GIVE ME MY PHONE CALL!! Also, next up (before The Dark Knight Rises), will be Superman (1978)! Full reaction is already up on Patreon. We're super excited to explore older live action DC with you. Love you all, love you Heath 💜💜
Finally the Superman films! They may be a hit or miss but one thing each film always had was heart. Can't wait to see you watch all of them until Gunn's arrives!
You guys should consider reacting to the film theorists video about the joker is the hero in the dark knight Pretty awesome video that has a strong argument
“I think you and I are destined to do this forever” breaks my heart every time, given that the world lost Heath Ledger not so long after that line was recorded.
I know its fucked up and its horrible and sad, but I think that scene is beautiful and most of the time I watch that I cry and smile at the same time. The best scene of the movie for me. Everything they did contributed to it, the lighting and lack of it, the MUSIC, the cgi...Aaron Eckhart was insanely good as Two-Face. I even wished that scene was a little bit longer or if somehow Two-Face was in the movie for more than we actually got it. Brilliant atmosphere and writing with great actors!
Something people always seem to overlook with the final scene is how Harvey doesn't just blame Jim and Batman for Rachel's death, he blames himself as he points the gun at himself, which is so haunting and sad. This movie is fantastic, and the way it handled Harvey isn't talked about enough.
Heath's Oscar winning performance frequently steals the show, but Harvey's tragic arc truly is the driving narrative of The Dark Knight. It's his story, and the other major players, on both sides, are trying to use him for their own ends. Batman/Gordon and Joker essentially tear Harvey Dent in two, jointly creating Two-Face. It's a wonderful way to execute the story of Harvey/Two-Face within a single film.
Right and yet as much hate as "Gotham Knights" on CW gets, I`d argue that they actually improved on Harvey`s arc in this film. Yes, Harvey`s abuse at the hands of his father, anger issues beneath his initial idealism, and "White Knight" reputation are key parts of his character in The Comics, however "Gotham Knights" does something previous adaptations aside from "Batman the Animated Series" and "New Batman Adventures" have failed to do which is to show the stages of Harvey`s declining mental health even before his disfigurement!
I think Aaron Eckhart deserves so much credit for holding this movie together with a fantastic, nuanced portrayal of both Harvey Dent and Two-Face. Batman Begins is about Bruce Wayne, The Dark Knight Rises is about Batman...but The Dark Knight is about Harvey Dent. Heath Ledger steals the show, but truly acts purely as an agent of chaos. In the story, he just pops up to periodically wreak mayhem, while the whole narrative hangs on Harvey's rise and tragic fall. And Eckhart kills it.
People often forget what an acting masterclass this movie is because Heath Ledger gets the spotlight in the majority of the conversations surrounding this movie. Aaron Eckhart, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhal, Morgan Freeman, etc. All of them just chew every scene they're in. Aaron Eckhart especially, is overlooked.
if you look closely at the gun when he tells him about the chaos, you can see that he's holding the trigger so it won't fire in case it doesn't go as expected. he is always planning but the lie is so good it seems true
aaron eckhart, who plays harvey, was asked what it was like working with heath. he then tells the story of how one day, he sees heath, in full joker make up, acting out the hospital scene. he doesn't say a word. he's just going through the physical motions of the scene. aaron joins him and they act out the entire scene without saying a word. after they were done, heath goes up to him and says "now that's acting". he would say that working with heath was one of the greatest joys in his career.
23:10 As someone who’s a person of color, I will tell you right now Harvey didn’t go after Ramirez because she was a woman of color; he went after her because she basically fed Rachel to the wolves. Not to mention, Wuertz and Ramirez were two of the cops Dent investigated when he was in IA, so they had already had documented history of possibly being corrupt… Which is why he held Gordon responsible for Rachel’s death. Too many reactors forgot the scene in Act One where Gordon and Dent discussed Gordon having Wuertz and Ramirez in MCU. While Gordon was resigned to making due with what he had, Dent saw it as him being indifferent, and this indifference ultimately led to his and Rachel’s kidnappings and Rachel’s subsequent death as Wuertz and Ramirez were on Maroni’s payroll. As twisted as Dent became, his reasoning for going after the people he did (with the obvious exception of Gordon’s family) was valid, even if the methods were extreme.
