The Dark Knight / Sazerac Rye

0:00 Robots radio presents. In 2008, director, Christopher Nolan and star Christian Bale gave the world, an eerily thrilling superhero movie that transcends the genre in 2019, we kick off season 2 with an absolute classic of awry. The movie is The Dark Knight. The whiskey is Sazerac rye and we'll review them both. This is the film and whiskey podcast. Welcome to the season two premiere of the film. And whiskey podcast the show, where each week, we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey. I'm Bob book, I'm Brad G.

0:53 And this week, we are looking at the 2008 film. The Dark Knight Brad. Welcome to season 2, man. It is so good to be back in the studio again. Have you enjoyed your time off since we recorded our season 1 finale? Oh my gosh, dude. I can't tell you the amount of Adventures I've been on. I've been in Germany and China and Cancun. It's just been epic. Well, I've always felt like this podcast was holding you back. So I'm glad you're finally living a fulfilling life in your off time. Well, now that we're making all this money off of the podcast, I have the extra income to, you know, go do realize my dreams. Absolutely. Well, hey man, we had to drag you back in at some point and we are back. Back for the beginning of season 2, talking about honestly, one of the Cornerstone films of our young lives. 2008's The Dark Knight and Brad. I don't think this is one of those movies where I'm going to even have to ask you, if you've seen it before, because I feel like if you're under a certain age, everyone in America saw this movie, this was a cultural phenomenon and it has become one of the defining films of a generation. Yeah.

1:58 In a lot of different ways, The Dark Knight really transformed. Of people's lives during that era as far as like their understanding of movies that you, that just because it's a superhero movie doesn't mean that it has to be us of a certain type. Yeah. Like I'm sure like I think back on the superhero movies before this and you even look at the 90s Batman movies and they were cheesy and Jack Nicholson is Hamming. It up. And you know, you have that era and then you have the newer are aware. The Spider-Man's were coming out with Tobey Maguire which fun fact. I actually really Like those Spider-Man. Oh, I do too, I do too even the first movie in this Trilogy, you know, the Dark Knight trilogy Batman Begins. It still had the classic Christopher Nolan, kind of twists and surprises but I would say it, followed the superhero. Genre more closely this movie took Cinema to a whole new level.

2:53 Yeah, this really did change the game when it came to superhero films and Brad. You're right. I mean, I think what we've seen over the years is an evolution in how filmmakers envisioned Superhero tails, you know I think back to like 1978 Superman the movie with Christopher Reeve. I think that's a phenomenal movie and you get to the late 1980s and you know superheroes had pretty much fallen out of fashion again until Tim Burton takes on Batman and I look back on Tim Burton's Batman. And I've actually never really been a fan of it but I find that people of a certain age people from a certain generation we're really transformed and changed by what that movie did and at the time that was considered a really kind of gritty dark take on it. Because Burton went for these sort of Gothic, expressionistic things in that film.

3:37 But when you get to the Dark Knight and I hate to use the word grounded, I hate to use the word gritty or realistic because we're going to use it. We're going to overuse it talking about this movie. But what Christopher Nolan did with the Dark Knight is he took, you know, the Batman mythology and he applied it to what is essentially a real-life crime tail. Like, this movie strikes, me more as almost like a crime move, but what you would call like a crime film, Like Michael Mann's heat or something like that. Then it does a superhero movie. Does that make sense? Yeah, it feels in a lot of ways like this could be an episode of The Wire. You know what I mean? Yeah, for sure. I remember as I was watching it this time, I guess I had forgotten how much they make Gotham feel like New York City.

