7 Secrets Of The Dark Knight's Success

Whether you agree with it or not—and indeed, many think-piece authors took issue with this when the film’s follow up clearly evoked the Occupy movement’s imagery in its villains—a huge part of the success enjoyed by Nolan’s Bat-trilogy can be traced back to the overarching vision outlined by the series, epitomised within The Dark Knight.

As Bruce Wayne, our hero is a benevolent rich man providing jobs and infrastructure to his home city via his vast fortune. As Batman, he’s a vigilante force of justice who can skirt around the legal boundaries of actual policing by virtue of being a rich bloke in a cloak and as such not accountable to any external authority. In The Dark Knight, our hero faces a threat who tries to upend existing social systems and he must protect citizens from this menace. But does this justify the privacy invasion, property damage, assault, and assorted other crimes committed by the titular hero?

Where the Joker represents arguably justifiable anger and anarchy, Batman represents law and order ruling by force. Informed by Nolan's study of Fritz Lang's obscure The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, the film managed to explore surprisingly morally complex territory with a plot that provides the film with a central conflict deeper and more human than the average “alien tries to destroy earth” plotting of most superhero offerings.