The Dark Knight (2008) marked the second film in The Dark Knight trilogy directed by Christopher Nolan. It brought home two Oscars: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Heath Ledger), Best Achievement in Sound Editing (Richard King). Ledger is the only actor to have won an award in this category after his death. It was accepted by his mother, father, and sister. The movie racked up 159 wins between 2008-2020 when the Library of Congress added it to the National Film Preservation Board. Nolan's inspiration for the Joker's debut was from the character's comic book debut in 1940, The Killing Joke (1988), and The Long Halloween (1996), which told Harvey Dent's origin. After the success of Batman Begins, Nolan wanted to expand on the noirish quality by taking on a story that explored "the police, the justice system, the vigilante, the poor people, the rich people, and the criminals." After its enormous success in July 2008, The Dark Knight has been said to be one of the best films of the 2000s and one of the best superhero films ever made. Due to the first movie's success, the budget increased, and they were able to film in Chicago, other areas in the USA, the UK, and Hong Kong. The Dark Knight currently sits on the fourth spot on IMDb's Top 250 Films list.
Christian Bale returns as Bruce Wayne / Batman with Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Morgan Freeman. Maggie Gyllenhaal takes on the role of Rachel Dawes, a position that Katie Holmes previously played. The Dark Knight follows the story of the alliance formed by Batman, James Gordon, and DA Harvey Dent. They work to dismantle organized crime in Gotham City. These plans are cut short when the Joker seeks to undermine Batman's influence and throws Gotham into complete anarchy. All the villains and heroes in the Batman series, and other superhero series, have a moral code and structure. When a character like the Joker appears, how does his lack of morality and ethics affect his atrocities? What is the Joker's ethos, and what drives him?
I think one of my favorite lines from the Joker that encapsulates the entire movie, and his personality, is "Their morals, their code, it's a bad joke." Gotham is a city that strives on corrupt government officials and members of society. Every crooked cop, two-faced district attorney, and lousy politician validated the Joker's cynical worldview. When bad got worse, they abandoned their morals and then turned around and changed their mind again when things got better. Their rules, morals, ideals all went away when things "didn't go according to plan." The citizens of Gotham proved that they would murder, steal, and hurt innocents if it meant they would get a payout at the end of it. All of them except Batman. Batman represents the incorruptible good within all the layers of bad in humans. Batman is the type of person (bat-person?) who doesn't abandon his morals when nothing works out. He sticks to his faiths no matter how tempting breaking it might be. He didn't even kill the Joker when he had the chance, even though it was the Joker's bomb that killed Rachel Dawes earlier in the movie.
As mentioned in the last essay on Batman Begins (2005), Batman's code is simple: no killing. The crime lords don't kill kids, and the dirty civil servants won't do anything that would physically hurt another person. The Joker is literally "on the other hand." He is the complete opposite. He only wants to create chaos wherever he goes. At one point, he confesses that he believes that everyone has this darker and destructive side but that he is just "ahead of the curve." The Joker's ethos boils down to the fact that he thinks having an ethos or a sense of right and wrong is futile. As Alfred says, he is someone "who just wants to watch the world burn." Jack Nicholson's Joker did, however, have an end goal. He was motivated by an inflated sense of self, a God complex, and an overactive ego. While Ledger's Joker shows these qualities, he is not inspired by them. He wishes to kill Batman to plunge the world into chaos and show how destructive and cruel humanity really is. His motives are nothing tangible – he doesn't seek money, cars, or houses. He is driven by ideological and philosophical reasons, which cannot be easily obtained. To prove that humanity is disgusting, he just needed chaos. And what's a better way to achieve chaos than to corrupt the ethics of Gotham's "White Knight," Harvey Dent. By killing Dawes, he destroys Dent's moral compass. The Joker would have won if the word had gotten out about Dent's crimes. By having Batman take the fall for Dent's crimes, Gotham remained quiet, and the streets would gradually get cleaner. The Joker's lack of affiliations and loyalties make his tactics the scariest of all villains. His unpredictability makes it impossible for Batman to predict his next moves. In short, the Joker's "moral code" is pure and utter chaos.
I don't want to think of this movie as a superhero movie because it's more than that. If we removed the fact that Bruce Wayne dresses up as a bat to fight the Joker, this movie would be something that A24 would probably release. It talks about a lot more than just good and evil. It's about corrupt government systems and officials, the meaningful and meaningless hunt for money and fame, chance, human nature, grief, and perception.
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