4:23 Like there is no semblance of this being a superhero comic book movie like even compared to the Marvel movies, which I would say do a pretty good job of setting. Being superheroes in the real world. At least when they're on earth like compared to those even this doesn't feel like a superhero movie and granted. You can talk about how Batman doesn't technically have super powers. He's just really smart and really wealthy in the end. This feels like a real life crime drama. Yeah, it really does. And I think the movie has a lot going for it because it goes in that direction. And you know what, we see in the Years After the Dark Knight is that all sorts of different franchises tried the Dark Knight approach. Whether it be with In the superhero genre or whether it be something like, you know, James Bond which reboot rebooted a few years after this with Casino Royale, everyone tried to take the more realistic less heightened version of a story and apply it in a gritty way. And the Dark Knight is directly responsible for that. Yeah, I think what you saw there was that people were over the, the stylized version of superheroes that you had seen in a lot of ways, and they wanted that Gritty realistic type of movie and in the dark night, you really get that almost to Perfection.

5:41 Well, I don't think we should go any further at this point though without busting out our favorite segment on this show. Brad explains the part of the show, where Brad tells us exactly what this movie was about. So Brad, can you succinctly some up for us? The film. The Dark Knight. Hey, you want to see a magic trick? What was that your Joker? What? What's that smell? That was more of my like it was a poor. Poor attempt at the Joker. All right. Cool. You're off to a good start. But long story short, there's this dude named Bruce Wayne and he's also Batman and Batman is cleaning up the city of Gotham, which used to be really, really crappy and crime-ridden and he's doing such a good job of it that he's about to shut down like three different mobs.

6:33 And all their rackets. And so they decide to release this madman named The Joker on to the city of Gotham in order to get rid of the Batman. And the Joker comes up with this plan, where he's going to start murdering citizens of Gotham day by day until the Batman reveals himself, and who he is. And so, the rest of the movie is this, like we said earlier, it's a crime drama. They're trying to figure out who the Joker is. They're trying to figure out what his motivations are. Why is he doing the things that he is doing? And through that? You get a fantastic Adventure that's just gripping from the very opening scene. Well, hey, that was actually a really good summation Brad. Nice job sir, boom.

7:22 So the Dark Knight comes out in 2008 directed by Christopher Nolan. We've already touched on this, Nolan has become one of Hollywood's biggest directors. I mean so much so that a he kind of gets his way with whatever he wants. Now he can make Movie about anything and it's just financed. And The Dark Knight is a huge piece in that puzzle because before he came onto the Batman series, Christopher Nolan was a really critically regarded director, who was doing some interesting things. He really dealt with movies that had a lot to do with the human psyche, and some Dark Twisted stuff in that his most famous movie before. This was a Memento, made Memento, he made a remake of a Swedish movie called insomnia. And then Warner Brothers, picks him up, to make Batman Begins.

8:03 After Batman Begins, he makes the prestige which is a lot of people's favorite Christopher Nolan movie and he follows it up with this sequel. The Dark Knight. So Brad. How familiar are you with Christopher? Nolan's sort of filmography, did you, have you seen a lot of his earlier films before the dark know? Honestly, I've seen a lot of Christopher Nolan from Batman Begins on. I don't know if I've ever seen anything from before that. Like, I've seen Inception and The Prestige and all three of the Batman and you know, a few of his other new Her films. But no, I don't think I've ever seen Memento or insomnia. One of the things that I love that Christopher Nolan does kind of has a signature. Now, is that the climax of his movies? He intercuts between two or three story lines, back and forth to build suspense, and you get that again in this movie, at the end of the film, you're watching, you know, these two fairies full of people, one full of convicts, one full of citizens that the Joker has rigged with explosives, and he's given each very icky to blow up the other fairy Joker's trying to introduce a new Turkey into Gotham and prove that people are not as principled as Batman would like to believe and intercut with that, you've also got what's going on with Batman. Try to find the Joker in this skyscraper. That's under construction.

9:17 And you see this pattern happening again and again, in Christopher Nolan's movies, it's especially prevalent in Inception, where you essentially have four different storylines going on at the same time and they all come to a head. And I think it's just this really interesting pattern. You see, and I don't recall if If that actually happens in Batman Begins I think that the Dark Knight might be the first time we see Christopher Nolan employ this like signature cutting technique that he does. Yeah, like you said, Inception is probably where it's at its best where you have all those stories being interwoven and he's just flashing back and forth between the two of them so quickly but you're right. I think this might be the first time that he did that, and that like it really is a phenomenal way to keep people on the edge of their seats. So no one also co-wrote this movie. His brother Jonathan, which he tends to do on most of his films, but aside from his excellent Direction and his excellent script.

