Movies & TV Discussions

I think that to say The Dark Knight is the best movie ever is to somewhat over-exaggerate its qualities, especially since there are so many movies in existence.

Now, if we narrow it down to genre, in this case, comic book movies, it certainly ranks high among my picks.  I like 1978's Superman: The Movie better, but it comes close.

Better than Casablanca, Gone With The Wind, Patton?  Uh no!  Not even close, but a darned good comic book movie.

RudiXeno said…

Better than Casablanca, Gone With The Wind, Patton?  Uh no!  Not even close, but a darned good comic book movie.

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Being an action-adventure kind of guy, I do like The Dark Knight a lot more than I like Titanic, but that's a subjective judgment that has more to do with my tastes as a movie watcher than an objective analysis of Titanic's artistic qualities.  

Technically, Titanic is definitely a classic that crosses various genres and appeals to different audiences. The Dark Knight is, as Rudi says, a darned good comic book movie but that's all it is. 

Of the three films Rudi mentions, I love Casablanca, don't really enjoy Gone With the Wind, and I like but don't love Patton.

And The Dark Knight will never knock Star Wars (the 1977 one), Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Graduate, Unforgiven, Carrie, Jaws, or Network out of the true classic realms, either.

You said:

And The Dark Knight will never knock Star Wars (the 1977 one), Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Graduate, Unforgiven, Carrie, Jaws, or Network out of the true classic realms, either.

You're right!  Never even thought of these movies, but clearly up on my list of favorites.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Dark Knight but would hardly say it's the best movie ever.

ElizabethAnnR said…

I thoroughly enjoyed The Dark Knight but would hardly say it's the best movie ever.

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I bought the Blu-rays of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight and was pleasantly pleased, especially since I'm not a big Batman fan, but I would have to chalk the original post as coming from a young person who hasn't really watched too many movies.

Better than Titanic?  Yes.   Dark Knight was a very well done action-fantasy, comic book action film.

I thought Iron Man was almost (not quite) as good. It was NOT better than the second Star Wars, it was NOT as good as the 2nd  Christopher Reeve Superman.

And of course it is not in the same league as classic movies.... Citizen Kane?   Third Man?  ChinaTown? Wild Bunch? Godfather Part 2?  Casablanca?  To Have or Have Not?  Bride of Frankenstein? Duck Soup?  Sherlock Jr.?

Obviously 100s of movies need tto be watched and compared before one makes such a declaration and is able to defend it with any sense of cinematic history.

However, Dark Knight is a very exciting visceral experience and someone who has not seen 10's of thousands of movies could certainly be on a movie high and make passionate declarations that it is a great film.

Enjoy more movies.. please.   Have fun doing it.   As you mature, substance will matter more but you'll still have room and find yourself enjoying movies like Dark Knight too.

Yeah,I agree it is a really good movie but like everyone else says nope not best movie ever. I like how they made it "Dark" I enjoyed that more then the other "Batman" movies.Not stepping on any toes of the other movies they were good,this one was just different. Heath Ledger was so good in it.Its sad that he is gone he had "alot" of good movies in him.    Can anyone name all of the actors that played "Batman"?

ChrisJarmick said…

Better than Titanic?  Yes.   Dark Knight was a very well done action-fantasy, comic book action film.

I thought Iron Man was almost (not quite) as good. It was NOT better than the second Star Wars, it was NOT as good as the 2nd  Christopher Reeve Superman.

And of course it is not in the same league as classic movies.... Citizen Kane?   Third Man?  ChinaTown? Wild Bunch? Godfather Part 2?  Casablanca?  To Have or Have Not?  Bride of Frankenstein? Duck Soup?  Sherlock Jr.?

Obviously 100s of movies need tto be watched and compared before one makes such a declaration and is able to defend it with any sense of cinematic history.

However, Dark Knight is a very exciting visceral experience and someone who has not seen 10's of thousands of movies could certainly be on a movie high and make passionate declarations that it is a great film.

Enjoy more movies.. please.   Have fun doing it.   As you mature, substance will matter more but you'll still have room and find yourself enjoying movies like Dark Knight too.

