list was the writers' strike. Today I'm going back to the year's biggest hit movie: The Dark Knight.
The release of The Dark Knight was pretty much all people could talk about for months in the film world. It seemed like every week there was another image or clip or new trailer for this thing. I wondered at the time if the movie could live up to all the excitement — and all the positive early buzz. To my surprise, it exceeded all expectations.
The Dark Knight is one of the greatest rarities in Hollywood: Critically adored and fully embraced by audiences. So fully embraced, in fact, it broke all sorts of records at the box office. It's the full package — earning not only an outrageous amount of money, but plenty of award buzz for everyone from composer Hans Zimmer (whose musical creations still make my pulse race whenever I hear them), to director Christopher Nolan, to the actors, particularly Heath Ledger for his disturbing depiction of the Joker. And of course, adding an even deeper level of drama to the whole production was Ledger's untimely death months before the release of the film. His final major performance was of the dark, sinister Joker, which is all the eerier when thinking of the tragic ending of Ledger's young life. His death lends a poignancy to both the role itself and the fact that Ledger received overwhelming praise for this performance — accolades he'll never hear.
The movie as a whole is magnificently entertaining, proved insanely lucrative for the studio, and had real-life drama attached to it — all of which makes The Dark Knight one of the most powerful pieces of pop culture this year.
Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Marni
Tibi
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i have to say that even if heath hadn't passed away - this movie would have gotten just as much hype and buzz since it really was great. to think that any actor could personify a character like that - well it's just insane. the whole cast was great and i'm really impressed at their successes.
1I disagree, I don't think this movie would have done so well or had been so critically adored if not for Heath's death. It was a bit overhyped in my opinion...although it was still a good movie. One thing that was definitely not overhyped was Heath's performance, because it was simply incredible.
2couldnt agree more with you californiagirl though i respect all ur opinions ilanac13
3I can't believe this movie was in 2008.. it seems longer than that to me.
Twilight is a huge success, maybe bigger than DK? and non of it's stars died, so I don't think it was all about losing Heath but that definitely contributed to the hype.
4I don't think the success of The Dark Knight was all about losing Heath either. I do think that it contributed to the movie being one of the bigger deals in entertainment this year. Twilight is not more successful than The Dark Knight, at least not in terms of either box office earnings or acclaim.
5I really really don't think the success had to do with Heath. The first one without him and without a tragedy did great and by word of mouth it would make sense that the second one would do even better. Heath was amazing in the movie, but he wasn't the only factor to it doing well. What a great send off though (I know he has other movies yet to come out, but this was the last completed one).
6"The Dark Knight is one of the greatest rarities in Hollywood"
I completely agree. I once heard someone say there could be film courses taught around this film alone because it just goes beyond what a great movie should be.
7I think Heath's passing definitely had something to do with the success and the hype. Of course, the movie would have done well had Heath not passed away, but his death seemed to propel the hysteria around the film to another level. When I was waiting in line to see it I talked to several people who had never seen Batman Begins and were seeing The Dark Knight specifically to see Ledger's final performance.
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