10:11 What really blows me away about this movie is the cast. I mean, just from top to bottom. The people you find in this movie starting at the top with Christian Bale is bad man. Heath Ledger as the Joker Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Maggie, Gyllenhaal and Aaron Eckhart. And those are just the main players, you know, and I didn't even mention Michael Caine as Alfred. So you know, front from top to bottom. This cast is just absolutely Stacked. Yeah, the further you get along in this movie, you like it almost becomes normal to just see, great actors giving out great performances. Honestly, when I was watching this movie, I just thought to myself halfway through, I'm like, man. Yes, you know, we're going to talk about and people always talk about Heath Ledger as the Joker but the rest of this cast turns in some wonderful performances.

10:57 Well that leads us into our next topic here. Brad at which is the cast and I guess I want to ask you. Who do you want Start with because we, I think we should just go through the cast and give our thoughts on each person. Yeah, let's let's start small and and big that's not good. Okay. So let's start with Aaron, Eckhart as Two-Face. So Aaron Eckhart plays a character, you know, if you're big into comic books, as I was not growing up, then, you know, the backstory of the character to face you know his real name is Harvey Dent in this film. He is the district attorney of Gotham, who is considered to be a time and time again they call him Gotham's. White Knight, he is the hero that Gotham needs, you know to Rally behind.

11:38 He has this image of this squeaky clean public servant who is crusading for justice and by the end of the film, The Joker's sort of maneuvering and his machinations and all that has led Harvey Dent to be horribly disfigured. He's lost the love of his life and he becomes the villain to face to show you that it's full of people. Pretty to believe in good until their Spirit breaks, completely until they get a good. Look at the real Harvey Dent and all the heroic things. He's done.

12:18 You didn't think I'd risk losing the battle for Gotham soul in a fistfight with you. You need an Ace in the Hole. Mine's Harvey. What did you do? I took Gotham's White Knight and I brought him down to our level it wasn't hard see Madness. As you know is like gravity. All it takes is a little push. So yeah. Brad what do you think about Eckhart in this movie? Honestly if you put Christian Bale and Heath Ledger is the main two performances and then you took all the other actors.

13:03 You named as all like supporting actors. I might say that Aaron Eckhart has the best supporting performance out of anybody in this film. Oh, that's really interesting to me. And this, I'm actually really happy that we're going to have something to disagree on because I think we both love this movie, but I kind of find Aaron eckhart's performance. I don't know if I would call it the worst necessarily, but I think it's the, it's probably the cam piaced of all of them. Like, it, really? Yeah, to me, it's the one that I think would fit in a regular superhero. Movie more than Other performance. It's the least grounded. I think you know, he definitely choose the scenery his CGI face definitely helps with that, but he seems a little bit broad. He seems a little bit over-the-top for me and it might just be because I don't think Eckhart is like that great of an actor to begin with and he's up against these sort of like Titans of acting.

13:52 But yeah, for me, I liked what he did. I didn't think he was bad necessarily, but if I had to put my finger on one person in this cast, that I think I could have may be swapped out for someone else. I think for me will be Eckhart. Wow, that actually surprises me. And for people listening that might not know what campy means. Define, a campy performance. Oh gosh. That's that's a little bit hard to do. You know when I think of of camp like a campy movie, I think of like Rocky Horror Picture Show, I think of like a tongue-in-cheek, almost like winking at the camera and eckhart's not going that far overboard where he's like, you know, staring down the barrel of the camera. But I do think that Eckhart in this Movie and Jeff Bridges in Iron Man are like, Cut From the Same Cloth.

14:37 It's a little bit more over the top than I think this movie asks for. So he's not pulling a Walter Huston and winking at the camera. Literally he's not going that far. Yeah, yeah that's interesting to me. I did not think he was over the top and partially because you know, like we talked about earlier, this movie really comes across like a crime drama. And I'm so used to shows like the wire or NCIS or Are you know, other types of Crime TV shows having characters that act like this that are you know, in pursuit of justice and I'll never demand anything but the best for my people but I'll even Devan demand better for myself. And yeah, I've never stopped working like that.

