Defined a Generation

Rating: 10/10 (6 November 2014)

It's Interstellar week so my quest to go back and review all of Christopher Nolan's previous films continues.
Talk about a film that absolutely changed the game. Not only did this film change my life and my absolute love for film, it significantly impacted the way comic book movies and blockbusters in general are made. There's a reason this film is number 4 on IMDb's all time list. It's an awe inspiring movie. It was also the first movie I saw that made me really interested in film. It has the greatest movie villain of all time, one of the greatest scores of all time, and is quite possibly the greatest film ever made.
Christopher Nolan and David Goyer gave us an incredible script to this grounded superhero flick. It's dark, brooding, and chaotic. Right from the opening robbery scene you knew this film would be a non-stop thrill ride. The Joker is the greatest villain of all time, but it's Heath Ledgers performance that made this movie. In my opinion it's the single greatest movie character and performance in film history. That's saying a lot, but Ledger truly lost himself in this role in a complete transformation. So much so that he overshadows Christian Bale's brilliant turn as Bruce Wayne/Batman. In many ways this was actually his toughest test in all three of the films. It's more personal than an entire city blowing up and more heartbreaking than watching his back break. Batman literally cant beat Joker in this movie. In fact it's one of the few comic book films where the hero really doesn't win in the end, because the chaos that Joker had wanted and promised did eventually occur.
Michael Caine also gives a terrifically understated performance as Wayne's butler Alfred. His speech in the lair about Joker wanting to watch the world burn was just traumatic. Especially knowing the real life links with terrorism it makes this film just terrifying when you think about it. The interrogation scene is my favorite scene in movie history. Watching both these characters sit down and talk about how differently they see the world was fascinating. Joker pushes Batman to the limits as much as this movie did for comic book films. It brought a completely new fan base to the ever-growing comic book fans.
Sure I still like The Dark Knight Rises a tad more because of it's epic conclusion to the trilogy but The Dark Knight will always be the film that introduced me to Christopher Nolan and the greatness of Hans Zimmer. So in a way this has become the most influential film of my life. It's a really important film to me that obviously had an impact on millions of people as well. I think years down the line this film will go down as one of the most important films of our generation as it's no doubt the best film of the 2000's decade.
+Influential to my life
+Ledger's Joker (greatest character in film history)
+Perfect script and pacing to the film
+Interrogation scene
+Zimmer's iconic score
+The ending
10/10