13 Things You Learn Rewatching The Dark Knight

12. The PG-13 Rating Is Pretty Generous

At the time of The Dark Knight's release, a lot was written about the movie's violent, grim tone and how much Christopher Nolan got away with under the restrictive PG-13 rating.

Whether or not you believe scuttlebutt that Warner Bros. threw some cash at the MPAA to pass the film at the family-friendly rating or not, watching the movie today, it's still pretty shocking how far Nolan was able to take things.

Though there's scarcely a speck of blood on screen, Nolan does a fantastic job implying brutal violence, best exemplified by the clever concealment of The Joker's pencil trick early on. His subsequent murder of gangster Gambol (Michael Jai White) sadly isn't quite as convincing, with awkward editing even making it somewhat unclear how he was killed.

The most surprising aspect to be accepted by the MPAA, however, was Two-Face's (Aaron Eckhart) grotesquely mutilated face. Though there's no blood visible, the sinewy detail of his facial injuries is really quite horrifying for a film children can freely watch, and it's not exactly like the movie shies away from showing off all that VFX magic.

More than anything, the film's general tone is intense enough that, with a few tweaks, The Dark Knight could've clearly ended up an R-rated movie. Sure, the final film doesn't have profanity, nudity or gore, but it wouldn't take much to transport the film into that adult realm.