15:19 Type of character is so ingrained in the crime drama, genre that to me, Aaron Eckhart was like perfect for that role. I thought he performed very admirably, you know, I think it's actually a really good point because he really does remind Made me almost less of like a movie style of acting and more of like a I'm on Law and Order type acting. Yeah. And and in a lot of ways, I do think you're right. It really works for the character because of what Nolan does with the character. He takes this, like you know, this Lennie Briscoe type character that we're all used to seeing and he turns it on his head when he becomes a villain, right? And I think that the reason he shows so much Zeal and enthusiasm at the start of the movie, Is to emphasize how far he falls when he's ready to kill Gordon son at the end of the movie. Yeah.

16:11 And that's a scene that I want to get to eventually because for me that's one of the best scenes in the whole film. But because you mentioned his name, I think maybe we should segue into some of the other people in the cast. And for me, the best supporting performer in this whole film is Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon and it's because, you know, Gary Oldman has now won an Oscar, he was a guy that was an unsung hero in Hollywood for years and years. We've seen him in in so many different kinds of roles. Whether it was in, you know, the professional or as Sirius Black in Harry Potter and he really under plays things here. We've seen him in enough roles where he's screaming and a lunatic and things like that. For me old man, just knocks it out of the park because he I think he understands that he's in a movie where there's a man dressed up in a cape like a bat standing next to him and you know in the wrong hands with the wrong actors, this whole scenario could be ridiculous and Gary Oldman really just kind of grounds everything.

17:06 And in a lot of ways, I feel like we're in his shoes, you know, he's not a superhero. He's not a super villain. He's just a guy that's in over his head and really trying to help in any way that he can. And so, for me, he was kind of like my into the movie as an audience member. Yeah. And a lot of ways, if you want to picture yourself as somebody in this film, he's the easiest person to stand in for in general the average American citizen wants to do a good job for their Over hood for their, you know, community and they want to keep people safe. They want to help out and and Gary Oldman does that perfectly in this movie. And I would agree with you that if it wasn't Aaron. Eckhart for me, Gary Oldman is very close for me as his performance was so, so well done. All right.

17:52 What did you think about Maggie Gyllenhaal in the role of Rachel? Now, in the first film Batman Begins, this character was played by Katie Holmes. She was replaced for this film with Maggie Gyllenhaal. I think that was the Right choice because I think Maggie Gyllenhaal is just a way better actor than Katie Holmes but for the amount of time that we had her on screen. What did you think of Maggie Gyllenhaal? I thought she was okay. Okay, I wasn't Blown Away by her performance. There's a few lines that were delivered and just like a way over dramatic fashion that I wasn't a huge fan of. Yeah. But I mean overall like she's she's pretty good. I'd probably give her like a bee. - I don't really think she had that much to work with here either. You know, she heard character is probably the most under written, which is really sad. Add because she's one of only a few characters that carried over from the first movie and I guess we'll get into what happens to her here.

18:39 But one of the big twists of this film is that she's killed halfway through the film by The Joker. And the first time I saw this movie, I mean, obviously, that was not something I was expecting and it really is such an effective kill because after that point you have no idea who's safe and who's not. And I think that Maggie Gyllenhaal's last scene, you know, where she's tied up in this abandoned sort of way. House surrounded by these oil drums and she's talking through a phone that's been rigged to Harvey Dent her boyfriend. I think that scene is so powerful and she really plays it well and because of how committed she is I think that scene has even more of an emotional impact. Yeah. You know what you're right. I don't know if I've been giving her enough credit for that final scene because I will agree.