I love the entire sequence with the people on the boats trying to decide who to sacrifice. The music, the acting and the prisoner who’s willing to sacrifice himself, the other prisoners and the guards for the civilians. It’s probably my favorite scene in the whole movie.
It's my favorite scene in any superhero movie. Watching the villian be proven wrong by randome people off the street and not even the best people of society, such a hopeful message.
Unless I'm very much mistaken, the characters of Detective Ramirez and Detective Stephens (the guy the Joker threatens for the phone call) are based on Montoya and Bullock from the Animated Series.
Absolute control, masquerading as chaos is how I’d describe The Joker in this. It took a few watches for me to catch that that scene in the hospital with Joker and Dent shows it with the revolver. The whole time they’re both holding the gun, Joker’s got at least one finger on the hammer, which means even if Dent decides to shoot, it wouldn’t work.
@28:43 I love how Joker is upside down but is shot like he’s right side up, representing the way Joker sees the world, i.e. upside down is right side up.
Actually, not to rain on your parade, that scene went exactly as planned. What you refer to is a myth that seems to have started online. Having said that, I'm really enjoying your reaction to this film; it's one of my favorites. Heath knocked it out the park!!😊
15:32 I am still convinced that Joker is a veteran and the truckload of soldiers exploding is his origin story. And because it was part of the plan he started hating the society that didn’t care about him and his comrades. It’s just such a specific example that he gives to Harvey that it feels just out of place enough to be personal experience.
Agreed but I think it goes another step. There would still be a record of him if he was a vet (DNA, service record, etc.) - unless he was recruited to the CIA or some other alphabet organization as part of their direct-action special executive. His knowledge of destabilization and asymmetric operations is just too fine tuned. I think it follows that something went south on an assignment and his handlers put a burn notice out on him, leaving him for dead.
The writers said that was their working idea of the 'real' background. He's familiar with explosives, his scars are shrapnel wounds, and he's going after local government as ex-military 'terrorists' tend to.
Bruce said "Rachel was going to wait for me, Dent shouldn't know" as Alfred was giving him the letter. So, by saying that, he makes his own choice if he should know the truth or not. If Dent shouldn't know, it in fact means he shouldn't know. Whether it's the right choice or not, it's his choice.
Joker obviously lies when he says he doesn't plan. When he gives the revolver to Two-Face and points it at his own head, he keeps one finger on the hammer, so the revolver won't fire even if Two-Face pulls the trigger. He also wrote down the speech he gives during the two boats scene (there's about half a second where you see him reading it off note cards).
The hospital scene was never improvised. Maybe what he did in the pause of the explotions. But the explotions went of just as they planed. They had just one try for this scene as they realy blow up a hospital so any mistakes like this would never happend. Keep on doing such a good job
@@Narutoanime16g Yes that is what everybody is telling you. But the truth is that the explosives went of as they should. Nolan stated that in a interview regarding that subject.
@@Narutoanime16g That's an internet myth. The gag was planned. Heath just does such a great job _acting_ in the moment that people thought it was a happy accident and improvised moment.
@@Narutoanime16g Yeah, there are some videos on RU-vid (if they're still up) in which they talk about how the pause had multiple purposes: a gag, a pause for safety (the first explosions are SPFX but not structurally damaging), and a point for potentially editing if they had to splice different takes. However, Heath nailed the first part perfectly, they did the gag, gave the demolition order, and got it. It was so good that they only used two angles out of all the cameras they set up - the one med-wide on Heath and the helicopter shot. The notion that there was a malfunction in the demo was always far-fetched because that would normally cause them to cut and reset for both safety and to ensure the timing of everything else (cameras, other actors, etc.) was perfect. Because the building only blows up once!
