Amuse Productions

15 years ago this month, we got what we never thought we’d see, one of the greatest super hero movies of all time, and a film that would really set the bar for time to come for any super hero film after it. Before the Christopher Nolan Batman films, we were treated more to a cartoonish live action remake of The Batman in many ways. Adam West at first which gets a pass for the goofiness of its time with entertainment, Michael Keaton and Tim Burton’s new Batman with a bit of a darker tale, yet still have those comedic elements. Superheroes never really were taken that seriously in Hollywood until Batman back in 1989 came out, directors saw how much money was to be made by these films and jumped the gun. (Not to discredit the Christopher Reeves Superman films either). Soon enough, Judge Dredd, RoboCop, Blade, and Captain America (yes, there is a 1990 film about Captain America, which is not great admittedly), were all made into movie adaptations to jump on the money train.

After all of these films in the 90s, the 2000s seemed promising with Sam Raimi’s 2002 adaptation of Spider-Man starring Tobey Maguire. Such a success prompted many movie studios to bring about the idea of superhero films in the works, especially with so much material being written in by comic book companies, big movie studios were starting to be more open to the “nerdy” superheroes to be put into such a huge international spotlight. Spider-Man ended up making over 800 million dollars worldwide at the box office which would be the domino to send Warner Bros. and DC to give Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer the greenlight to bring their idea to life of a proper Batman film series.

This Batman movie series would see the Dark Knight comic book stories being used as inspiration for its stories and universe. Batman Begins would come out in 2005 to wild success, while 2008 would see probably one of the most groundbreaking films of its time alongside Avatar by James Cameron. The film titled “The Dark Knight” would start production the year after Batman Begins came out in 2006. There were rumors that this film would have its main antagonist be one of the most popular comic book villains of all time, The Joker. A role that normally makes an actor reach superstar status, for example Jack Nicholson was heavily wanted after playing The Joker in 1989’s “The Batman”. While for the Dark Knight trilogy we now know that Christopher Nolan wanted 3 candidates for the role. Robin Williams whom had always been known to be a comic-book nerd, Adrien Brody who at the point of production was an up and coming actor, and a very young Australian Heath Ledger who recently had a breakout role in Brokeback Mountain. When time came for auditions, it was only Ledger and Brody who got the call as Williams felt that he wasn’t as fit for the role as he thought he could be, especially with the tone of the movies.

After infamously locking himself up in a hotel room for a month and studying all he could about the Joker and experimenting with different methods of being the Joker, Heath Ledger would deliver an Oscar-winning performance that made this movie the icon it is today. It’s not a huge exaggeration to say this film was the inspiration for so many superhero films that would come out later. Not to undermine every other aspect of the film either. Christian Bale had a great performance, as did Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, and Michael Caine, the story felt very cohesive and the stakes in the film were always very real and never let off any high octane action.

The Dark Knight would go on to become the first ever superhero movie to gross over $1 Billion in the box office, the first of its kind and it sent, “The Dark Knight Rises” in 2012, to also gross $1 Billion in the box office, as well as another of its kind in Marvel’s The Avengers which would also set the tone for one of the best formulated cinematic universes known to movie history in the MCU, which coincidentally also started the same year that the Dark Knight came out in theaters with the introduction of Iron Man to theaters. The Dark Knight would go on to have 8 nominations at the 2009 Oscars winning in 2 categories being, Best Sound Editing, as well as, Best Supporting Actor going to Heath Ledger. Well unfortunately the late Heath Ledger at the point of those Oscars as January 22nd, 2008, a little under 6 months before the release of the Dark Knight, it was reported that Heath Ledger had overdosed in New York to a huge mixture of medicine that unfortunately sent his body into shock and was announced dead after trying to be revived by both police and paramedics at the scene. The death obviously came as a shock as the 28 year old actor was known to be such a young star in Hollywood and was destined for superstardom which was cemented with his performance with the Dark Knight. His last film ever would be release in 2009 titled “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”, which is also considered an iconic role for the actor.

The Dark Knight could be said by some to be overshadowed by the events of its antagonist in real life. However, regardless of what happened, Heath Ledger was honored with an incredible display of how well something can be made when its done right. This film will continue to be conjured up in conversations to come when it pertains to the topic of some of the best superhero movies of all time, as well as this Joker becoming the standard for any actor to use as inspiration for the role. Ever since, Jared Leto gave us a lackluster copycat Joker, while Joaquin Phoenix gave us an amazing performance in the 2019 Joker film, and now with a new “Batverse” being made with Robert Patterson as the Batman, as well as Barry Keoghan allegedly now playing the clown prince of crime, we wait to see if any other film including both the Batman and Joker will even live up to the heels of this masterpiece of a film, but really its more about paying homage, than it is competing with it. The Dark Knight 15 years later still holds up incredibly, and to take such a deep dive and its limited computer effects, it truly deserves its title as one of the best superhero films, as well as Ledger being honored with how many awards he would be given for such an iconic role.