19:23 That's probably one of the most powerful scenes of the movie that really gives the film The Emotional weight. It needs for the final fight between Batman and Joker. So, okay, we've gone through three of our supporting characters. I guess the other two that we should at least briefly mention would be Michael. Caine as Alfred, and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox. So let's talk about Morgan Freeman first. Because if I'm being 100% honest here, you know, we've just watched Morgan Freeman a few weeks back in the Shawshank Redemption, which is probably my favorite Morgan Freeman performance. This is another character for me that I think is under written and in a lot of ways, I kind of wonder why. Morgan Freeman needed to be in this movie. He's great because he's always great. But this character has very little bearing on what happens in the film.

20:11 And it seemed like it could have been played by like, literally anybody and it wouldn't have really made the movie, any better or worse. Yeah, I mean, when you think about it, like Simon Pegg as Benji in the Mission Impossible movies is great, like Simon Pegg is a supporting actor, you know? Yes he has a few movies where he's the lead but in general, he's not going to be Tom Cruise. You know, as Ethan Hunt, he's going to be Simon Pegg as Benji. The support guy who gives him Cool Tech stuff, right? And so in my mind, I'm like, do you really want to put Morgan Freeman as the Support Tech guy? You know, the Q to the James Bond, right? It just feels weird to me. Also a Morgan, Freeman's a great actor, but I'm still not 100% convinced that he knows how to like turn on a computer virtually have him to have him as like your Tech genius. I'm like, hmm.

21:03 Not 100% bought into this. Yeah. But at the same time I'm like, I guess if you're able to convince an actor of that caliber and you know, just weight and gravity that Morgan Freeman has to play a tech guy. That's just a supporting actor, like go for it. I guess. Absolutely, well, that takes us to the last of our supporting characters, which would be Michael Caine as Alfred and honestly, there's not enough great things. I can say about Michael Caine as Alfred. It's a role that in a lot of ways, I feel like he was born to play. To play. When you get to the third film, in this franchise, The Dark Knight Rises, they really finally, give Alfred some emotional payoff. And Michael, Caine has probably the best scenes in that whole film. I don't think they give him quite as much to do here, but he still feels very vital to everything that's happening. And he really does provide a lot of the underlying philosophy of what you see on the screen.

21:56 His story about, you know, the the Bandit the jewel thief in Burma, you know, is a microcosm for what Batman is. Spear Ian seeing and Alfred really isn't a lot of ways, the heart and soul of this movie, a long time ago, I was in Burma my friends and I were working for the local government that were trying to buy the Loyalty of tribal leaders by bribing them with precious stones. But their Caravans have been raided in a forest not for Franken by banding. So we went looking for the stunts. But in six months we never met anyone who traded with him. One day, I saw a child playing the Ruby sighs the Tangerine, the bandits have been throwing them away so I still bought because he thought it was good sport because some men aren't looking for anything, logical like money.

22:51 They can't be bought bullied reasoned or negotiated with some men. Men just want to watch the world burn, you know, you just thought about what's actually his story about the jewel thief and and in Burma is a serious version of Christopher Walken and the gold watch. Oh man, why should I want to see The Dark Night with Christopher Walken as Alfred? That's how pretty. So what did you think of Michael Caine in the movie? I just want to know. Is there anybody else in Hollywood? That you would rather Have is your like real life Grandpa than Michael Caine. No, absolutely not like he is hands-down perfect.

23:33 And like you said, the role of Alfred is absolutely perfect. For Michael, Caine, he embodies that role so perfectly that I don't even think of him. As Michael Caine, like half the time when I see him in real life, I'm like, oh that's Alfred like right, he's Batman's butler and in a lot of ways. Like that's okay. Michael Caine has given us so many different phenomenal. Romances throughout the years but this performance is Alfred it, it really brings Humanity to Batman because without Alfred in this movie, all you have is a rich spoiled billionaire who thinks that he can be a vigilante but because of Alfred, you get the humanity and and it would help if you've seen Batman Begins because I think, I think Michael Caine gives a phenomenal performance in that movie as well, you know, to kind of ground Bruce Wayne and his childhood. But No man.

