Did You Know? The Dark Knight

Posted by on May 19th, 2010   Filed under: Did You Know?

Hey everyone, my name’s Matt and I’m a new writer here at Film Junk. This is a new column that I’m going to be starting where every once in a while I’ll give you a couple film facts that you probably never knew. Hopefully you’ll find them interesting and it will spark discussion. This edition of Did You Know will feature the movie The Dark Knight.

Fact #1: Remember in the movie those videos that the Joker sends to the GCN? The first one was about the fake Batman and the second one was where Mike Engel reads the Joker’s statement. Those were both directed by Heath Ledger. The first one Nolan supervised but for the second he gave Heath complete freedom.

Discussion: Who knew Heath could direct? It’s a shame he passed away so unexpectedly, perhaps in the future he could have tried his hand at directing a full feature length movie. Who knows where life would have taken him.

Fact #2: Heath’s nomination for the Joker was the fourth time in Oscar history that a movie based on a comic got a Best Supporting Actor nomination. Can you guess the other three?

Al Pacino in Dick Tracy

Paul Newman in Road To Perdition

William Hurt in A History of Violence

Discussion: Out of the four nominations who do you guys think was the best? I’m going to go with Heath for the Joker although I have seen all four performances and they are all great.

Fact #3: For the first four days of scheduled shooting Nolan didn’t roll the camera once. instead he treated the cast and crew to two movies a day resulting in eight movies. The eight movies were as follows:

Heat, Cat People, Citizen Kane, King Kong (the original), Batman Begins, Black Sunday, A Clockwork Orange and Stalag 17.

Discussion: A rather random batch of films wouldn’t you say? I can obviously see the point in showing them Batman Begins, but why waste four days of scheduled shooting showing the cast and crew the other films. What would be the reason to show them not only eight films, but these eight films in particular?

As always let us know in the comments.



  • Err, a bit more than two small facts would be nice. It’s more a foodnote than an actual article as is. But always nice to see new stuff tried out.

  • bard

    I did hear that he directed those short videos, and I agree that they were great. But only for what they were. You can’t really base someone’s directing talent off of one or two minute little videos. It is a shame that he died so young, he was great.

    I would say that Paul Newman is the best out of those four choices. I loved that movie, and it is my favorite film based off of a graphic novel and/or comic book.

    Nice first post, keep ‘em up.

  • Matt

    @Kasper, your absolutely right, let me throw in another right now and for next time I’ll make sure to add more.

  • HFD

    That’s interesting about the 8 films Nolan screened for the cast and crew. Most I can make sense of and see the link to Dark Knight because they contain character arcs, intrigue, a psychotic, city action scenes, atmosphere… but King Kong? I don’t see the connection there. Any thoughts?

  • Surprisingly awesome facts. I hope you can keep em up for a load of other movies.

    Maybe for future articles don’t put it in such a formulaic form and make it more of an article. Or just make a whole paragraph for each fact rather than fact, list, discussion.

    3rd fact is brill. I always find it fascinating what directors find as inspiration.

  • Daemon

    Agreed. I enjoy the idea of your article but if you posed it as more of an actual article as opposed to a list of bullet points I think it would help you better get your own opinions across.

    I never would have thought Dark Knight and Black Sunday would have been in the same article together but I’m certainly glad it is. Very interesting. Cheers

  • Matt

    Thanks for the feedback, I’ll keep it in mind for the next post.

  • james

    w000rd to #3, didint’ know that.

  • Great post, and I like this format without the opinion more of a did you know. Besides comments are always a good place for opinions.

  • Felipe

    Nice idea for an article, but I have a single complaint: is it absolutely essential to tell what the discussion is? I believe that it should follow the ideas of the readers. More space.

    Also if you think that watching movies is a waste of time, maybe you shouldn’t be writing for Film Junk…

  • Somnium

    Wow Felipe, A little harsh? I dig it what you wrote Matt, but maybe a better word would be “used” or “spent” instead of waste. I know where Felipe is coming from, only he seemed a bit angry. Dont let them get you down Matt, you’ll do good.

  • JonnyAshley

    Awesome facts! I don’t think there’s much to discuss here however. still, good post.

  • christopher reed

    Mario Bava’s black sunday or the frankenstiener one?

  • Matt

    Thanks for the feedback guys, I will take it all into consideration. I have a lot of experience with websites, I owned and ran my own website for two years so I know how important feedback is. All comments are read by the staff here so we are listening!

  • Primal

    Exactly what I was thinking christopher. I bet it’s the frankenheimer one because of the terrorist plot that TDK had. Nothing Bava-esque in TDK afaik.

  • Steve

    “Paul Newman in Road To Perdition

    William Hurt in A History of Violence”

    While you can certainly classify them as ‘comic book movies’, these two are more of the graphic novel ‘genre’. And I’m sure 90% of their audiences had no idea they were based as such. Indeed the filming and performances of both suggest a more ‘mature’ and dramatic source.

  • Felipe

    Matt, sorry if I sound angry, but I’m not angry at all. Like I said it is a very good idea for a regular article and I’m eager to read the oncoming material.

  • Ben

    @Steve

    There’s nothing inherent within comic books to suggest that they can’t be mature and dramatic. Not all comics are capes and spandex. Don’t confuse the medium with the message.