I like how joker tells Harvey he doesn’t plan things but he’s obviously lying cause it’s shown he plans things. Just like he lies to everyone about how he got his scars. I think he lies cause it’s fun. The same reason he does everything else.
This. The Joker is a master manipulator who tells people what they need to hear to get the results the Joker wants. Almost nothing he says throughout the entire movie is the truth.
Heath Ledger was never my favourite Joker (despite his brilliant performance), but the one thing he's got that no other mainstream Joker has, is this: he displays perfectly the reality of what a "real life" Joker would be. He's _NOT_ charming, he's _NOT_ charismatic, he's _NOT_ even funny; and he's not _MEANT_ to be. Instead what we see is the reality of it: he's uncomfortable, he's repulsive, he's just _wrong_ (in the best way). You can laugh along with Hamill, you can be charmed by Nicholson. But _this_ Joker makes you squirm in your seat, sweat bullets, and makes you almost want to avert your eyes. And it's _brilliant_ .
Man I remember in high school I would reenact scenes from the Dark Knight in acting class. Heath Ledger literally took this role to the grave. He will definitely forever be missed but will never be forgotten.
James Gordon Jr suffers a similar traumatic event in the comics and gets brain damage before eventually being diagnosed as a psychopath. As a kid he actually murders one of Barbara’s childhood friends. As an adult he kidnaps his childhood bully, locks him in the basement and tortures him every night. He even cuts his lower jaw off so he can’t scream for help when he’s not home. Kid has some problems.
Christopher Nolan`s English but lives in Chicago. In the Comics, Gordon`s originally from Chicago and in the film Harvey Dent, Joker and Wuertz(The older corrupt cop Two-Face killed in the bar)have Chicago accents.
This may be a very unpopular take but I prefer Batman Begins. This film is amazing but I prefer the tone, art direction, and Gotham of the first film. Nolan's trilogy feels like a crime film with Batman in them but I know there's people who were introduced to Batman with these movies and adore them so I'm happy people really love these films. I personally wish these films had a more gothic tone to them but I still love this film. The Batman did this really well while Batman 89 and Returns do this the best. Batman Forever is great as well so I can't wait to see you're thoughts of how Batman has changed over the years. Also the whole Two Face thing could've been handle in another film as I never really cared for him being introduced and then killed all in the same film. Joker overshadows Harvey anyways in this film so I would've preferred a solo Two Face film but I imagine Nolan wanted to just do a trilogy instead of four films. I feel feel like other Batman media understands Batman as a character much better than the Nolan movies which as films are great but depict a very striped down view on Batman and Gotham City with how "grounded" Nolan wanted these movies to feel which loses alot of the more interesting elements of the comics.
In the comics Gordons son is a killer, also christen bale was actually hitting Heath ledger because ledger want him to in the interegation scene. Fun fact I live in Chicago were they filmed batman and when they blew up the hospital one of the news stations forgot and reported as real.
You really need to watch the Batman quadrilogy from 1989 to 1997. Do not just watch 1989s "Batman" and 1992s "Batman Returns" like other channels do. You have to watch 1995s "Batman Forever" and 1997s "Batman and Robin" as well. There wouldn't be a Nolan Trilogy without "Batman and Robin".
Batman Forever and Batman & Robin aren't canonical anymore to the Burton films. To WB they originally looked at those four films as a quadrilogy even with the recasts, tone, and visual depiction of Gotham but ever since the Batman 89 comics it's been pretty much confirmed that the Joel Schumacher exist in their own Earth. But Meg will no doubt watch them all anyways so no wonders.
@LittleGalaxyBoy oh.... I never looked into the Batman 89 comic. I do know that SPOILER becomes SPOILER. I mainly want people to experience "Batman Forever" and "Batman and Robin" to understand while the Nolan films were such a big deal for Batman and superhero films as a whole.
I love how it's so well written and acted, the Joker even manage to fool you into thinking he has no plan. He's like five step ahead of everyone in the movie and has plan nestled in plans nestled in plans like a Russian doll. He's the biggest schemer of them all. He truly wants to watch the world burn. Also I think the ferries are a version of the Prisoner's Dilemma... sort of.