24:27 He brings so much Humanity to Batman's character that you desperately need and that leaves us with, you know, the to lead performance as in the movie, which we would call Christian Bale, as Batman and Heath Ledger as the Joker, you know, honestly, I don't really know how much we need to talk about Christian Bale's Batman. People have gone back and forth on it. The voice is weird. The voice is Gravely. I get it. I still think Christian Bale's phenomenal in this movie, but at the end of the day, we all know, this is Heath, Ledger's film. And when I watched it this time, And Brad, I don't know if you've seen the movie, but a lot of people have I was really struck by the parallels to The Silence of the Lambs and how they deal with the character of Hannibal Lecter in that movie, this movie has that same sort of like foreboding sense of dread throughout. I really didn't know what the Joker was going to do next and I think Nolan was really praying on our fears of terrorist attacks with the joker but it reminded me of how afraid I was all the time about Hannibal Lecter when I was watching The Silence of the Lambs.

25:26 Hams and in the same way, you know, Hannibal lecter's only on screen for like 20 minutes in that movie and Heath, Ledger's probably only on screen for about 20-25 minutes in the Dark Knight, but his presence is in every single scene and I think for me that's the mark of a just a true classic performance because you're thinking about the Joker at every turn. Yeah, you're never quite sure when he's going to pop up next and they do a great job in this movie from the very beginning of slow. Slowly introducing hints of the Joker into the movie. You know the judge is at the, at the hearing the opening, hearing for all the criminals that they booked with this sting and she's flipping through her files and there's a joker playing card in the fire.

26:11 You know what I mean? And so from the very start, you get these little hints and images of like, who the Joker is and what he's going to do, the opening scene of the movie is so spectacular. I'm surprised we haven't talked about it yet because honestly this might be one of the best opening. Of any movie ever. Oh, it's such a great opening sequence. And again, you know, I talked a little bit about how it reminded me of Michael Mann's movie Heat, it's set up as this really gritty on the street, Heist crime movie and it never really Strays from that path. It's not like they just hacked a heist on to the beginning of this film. Like, that's the vibe that Nolan wants you to have throughout the movie and that opening, it sets up everything you need to know about crime in Gotham about who the Joker is about.

26:56 How little regard for human life, he has and and kind of what his Twisted mentality looks like in practice. Yeah. And the cool thing is from the very start, you kind of get this picture of the Joker that he's always in control. Yep. That he always knows everything that's happening and that, you know, in a lot of ways. And and the thing I love about this is that the comic book nerd in me that grew up in the 90s watching, you know, the classic Batman cartoon. The Joker is a character who puts on this facade, Of carelessness and chaos, and Anarchy and he promotes a philosophy of Anarchy. But in reality, he is one of the most controlling person villains that you can have knows exactly how he wants things to go. He knows exactly what buttons to push to get people to do the things that he wants them to do.

27:46 He's completely meticulous in the way he plans, everything out and that's one of the things I love about Nolan script is that it allows the Joker to contradict him. Self knowing that it's not a plot hole but it actually increases the sort of Mystique behind the Joker. You know, one of the best things about his character in this movie, is that at two different points in the movie, he tells two different stories about his origin, about how he got his scars and they're completely different stories. And the signal to the audience is, wow, these are both probably dies, but he knows exactly, which story to tell in which situation, you know, the one about having a beautiful wife is the one that he tells to Harvey Dent's girlfriend, he knows how to get. Get under people's skin.

28:28 So I had a wife. Beautiful, I thank you. Who tells me? I worry too much hotels me. I own a smile more he'll Gamble's and gets in deep the Sharks one day they carve her face. We have no life. A surgeries can't take it. I just want to see her smile. Again, I just want her to know that. I don't care about the scars. So I stick a razor in my mouth and do this. Myself and you know what? She can't stand the sight of me and it just makes him an even more.

29:14 Sort of skin crawling. Lee creepy villain. Yeah that I think that's probably the best description of Heath. Ledger's Joker is skin. Crawling Lee creepy? I mean he just gets underneath you know your soul and just resides there and he just pushes all the buttons of gross - and fear. Here and you know, the video he releases where he has the fake Batman and he's like interviewing him in a meat locker. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I remember when I was like I don't know I would have been 17 or 18 watching this movie for the very first time in theaters. Like I just remember my skin. Just just pitching with how like with how fear-inducing that little video was well and I think that gets to a really good point Brad and we'll touch on this after the break but I really struggle a lot. With the violence in this movie.

