The Dark Knight was released in 2008 and directed by Christopher Nolan. It starred Christian Bale as Batman, Heath Ledger as the Joker, and Aaron Eckhart as Two-Face. The film received critical acclaim and Heath Ledger won a posthumous Oscar for his role as the Joker. Nolan used practical effects and stunts to make the action sequences feel realistic, including having Christian Bale perform some of his own stunts. The film had a budget of $150 million and grossed over $1 billion worldwide.

1. Rated PG 13 Released July 18,2008 Actors: Christian Bale-Batman Heath Ledger-The Joker Aaron Eckhart-Two-Face Micheal Caine-Alfred Pennyworth Maggie Gyllenhaal-Rachel Dawes Gary Oldman-James Gordon Director-Christopher Nolan Writers: Jonathan Nolan Christopher Nolan David S. Goyer Bob Kane Awards Oscar-Sound Editing Oscar-Best Supporting Actor Saturn Award-Best Action Film Blimp Award-Favorite Movie ALFS Award-Actor of the Year Heath Ledger

2. History In 1937, the success of Superman led editors wanting more superheroes for its titles “ The Case of the Chemical Syndicate,” was the first Batman story published Batman received his solo title in 1940 but was continuing to star In Detective Comics In April of 1940vBatman's kid sidekick Robin was introduced By 1942 most of the basic elements Of Batman mythos were established

3. Bob Kane signed away ownership in the character in exchange for a mandatory byline on all Batman Comics In 1964, sales on Batman titles had fallen drastically The television series in 1966 had a profound influence of the character The success of the series increased sales and Batman reached a circulation of close to 900,000 copies Detective Comics #471-476 led to the influence the 1989 movie Batman

4. Batman’s origin is first presented in Detective Comics #33 In 1996 Batman once again becomes a member of the Justice League Batman’s secret headquarters is the Batcave which consists of a series of subterranean caves beneath his mansion BusinessWeek listed the character Batman as on of the ten most intelligent superheroes appearing in American comics Batman had many enemies such as the Joker, Cat women , the Scarecrow, the Penguin, Two-Face, the Riddler, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy and Ra’s al Ghul

5. Stunts and Special Effects They blew up everything they could in the film The visual effect were really good Christian Bale himself did some of the stunts Christian Bale has been well-versed in Keysi martial arts since he had to learn it for “Batman Begins” Stunt Drivers took the wheels of the Batmobile and Bat-pod on camera

6. Christopher Nolan wanted to make a film in IMAX for ever but he waited until the right project came Filmmakers had a bet that work would pay off and reach beyond the genre audience “ The Dark Night” was estimated to cost about $150 million Most films would have between 1,000 and 2,000 effect shots The Dark Knight had about 650 visual effect shots

7. They could not do every explosion in the movie The Batmobile and garbage truck scene they did with large – scale miniatures Christian stood on the ledge of the Sears Tower but he wouldn't jump off of the building or crash into cars Nolan loved the idea of creating cinema on the grandest possible scale They used a 70mm camera instead of 30mm because you cant see much floor and ceiling

8. Interrogation Techniques Nolan's camera is always moving in this scene The camera circles to the left or right depending on whose back is facing the people They used low-key lighting from the lamp and one lit florescent The off-screen space behind the Joker is created by the darkness Nolan frames the scene to make a sense of entrapment

9. Nolan uses a medium close-up by putting the Joker on the left side Emphasizing the blurriness likely accounts for why Nolan chose not to use racking focus in this part The blurriness is what makes the speed in which Batman circled the table seem believable Conversation framing returns so that the audience can see that the Joker must look up to talk to Batman Nolan returns to a close-up to see the Jokers reaction

10. Nolan cuts outside the interrogation box to see what the detectives' reactions were The narrative struggle is reduplicated in the kinetic framing of the shot The constant lateral motion allows Nolan to demonstrate a key difference between the two players visually Nolan continues to circle the room to show that the shot becomes something different The camera-work reminds us the Joker only acts irrationally if the audience fails to notice the irrationality is an act

11. The Batmobile Nathan created the Batmobile by model bashing Model bashing is where you buy lots of parts in every size and shape then you cut them to get the parts you want Nathan built six models that looked like a jet It took about four months to finish them all Once he had the scale model he started on the full-size replica

12. They carved a gigantic block of Styrofoam and carved it by hand The sculpting process took about two months The car had to be able to go 100+mph The car had to be able to go from 0 to 60 in 5 seconds The car had to be able to jump up to 30 feet and land completely unscratched

13. To make the car turn, they put extra brakes on each rear wheel The car uses a 5.7-liter chevy v-8 engine The rear tire are 37-inch-diameter, off-the-shelf, 4x4 mud tires called Super Swampers Each of the four cars cost about $250,000 to build The car is loaded with hydraulics to the opening and closing of the cockpit happen in a realistic way

14. Videos from the movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StWZDqqBfJo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRG1tWQN6e8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-rkpgchJOA&feature=related

15. My Rating I give this movie a 9 because what I saw of it was really good. I like the way that it kept my attention because I usually do not like these kind of movies