Месяц назад
So you guys seemed really convinced when the Joker told Harvey that it "wasn't personal" with him and Rachel... Except that it was ENTIRELY about Harvey. As Joker said he had to "bring Gotham's White Knight down to our level"... The final straw that broke him and pushed him over the edge to "their level" was Rachel's death. He was just completely broken after losing her.
Contrary to popular belief, the whole "right to a phone call" thing? Not real. In the real world, you have no right to a phone call if you've been arrested.
Heath Ledger built a wonderfully mesmerising and horrifying character. He was the Joker, and stayed true to the role. The character was so well constructed, and bound the story line together. Easily the best version of the Joker, and complex, but true to his "Mission".
Just to put this to bed: Heath Ledger DID NOT improvise when the bomb failed to activate in the hospital walk out scene. Of course he didn't!! Every step was meticulously rehearsed, including the Joker getting frustrated when the explosions cut out. Ledger deserves a huge amount of credit for workshopping the character with Nolan, it's an incredible performance but come on people.
He wasn’t necessarily choosing people predestined for madness because if he was he would’ve focused on Batman. It was the fact that Harvey, the cops, and many others all have a balance of good and evil they battle with during their daily lives in a corrupt system, and he pushed them so far to prove that succumbing to the madness isn’t lost to anyone no matter how righteous you think you are. This is why in the next movie Gordon is retired, Batman is retired, the city thinks he killed Harvey and Harvey succumbed to his dark side, and the thugs and crime bosses are behind bars. Joker lost the battle but won the war, effectively in a way being rid of madness by turning Harvey (a weapon of justice) into his weapon of madness, thus using Batman’s plan to rid all crime to turn on itself, forcing him into hiding.
I feel like no one notices the fact that Lau, the man Batman got out of Hong Kong and Joker later freed from prison, is tied up at the top of the money pile when Joker sets fire to it. We don’t hear his screams but Joker burned him alive there.
if you want to see Mark Hamill being a goofy villain, watch him as the Trickster in The Flash (1990 tv show) playing the character that earn him to play the Joker, he actually replay the character around 20 years later in the Arrowverse
I don't know how true it is, but I heard this one fan theory that the detonators for the bombs weren't on opposite boats. Since Joker's all about misdirection and the ol' switcheroo, whichever boat pushed the button would actually be blowing themselves up. His ultimate punchline as it were.
There's a theory that this Joker was in the military and his one bad day was when his unit got wiped out except for him. He survived with only shrapnel cuts on his cheek and no one cared because it was so far away.
A massive problem with this film's version of Two-Face is that once the character has been transformed into Two-Face, he's essentially wasted by the film, being killed off in its final scene. The Dark Knight neglects to properly explore Dent's innate duality. It is briefly touched upon, but there's precious little build-up that smoothes Dent's transition from trusted public servant to his killing five people as Two-Face. Dent's virtuous beginnings don't effectively foreshadow the emergence of his darker half, and that's a major way that The Dark Knight fails the character. As it stands, The Dark Knight does the bare minimum in setting Dent up as Two-Face. Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy other than Joker doesn't use its villains very well and Two-Face is no exception. Two-Face felt rushed and inconsequential. In its rushing of the character, The Dark Knight also had Two-Face only briefly playing a secondary villain to the Joker, then killed him off before he had a chance to ever really become the interesting and layered character of the comics. Due to The Dark Knight's mishandling of the character's origins, his death at the end of the film was essentially a mercy killing - he'd been given a rushed narrative arc, and there was very little left to do with the character.
I can see why you feel like that, but also disagree. I think it was great! But not perfect. It would be perfect if the trilogy was a tv show instead of a movie. The rush you felt with the villains and Two-Face specially, is because in a movie there is not enough time to show the audience a backstory less than maybe a whole movie and if it is, wouldn't be a Batman and Joker story. I think that maybe if Harvey Dent was introduced in the first movie would be enough time to build the expectations you were hoping for. In a tv show his relationship with Rachel would be more deep and they would have probably be married and had kids. Can you imagine how deep and sadder would've be hearing him saying to Gordon "this is where my FAMILY died"? Even fits better. I think that if Nolan were trying to make those movies today, he would've make a tv show or something that fits better with the time. But regardless of that, he made history with this masterpiece.