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This thread reminds me of me when I was 14 and the original Star Wars movie came out in 1977.  I thought it was the best thing to come out since Wonder Bread in its genre and for a while everything else - including the original Star Trek - paled in comparison.

That having been said, even at the peak of the Star Wars phenomenon, I did have a wider-ranging love for movies and certainly knew better than to say that the film was the "best movie of all time."

Live Action Batmen....

In the 1943 serial Batman was played by Lewis Johnson and Robin by Douglas Croft.  I think it was a 12 Chapter serial....

In the slightly more entertaining but still very very low budget 1949 serial called Batman and Robin.    I believe it was a 15 chapter serial. Batman was played by Robert Lowry  and Robin by Johnny Duncan.  The costume didn't fit Lowry right but he was a better, tougher, meaner Batman than Johnson was in the first serial.

In the 1966 movie which cashed in on the popularity of the campy t.v. series, Adam West played the Bat Guy and Burt Ward the boy wonder.

Then  you have Michael Keaton twice, Val Kilmer, George Clooney and Christian Bale twice so far.

In the Animated Batmans  you have Kevin Conroy as the voice for most of the full length feature ones... and one with Rino Romano (Batman vs Dracula).

There are also fan films.. I've seen a couple of them including the one that had a name actor in it but I can't remember who it was.

ChrisJarmick said…

Live Action Batmen....

In the 1943 serial Batman was played by Lewis Johnson and Robin by Douglas Croft.  I think it was a 12 Chapter serial....

In the slightly more entertaining but still very very low budget 1949 serial called Batman and Robin.    I believe it was a 15 chapter serial. Batman was played by Robert Lowry  and Robin by Johnny Duncan.  The costume didn't fit Lowry right but he was a better, tougher, meaner Batman than Johnson was in the first serial.

In the 1966 movie which cashed in on the popularity of the campy t.v. series, Adam West played the Bat Guy and Burt Ward the boy wonder.

Then  you have Michael Keaton twice, Val Kilmer, George Clooney and Christian Bale twice so far.

In the Animated Batmans  you have Kevin Conroy as the voice for most of the full length feature ones... and one with Rino Romano (Batman vs Dracula).

There are also fan films.. I've seen a couple of them including the one that had a name actor in it but I can't remember who it was.

 

 

 

 

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Hi ChrisJarmick, Thanks for the info. I didn't know anything about the "Early Batmans" probably cause I wasn't born yet. And here I thought it started with Adam West and Burt Ward. See I learned something new today. I have enjoyed the animated series those are good. I read on Christian Bale IMB they are going to make a another one. Can't wait to find out.

The serials were re-released on DVD a couple of years ago and should be fairly easy to find... but don't expdect too much.. they were shown to kids one chapter at a time and have cliff hangers.. so you come back the next week to see what happened.  In the 30s and 40s  (before my time as well)  there was no television and a lot of people went to the movies on the weekends all day.  You go in the afternoon and you see previews, cartoon, a chapter in a serial, another cartoon, sometimes another chapter in a serial, a news reel (news of the day/week), a b feature movie--low budget, a film short  Three Stooges, Leon Errol, Edgar Kennedy, maybe another cartoon and preview and the main feature film.

I discovered the serials when I was a kid.  Condensed  SILENT versions were released on 8m.m. movies available to the Home market to watch on 8 m.m. home movie projectors.  There were the video tapes of their day....but rather expensive and you bought them , didn't rent them..   Castle Films ws the biggest distributors.

Later there were film societies in colleges that would show movies and sometimes shorts and serials.

Adults at night could do a 4 hour or so stint with a 60 to 70 minute b movie, short, cartoon, sometimes a serial, news reel and main feature.. usually under 100 minutes.

Expensive movie theaters were 25 cents but most were 10 to fifteen cents.

Thank You. Boy things really have changed since then. I couldn't imagine sitting in the theater all day. When I was little we use to go to a Pizza place. I can't remember the name and order pizza and watch Silent films on the screen while waiting for our food to come.That was pretty cool.Back then I guess you could be in the theater for that amount of time.They weren't crazy busy as we are today. lol.Just think we went from 25 cents a person to 8.00 a person its amazing how times have changed.

