Considered one of the best movies of its decade and one of the best superhero movies of all time, the movie received critical praise for its screenplay, visual effects, musical score, themes, performances (particularly Ledger), cinematography, action sequences and direction. The movie also set numerous records during its theatrical run. "The Dark Knight" appeared on 287 critics' top-ten lists, more than any other movie of 2008 with the exception of "WALL-E", and more critics (77) named "The Dark Knight" the best movie released that year. With over $1 billion in revenue worldwide, it became the fourth-highest-grossing movie at the time, and highest-grossing movie of 2008; it also set the record for highest-grossing domestic opening with $158 million, a record it held for three years. At the 81st Academy Awards, the movie received eight nominations; it won the award for Best Sound Editing and Ledger was posthumously awarded Best Supporting Actor. "The Dark Knight Rises", the final movie in the trilogy, was released on July 20, 2012.
The movie begins with the Joker and his gang of clowns robbing a mob bank. The other clowns shoot each other so that there are fewer people so they can get more money per person. The manager of the bank takes out his shotgun and shoots one of them. The Joker takes off his mask and kills the last clown, leaving all the money for himself. He then drives away in a school bus.
The crime mob in the city is very mad at the Joker for robbing the bank. The Joker comes to them and says he wants to kill Batman. Meanwhile, Gotham city's District Attorney Harvey Dent tries to shut the mob down by tracking down the money. A businessman named Lau finds out about this and takes the money out beforehand and goes to Hong Kong so that he cannot be caught. Batman, whose real name is Bruce Wayne, flies down there himself, kidnaps him, and takes him back to Gotham City.
The Joker says he wants Batman to take his mask off and show the world who he is, and that if he does not, people will die. Commissioner Loeb dies from drinking acid in his drink and the judge that was at the mob trials is killed. The Joker then hires some men to kidnap police officers and take their uniforms. At Loeb's funeral, Joker's men attempt to shoot the mayor. Police officer James Gordon tackles the mayor and is shot and apparently killed.
Dent then calls a press conference to ask the people there if he should reveal Batman. After they say yes, Dent says that he is Batman and has the police arrest him. They put him on a truck to send him to jail. The Joker and his men drive a truck that badly damages the truck Dent is riding in. The real Batman comes in and attempts to save Dent but wrecks his motorcycle-like Batpod when the Joker stands there, since Batman has a rule that he will not kill anyone. Gordon, who is revealed to have faked his death, arrests the Joker.
In jail, Batman questions the Joker. The Joker eventually reveals that his men captured Rachel Dawes, Batman's old childhood friend and Dent's girlfriend, and Dent. He has put them in warehouses far away so that Batman cannot save both of them himself. They are near bombs that will go off and kill them. The Joker tells Batman where each person is. Batman goes to save Dawes while Gordon and his men go to rescue Dent. However, when Batman gets to Rachel's location, he only sees Dent, because the Joker switched the addresses. Batman gets Dent out, but the bomb goes off and Dent scars half of his face. Gordon is too late to save Dawes.
The Joker gets out of jail. He gets his phone call and dials a cell phone that is wired to a bomb, which blows up the police station. Afterwards, he visits the hopsital where Dent is staying. Dent is driven crazy because of Dawes' death. The Joker frees Dent and tells him to take revenge. Dent goes around flipping coins and decides whether he will kill them or keep them alive. He starts going after the various police people who leaked information to the Joker to make it possible for him to kidnap and kill Dawes.
The Joker then announces that the city is his. The people in charge load up two ferries with people to get them out of the city. The Joker has wired both boats with explosives and has given each boat the detonator to the other one, saying that he will blow up both boats at midnight if one boat does not blow up the other.
Batman finds the Joker in an abandoned building. He uses a sonar system (created by Lucius Fox) to defeat the Joker's men and stops him from destroying both ferries. He then leaves the Joker hanging. The Joker is very impressed, stating that Batman cannot be corrupted into breaking his own rule. A SWAT team then captures the Joker.
At the end of the movie, Batman finds that Dent has kidnapped Gordon's family. When Batman arrives, Dent flips his coin to decide their fates. Before he can see the result of his next coin flip, Batman tackles Dent off the edge of the building, letting the vigilante plummet to his death. With Dent dead, Gordon says that if word gets out that Dent killed all these people, all the work he did will have been lost. Batman offers to take the blame for all the murders. Gordon, who is originally against it, agrees. He destroys the Bat-Signal and orders the police to hunt Batman down. Batman takes off into the night while Gordon's son does not understand the reasoning for why Batman must be hunted. But Gordon explains "because he can take it. Because he's not a hero. He's a silent guardian; a watchful protector; a Dark Knight."
The movie was filmed in Chicago and in Hong Kong. Some scenes were shot in London. During the filming in Chicago, Nolan decided to blow-up abandoned Brach's candy factory (which was Gotham Hospital in the movie).
Gorgon
In Greek mythology, the Gorgons were female monsters that had fangs and serpents for hair with bronze claws. They were the daughters of Phorkys and Keto. The serpents in their hair were special: Everyone who looked at them was turned to stone. There were three Gorgons, named Stheno, Euryale and Medusa. Only Medusa was mortal. She was beheaded by Perseus. Medusa's head was brought to Athena. There are many motives showing Athena with an aegis, and a Gorgon's head on her chest.
Homer only talks about one Gorgon. Hesiod names all three, Stheno, the powerful one, Euryale,who could jump far, and trouble-ridden Medusa, the queen. According to Hesiod, they lived at the edge of the known world, in the Atlas Mountains. At a later time, Libya is also named as their home.
With Hellenism came the myth that the Gorgo was a sister of Alexander the Great. In this myth, she is a neck, a water spirit. The sailors of each passing boat are asked whether he is still alive. If they answer no, she takes the boat and the sailors into the water. The answer that saves the lives of the seamen is "Yes, and he reigns as a king" ().
The heads of the Gorgons are often found on shields, capes and amulets. These were believed to be magic. The magic that is used against bad spirits and bad luck is known as apotropaic magic.
As the World Turns
As the World Turns (ATWT) is an American television soap opera that airs each weekday on CBS.
Set in the made-up town of Oakdale, Illinois, the show first went on TV on Monday, April 2, 1956 at 1:30pm EST. Before this show, all soaps were fifteen minutes in length; ATWT was the first half-hour soap opera.
At first, viewers were not excited about it, but ratings picked up in its second year, and reached the top spot in the daytime Nielsen Ratings by the fall of 1958. "As the World Turns" was the most-watched daytime drama from 1958 until 1978, with ten million people watching each day. At its height, the main actors such as Helen Wagner, Don MacLaughlin, Don Hastings, and Eileen Fulton became very well known in the United States.