@@fynnthefox9078 in the reality duo personality doesn't work like in the comics or in the other medias Two-Face is in. The person who suffers from multiple personalities doesn't have consciousness about what is happening or speak to his "other personality". But Nolan probably made a more serious take on it about that not addressing the issue. But could be interesting tho, Idk
Other comments say otherwise. *"The hospital scene was never improvised. Maybe what he did in the pause of the explotions. But the explotions went of just as they planed. They had just one try for this scene as they realy blow up a hospital so any mistakes like this would never happend."*
@@passionsquietrage Yeah I mean good acting was still happening. They were really blowing up an old hospital, an actor wouldn't go off script too much during such an expensive one-time-only scene.
@@passionsquietrage I guess they thought it would be more impactful if Joker had this human moment. Good choice to not _just_ have the explosion or rely on CGI.
Hey Meg just got on and watching you react to the Dark Knight and as always you crack me up and you are as very Beautiful as always have a beautiful weekend, Meg. 🛡️😎🛡️
Joker had a plan he's manipulating Harvey by telling him that he didn't have a plan. I mean Harvey was part of his plan. Ppl seem to believe Joker was being honest there and there's no reason for anyone to think that. Everything he does is way too thought out to be not be planned.
Joker the master manipulator. Fooling everyone, even the audience. You hit the nail on the head when you said like a magician everything is misdirection. I’m of two thoughts. He’s either truly mad and there’s not predicting his actions. OR he’s ultra smart planning while masking everything about himself, manipulating everyone he comes into contact with. I love either but I’m leaning towards the latter.
The reason why Alfred took the letter wasn't to actually protect Bruce's Heart from breaking...it is something I can't say until The Dark Knight Rises reaction it would be spoiling it
In college I had a class about Cinema, and I really liked the teacher, but when I told him I thought this movie was perfect he gave me a weird look and then moved on. 😶
Not sure if you know this.. Everyone knows Barbara Gordon grew up to be Batgirl.. then later Oracle.. Did you know that in the comics, James Gordon Jr grew up to be a psychopath serial killer?
Mr.Reese is actually a Riddler Easter egg. The theory comes from Lucius Fox referring to Coleman as "Mr. Reese" on several occasions, which sounds identical to "mysteries"
i'll say this for Katie Holmes....her lines were her lines. I mean...she didn't write em. A lesser actor, sure, but...her script was nothing compared to Maggie's.
Phoenix's joker isn't a revolutionist, he just pretend he is one. Just like Ledger's one isn't as chaotic as he says he is, as he is actually a planner.
Comment/Question to DC comic book fans: ok, so I quit reading just over a year ago because I wasn't into the direction DC was going with Future State, and it was daunting. Also, some of the decisions they made in Batman comics specifically. Especially with Bruce Wayne being poor, and Lucius Fox & (most) of his family turning traitor on Bruce Wayne/Batman. So, has that been resolved? It really bothered me that Bruce gave him all his money, then the next thing you know... he's a turncoat.
I’m not much of a Batman guy so I haven’t been keeping up with those comics but so far the Dawn of DC Superman comics have been excellent. I know this response isn’t all that helpful but if the Superman books are any indication of the general editorial direction then I’d have to assume the Batman books are doing alright. In particular, I’ve heard nothing but good things about the current Nightwing run.
Heath Ledger is the best joker if u dont agree then he's gonna have to put a smile on your face 😁 plus everytime you guys laugh i get excited its no wonder im autistic 😂
The Joker hospital shot was not an improv. They had paused the explosions for safety reason so that Heath can come out of the hospital on time before the main explosion can come out.
they really blew up that building but the charges did not all go off so heath improvised and the rest went off..was not scripted at all..look up the documentary :) much love to you both!