Up until the mid 80s there were still many second run movie theaters.  After about 5 or 6 weeks, the block buster sort of movies would move to the second run theaters.  Usually they would have double features.   So you'd see two very recent movies for a few bucks.    You also had Drive In Movies which went from teenage hangouts in the late 50s and early 1960s to family hang-outs in the late 60's and 70s.  You could take the whole family see two or three movies  etc.    People stood in lines for several hours to see Star Wars when it first came to the movies.  There were only a couple of multi-plexes back then, so you'd drive to the 1 theater in your area that would be playng a movie like Star WArs and you'd probably find out it was sold out and see the line stretching for several blocks for the next showing in 2 hours and a smaller one to wait in to see the showing after that!

I wouldn't say that the Dark Knight is the best movie ever and this is coming from a comic book guy as well. It is definitely one of the better comic book movies, though I do have a soft spot for 1978's Superman. But what it does show is the promising nature of making comic books into movies and doing it successfully. Here's hoping for more like Dark Knight and Iron Man because it is long overdue.

ChrisJarmick said…

Up until the mid 80s there were still many second run movie theaters.  After about 5 or 6 weeks, the block buster sort of movies would move to the second run theaters.  Usually they would have double features.   So you'd see two very recent movies for a few bucks.    You also had Drive In Movies which went from teenage hangouts in the late 50s and early 1960s to family hang-outs in the late 60's and 70s.  You could take the whole family see two or three movies  etc.    People stood in lines for several hours to see Star Wars when it first came to the movies.  There were only a couple of multi-plexes back then, so you'd drive to the 1 theater in your area that would be playng a movie like Star Wars and you'd probably find out it was sold out and see the line stretching for several blocks for the next showing in 2 hours and a smaller one to wait in to see the showing after that!

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I remember that the most screens multiple-showing theaters had in the 1970s were usually two; most theaters only had one screening room and this often resulted in those long, long lines for movies like Jaws, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and so forth.

The longest line I ever was a part of - briefly, thank goodness - was the one for Return of the Jedi on opening day, May 25, 1983.  The Dadeland Twin Theater had recently expanded and was by then The Dadeland Triple, and the line for the 4 PM showing was loooong....It stretched all around the parking lot, which was huge!

No it's not. Its kinda eerie watching it knowing Heath Ledger is dead but def.not the best movie EVER.

KaciOhio said…

No it's not. Its kinda eerie watching it knowing Heath Ledger is dead but def.not the best movie EVER.

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I didn't find Ledger's death to be a factor; it was sad that he died, of course, but to me his passing was not relevant when I viewed The Dark Knight.

Everyone has their own view of "the best movie ever".  I don't know that The Dark Knight is that movie, but it's sure high on the list.  My personal pick for that distinction is The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, AND I've seen all the classics, love them all.  I really believe we hold some of those old movies in too high esteem sometimes.  Something about the "good ole days", often romanticizes movies and moments above their worth.  Also, in many way, comparing today's movies is like comparing a Lexus to a Model T.  Because of changes in methodology and technology, they are really different animals.

MikeMaroon said…

Everyone has their own view of "the best movie ever".  I don't know that The Dark Knight is that movie, but it's sure high on the list.  My personal pick for that distinction is The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, AND I've seen all the classics, love them all.  I really believe we hold some of those old movies in too high esteem sometimes.  Something about the "good ole days", often romanticizes movies and moments above their worth.  Also, in many way, comparing today's movies is like comparing a Lexus to a Model T.  Because of changes in methodology and technology, they are really different animals.

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And, of course, there's also the changes in culture, society, and sense of realism.

I think many (notice I did not say all) of the folks who say the movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood are the best are thinking subjectively rather than objectively.  Whether it's nostalgia for an idealized "when we were young" past or because of other factors, I'm not sure, but when viewed objectively, many "classics" aren't as good now as they were then.