The movie I chose for my research paper is The Dark Knight. “Hollywood movies often reflect their historical moments in intriguing ways.The latest Batman movie,the Dark Knight (2008), directed by Christopher Nolan,is a striking example of this. In telling ways it gives us a hero and an anti-hero for our time, that is, a superhero and villain (or villains) who embody current political and economic contradictions. Featuring Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman and the late Heath Ledger as his nemesis, the Joker, the movie was by far the most successful of a series of Hollywood blockbuster movies last summer featuring male superheroes (including Iron Man, with Robert Downey Jr., and Hancock, starring Will Smith); and it was probably the most visible Hollywood film of the year. With a production budget of $185 million, it grossed a record $314 million in tickets domestically in its first ten days of release. By mid-February 2009 it grossed more than $532 million in the US and nearly a trillion dollars ($999 million) worldwide”, according to Boxofficemojo.com.
This film is neo-noir at its finest. Batman is trying to get out of the spotlight as the city’s savior because of what he has become and what he has to encounter to save the city. He wants a normal life with the love of his life, Rachel. His daily routine almost always causes havoc, chaos, and destruction for the people of Gotham. The film is in color and in current times, unlike classic noir. Also we see gender changes in our manipulator and we have a good female role model. The detective figures are still in place, however, things get political. We still have deception, anxiety, mystery, and murder. Nothing is what it seems. A good film for the neo-noir genre. The sources that I will be using in my paper are;
Baum, Bruce new Political Science,Volume 31, Number 2, June 2009, print.
Dreyer, Randolph, MFA, Clap If You Believe in Batman,80 Perspectives in pyschiatric Care Vol. 45, No. 1, January 2009, print.
The Dark Knight. Dir. Christopher Nolan. Perf. Christian Bale, HeathLedger, Michael Cain, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, MorganFreeman and Gary Oldman. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2008. http://www.thedarkknightWarnerBros.com/dvd.
