Rewatchables Reference

• Harvey Dent: Josh Lucas, Liev Schreiber, Mark Ruffalo, Matt Damon were all associated with the role.
• The Joker: Christopher Nolan says he never considered anyone but Heath Ledger. Others rumored: Paul Bettany, Steve Carell, Robin Williams, Adrien Brody, and Ryan Phillippe (who was also down to the final three for Captain America).
• Bank Manager (William Fichtner's role) was offered to Dwight Yoakam, who couldn't do it.

• Chris: The Joker's fundraiser/party appearance – he controls the room, tells the second version of his scars story, and is absolutely magnetic.
• Jason: The entire chase scene through the underground transporting Harvey Dent – the 18-wheeler flipping end over end is the single best car flip in movie history.
• Sean: The Joker's first meeting with the mob bosses – the pencil trick, the grenades in the coat, 'What happened to your balls?'
• The bank robbery opening is maybe the best opening of a movie of the century – a knowing homage to Heat.

• Heath Ledger's performance – wearing clown makeup and doing mannered stuff, and it hasn't aged a day. The complete lack of vanity is crucial to the character.
• The action sequences – Nolan is capable of things most other filmmakers, especially in superhero movies, are not capable of.
• The fall of Harvey Dent – the Breaking Bad-style arc of a golden boy turning villain is something you don't see in every superhero movie.
• The death of Rachel Dawes – emotionally affecting, especially the twist that 'Batman' went to the wrong building.

• The ferry choice at the end – too on the nose, citizens choosing whether to blow up criminals.
• The Joker's plan – any scrutiny unravels it. 'They didn't know this was going to happen, so how could he know that was going to happen?'
• Gordon faking his own death – he didn't know where the shots would come from, so how could he plan it? Pure high-level poppycock.
• The sonar cell phone device – the definition of a deus ex machina. 'You're a detective. Beautiful.'
• The Coleman Reese subplot – an industrious Wayne Enterprises employee discovers the Batmobile plans that are apparently just filed away in the archives.
• The entire Lao subplot and the Hong Kong kidnapping – convoluted and feels like an excuse to film on location.

• Nolan purposely avoided giving the Joker an origin story, changing canonical chemical scarring to knife wounds.
• Michael Caine didn't think it would work and that it was impossible for Ledger to top Nicholson. He forgot his lines when he first worked with Ledger.
• $1 billion+ worldwide, 94% Rotten Tomatoes, 8 Oscar nominations, Ledger won posthumous Best Supporting Actor.
• The Dark Knight's Best Picture snub directly led the Academy to expand to up to 10 nominees.
• The novelization of 'The Dark Knight' Rises says the Joker is the only prisoner in Arkham Asylum.

• Anthony Michael Hall as Mike Engel, the TV interviewer – swole late-career Anthony Michael Hall never ceases to stop people in their tracks.
• Nestor Carbonell as Mayor Garcia.
• Chin Han as Lao – 'the definition of a heat check, every conversation he has is him going for it.'
• Ritchie Coster as The Chechen – very bad accent but committed performance.
• Michael Jai White as Gambol.

• Heath Ledger: Yes – this and 'Brokeback Mountain' are the two peaks. Arguably the most iconic movie performance of the 21st century. He's essentially ruined comic book villains for everyone who came after.
• Christian Bale: As a movie star yes, but American Psycho is probably his most interesting performance and The Fighter his most realized.
• Aaron Eckhart: Yes – his other filmography (In the Company of Men, Thank You for Smoking, Jeff Skiles in Sully) confirms this is the biggest stage he's had.
• Maggie Gyllenhaal: No – Secretary and The Honourable Woman are stronger showcases.
• Christopher Nolan: For cultural impact yes. Whether it's his best movie is debated – 'Dunkirk', 'Inception', and this are the top three.

• Nobody noticed that a cop at the funeral has a drastically scarred face and caked-on clown makeup on his neck?
• How could Gordon have planned to fake his own death when he didn't know how the assassination attempt would happen?
• Why couldn't Harvey's crimes be pinned on the Joker? They have a criminal mastermind in custody – blame him instead of 'Batman'.
• Lucius Fox has overseen cutting-edge weapons development for 40 years but draws the moral line at cell phone surveillance?
• Coleman Reese, a forensic accountant, just trips across the Batmobile plans filed away in the Wayne Enterprises archives.
• The entire movie could be 30 minutes shorter – it's a two-hour movie in a two-and-a-half-hour body.

Unanimously Heath Ledger – an amazing actor giving an amazing performance in a role that shouldn't work, that is basically stupid, and is larded with existential questions.