19. An Epic Crime Drama
Whereas Batman Begins was designed as an epic action/adventure film in the style of, say, the James Bond franchise, The Dark Knight was conceived as an epic crime drama, in the style of The Godfather or Michael Mann's Heat. Heat appears to have been
the central cinematic inspiration for the film: like Heat, The Dark Knight is ultimately as much a story about a
city as about a good guy/bad guy conflict; The Dark Knights cacophonous bank robbery opening can perhaps be seen as an allusion to the famous bank heist at the center of Heat. Certainly Nolan was charmed enough by Heat to cast William Fichtner, who played Manns smug businessman Roger Van Zandt, in a small cameo as the bank manager who comes face to face with the Joker. And its possible that Joker and Batmans interrogation room interview sitting across a table from each other owes something to the central scene of Heat, when Robert De Niros thief and Al Pacinos cop sit down and chat over a cup of coffee A lot of Dark Knight's crime movie aspirations also undoubtedly stem back to Christopher Nolan and David Goyer's fondness for Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Batman masterwork,
The Long Halloween; Nolan and Goyer stated in an introduction to the "Absolute" edition of that book that Long Halloween was their primary inspiration for both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, and the influence is especially apparent in the latter film. Both book and movie structuring the story around the tragic fall of Harvey Dent; both show Gotham transitioning from old time mobsters to a new breed of freakish criminals; and both focus on the triumvirate of Batman, Gordon and Denthell, even a beat where Gordon disguises himself as a SWAT driver feels like a nod to a similar moment in Long Halloween involving Batman in disguise.