Introduction: In 2005, Christopher Nolan led the commercial reboot of the Batman franchise with the film Batman Begins, the film was widely acclaimed by critics and, by the sequel, generated, talk about a sequel. In the summer of 2008, after a large amount of publicity and viral marketing, the highly anticipated sequel was finally released. The film “The Dark Knight” grossed nearly $67,165,092 on its first day and broke countless box office records. Later the following year, the film won 2 Academy Awards and was nominated for 6 more. One of the awards won was “Best Supporting Actor,” which the late Heath Ledger received posthumously for his portrayal of “Joker.” Due to Ledger's untimely death, the film gained even more publicity and Heath's performance was spotlighted. Many people thought this might distract from what could be a great film and focus solely on Ledger's performance. The film was released and, although Ledger's performance was nothing short of astonishing, the spotlight and attention was not taken away from the film itself and the film went on to receive widespread critical acclaim, and quite deserved. In my opinion, an outstanding solo performance is not capable of distracting from a good film if it itself is creditworthy, the performance is simply a different aspect of the film. "Nevertheless, according to Gustin Wyatt (1994), sometimes a star's uniqueness functions as "excess," decoupled from plot or character development, as in the case of Jack Nicholson's offbeat turn as the Joker in Batman (1989) (Pam Cook: 2007, p.131) This statement is even more relevant with Heath Ledgers' performances Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008) were both released after the attacks. September terrorists... middle of paper ...... are revolutionizing a whole new genre of film, one that is rapidly becoming more and more popular "as cinematic technology has made it more and more popular." In addition to the introduction of the comic book world into movie theaters, comic books themselves began to provide a wider and richer range of material…from which films could be made” (Booker 2007 : Paul Benton, Lecture Notes). All arguments mentioned throughout this essay plus; the star performances, unique marketing, and special effects help make The Dark Knight a truly great film. Before the film's release, there were questions about whether the film could withstand the "increasing moral weight placed upon it." To date, the film has more than coped with this pressure and has become the focal point of many discussions and essays. it is because of the morals and ethics of the film that I wrote this essay.