Both The Dark Knight and Man on Wire were phenomenally successful at the box office this past weekend. The former, a huge Hollywood blockbuster based on a comic book, broke the record for greatest second weekend ever and the record for quickest movie to break the $300 million mark. The latter, an award-winning documentary about a man who walked a tightrope between the Twin Towers, had the best non-IMAX per-screen average and the best opening for a documentary so far this year.
But the two films have more in common than their box office achievements, and I detail ten similarities between them below. My reason for the comparisons––some of which are, I admit, a bit of a stretch––is not just for the amusement of highlighting parallels between a blockbuster and a documentary. Rather, I hope that this list will encourage the millions of people who saw The Dark Knight to also seek out and watch Man on Wire, which is by far my favorite film of the year, so far, and is quite possibly the best doc I’ve seen in years.
Man on Wire certainly features everything that’s entertaining about The Dark Knight — save for a posthumous performance from Heath Ledger — though it does have a terrific posthumous performance by the World Trade Center. And it also appeals to moviegoers who aren’t into comic book movies (even those as non-comic-book-movie-like as TDK), too.
- Criminal Clowns - Man on Wire’s Philippe Petit and The Dark Knight’s Joker (Heath Ledger) are each a form of jester jailed for unlawful acts. Petit doesn’t kill anyone, of course, and The Joker exhibits no ability to juggle, perform magic tricks or ride on a unicycle. Yet the two clowns share a common bond: neither can really answer the question of why they do what they do. Sure, their respective motives may be labeled — Petit acts out of pure passion; The Joker is an agent for chaos — but not in any way that satisfies the police or media. Man on Wire’s inclusion of a hilarious press conference held by the NYPD wins points over The Dark Knight’s cliché use of anger-filled interrogation scene. …Read more
As many reviews have already made clear, The Dark Knight sets the new gold standard for comic book movies. I think a big reason for that lies in the casting of a new heroine for Batman, Gotham City. Dark Knight evokes adjectives like epic and edgy. It feels like something is really at stake, but what? Writer/director Christopher Nolan crafts a handful of brilliant characters, but the one we’re really gunning for is Gotham City herself.
While it’s easy to say Gotham City is an allegory for society as a whole, in The Dark Knight Nolan intentionally paints a unique urban environment. The film opens with stunning aerial shots of Gotham City (played beautifully by Chicago). A lot has been said about Nolan’s choice to shoot certain scenes of the film in IMAX, and it’s no coincidence that nearly all of them fill the frame with an urban landscape. There is something truly breathtaking about seeing Batman leap from the roof a building and spread his wing-like cape in IMAX, but what’s equally important is what’s below him: an endless grid of streets, buildings, and people.
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Last week, I wondered when the presidential campaign and Warner Brothers’ campaign for The Dark Knight would merge. Today, the political and the movie promotional have become fully intertwined, although on a much more local scale than I had originally predicted.
According to the Village Voice (via Gothamist), Queens Councilman Hiram Monserrate is lobbying to officially brand New York City with the nickname Gotham City in time for The Dark Knight’s July release. Apparently, Monserrate thinks associating his city with a fictional flying crime fighter and a deranged, make-up wearing lunatic will be good for tourism. “I see that as a marketing tool,” he told the Voice. “‘Come visit the real Gotham City,’ taking advantage of this movie which will be one of those gate-breaking, record-selling movies like it always is.” He then mumbled something about how how Christopher Nolan’s Chicago-shot movie will help New York’s “art community to strengthen its reconnection to being a Gotham City,” and also something else about how frappuccinos embody the spirit of Batman.
Check out the full crazy at the link, and then tell us: if a studio were to, uh, make it worthwhile for a city official to sponsor a crackpot resolution involving one of their films, would that be bribery, or just really, really good viral marketing?
