The Dark Knight dvd thread

[Temis the Vorta]

Thanks for the answers...funny how that detail wasn't really explained or reinforced by Batman's reaction, or a brief snippet of dialogue

Don't you think Batman Begins did a great job of explaining his backstory and motivations?

Yeah, but an explanation is intellectual and not same as a gut-level sense of a character. And the sense of the character must carry through all the movies - just having it in one movie isn't enough, if it's at the character's core and I think it should be.

It would be simple to have Christian Bale act Bruce Wayne as less of a cool cat and more of a cool cat who is a tightly wound spring, but hardly anybody notices that nuance because all they see is the millionaire playboy. Just enough that the audience would see. Rachel and Alfred would notice; Harvey would notice and be puzzled by it. Without it, something important is missing. I'm sure Bale is a good enough actor that he could pull it off.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

How did Bruce know hat Dent was targeted (at the fund raising event)?

that was what I was wondering rewatching it. Loeb is dying from his drink and then Bruce sneaks up and silently puts out Harvey

maybe he wire taped the police office or was listening in somewhere.

There's a scene in the script where a bunch of people at the party are talking about Loeb and Surillo being killed (assistant district attorneys and such, people who would know about this before anyone else) and I guess it is presumed that Wayne found out by listening to them and quickly acted to take out Dent once he knew The Joker had crashed the party, per se.

That scene, while not completely necessary, would have explained why Wayne knew to protect Dent ... the way it is in the movie, it just seems like a really good educated guess that Wayne knew to protect Dent upon The Joker's arrival.

the whole party scene bugs me, honestly. In an otherwise very tight movie, it just screams "Setpiece where the joker and bats meet" and it ends with some terrible writing I'd expect from Lucas. Bats and Rachel survive the fall, AND the Joker just leaves.

And why oh why does the joker eat flowers and spill champaign.

It's a showey, obvious scene that belongs in a much worse film.

 

[T'Baio]

Also, how can this guy be so insanely violent only when he's Batman yet, for instance, never look like he's about to haul off and slug Alfred? There's a big disconnect for me between Bruce and Batman - they don't seem emotionally plausible as the same character.

My guess is Bruce Wayne is pathologically disassociative with a heaping dose of conversion disorder.

 

[Samurai8472]

And why oh why does the joker eat flowers

it was a red pepper with a shrimp on a stick

 

[David Payne]

Yeah, but an explanation is intellectual and not same as a gut-level sense of a character. And the sense of the character must carry through all the movies - just having it in one movie isn't enough, if it's at the character's core and I think it should be.

I thought that was there also. It's actually what I was mainly talking about. And I do think it carries into the sequel.

 

[Siwilliams]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=51373

news on how much the dark knight made on blu ray and standard dvd

 

[JacksonArcher]

Here you have a guy who's (I assume) psychologically messed up because of his parents' murder, yet no one ever addresses whether Wayne should hang up the bat-suit and go see a shrink? The conflict is always on vigilantism - a moral, not a personal conflict.

Batman is Bruce's therapy. Beating up criminals to a pulp with his bare fists act as his way of sitting on a couch and getting probed by a psychologist. Alfred supports this course of action -- even though he disagrees with it -- because he feels responsible for Bruce's well-being and doesn't know to dissuade him without betraying that responsibility. It sounds confusing, but sometimes loving someone is above telling them how to live their life. Alfred would probably love for Bruce to hang up the batsuit, but that's not what Bruce wants, so Alfred has to support that. It's his duty as butler and Bruce's sort of paternal father figure.

Also, how can this guy be so insanely violent only when he's Batman yet, for instance, never look like he's about to haul off and slug Alfred?

Because Batman and Bruce are two different personas, almost. I think Bale really sells this with a different type of physicality with the character including the growl. He tries to make Batman almost a different person, because he is. Batman is the manifestation of everything that has troubled young Bruce, all of his fears, worries and trauma. It is the physical manifestation of that. Bruce Wayne died when his parents were murdered in front of him and he becomes alive again as The Batman.

There's a big disconnect for me between Bruce and Batman - they don't seem emotionally plausible as the same character. Big contrast with Iron Man or even Edward Norton's Hulk, where I do buy that both the normal character and the superhero are the same basic person.

Well, Iron Man is basically Tony Stark in an armored suit. To me there is no difference, but Tony Stark doesn't don the Iron Man suit to externalize anything on an emotional level. He does it to fight crime. Bruce dresses up as Batman not only as a disguise to fight crime, but because it is a symbol of his greatest fears -- as made point in Batman Begins, bats frighten Bruce Wayne the most, and so he utilizes the fear to propel it against the criminals of Gotham City. Also, to me Bruce Banner and The Hulk are two totally different personas. I don't think they're the same, as made evident in The Incredible Hulk. In that film, it is as if Banner was trying to get rid of the Hulk, like it was a disease and he needed a cure to extract it.