30:06 This is a PG-13 movie, that many people even today, would argue should have been rated R. And I think the fact that the violence is generally, bloodless still shouldn't take away from the fact that the violence in this film is different than the violence. You see in a Marvel movie, you know, in those movies of people shooting lasers at each other and things like that, and yes, people die. But the violence in this movie is so brutal. And so dark, and it just leaves in a lot of ways. It leaves me wondering like Like how did a twelve-year-old get in to see this movie in 2008? You know what I mean? Yeah. I look at this kind of movie and I think that the violence is brutally psychological and that's what makes it so scary is that you don't necessarily need lots of blood. But like when he slams that dudes head down onto the pencil, the pencil makes it disappear like that is just absolutely terrifying.

31:00 Yeah like and it but the thing is at the end of the day it's effective because A word that I never hear people use with this movie is Scary, but if I'm being honest, this was a scary movie for me because the Joker is such a well drawn out character and he's so unpredictable that. By the time, we got to the third Act of this film. I was genuinely afraid of what was going to happen next. And I said this earlier but I think Christopher Nolan was really praying on our fears as an American audience in the wake of 9/11 and if we're being honest about the Joker and he's called this in Film. He's a terrorist, he's committing acts of Terror and so we don't know what's going to happen. Is he going to blow up these Bridges and tunnels like he's, you know, promising to from the very beginning of the film, we see people getting shot and killed in which is something we don't typically see in superhero movies and like you said The Pencil Trick there's just so many things that kind of undermine our expectations of what we're going to see in a superhero movie. That by the time, Rachel is blown up in a building. And then you see in the in the police department, when the Joker has Early.

32:05 Sown an explosive device into a man's chest. That reminded me of a movie like David Fincher's, seven. Like this was really, really dark brutal stuff that you can would not see in a PG-13 movie and I still don't know how I feel about it being rated PG-13, but I can say that the violence was effective 100%. It was so effective in communicating. The fear that gripped Gotham City over the The emergence of the Joker. Yeah, so there's more things I want to talk about with the Joker and his plot to, you know, destroy Batman and so on and so forth. But in the end, I think we need to drink some whiskey. To continue talking about this movie. Bob, why don't we get into this Sazerac Rye? Alright, so today we are checking out Sazerac Rye. This is also known in the industry as babies as Sazerac rise, really historic name.

33:05 If you ever heard of the cocktail a Sazerac, that's where this is, supposedly gets its name from Sazerac is currently being produced by Buffalo Trace. It's called babies as because this is the six-year version. Buffalo Trace. Every year releases a collection called their antique collection, which is five different kinds of whiskey that will retail for hundreds and hundreds of dollars and there is a Sazerac. That collection, that's 18, years old. But this is called baby-sized. People love to pick it up as an alternative to the really expensive, kind it flies off shelves, in the state of Ohio, it only cost $25 but you will be lucky to find it anywhere. And in many states you're going to have to pay double that price. At least to get your hands on a bottle of babies as Brad if you ever heard of this brand before. Yeah, I have heard a Sazerac cry and I'm actually really excited to try this because I, you know, I've heard the legend of how fast it flies off shelves.

33:56 Elves. So I'm excited. We got our hands on some. Yeah me too. This was actually donated by one of the professors at the University. I work with so dr. Riemer thank you very much for this bottle of Sazerac Rye. Brad we've poured it out. What do you think of the nose on this bad boy? Honestly, it has a really Pleasant knows. There's nothing offensive about it. You get that little hint to Rye, it's not crazy strong. I'd be curious to hear the mash bill on this because I don't feel like it's a very high R I know and it's 90 proof. I think we should say that. You know, Brad used the word inoffensive to describe the nose. I think that's a good word. I also think I would probably call it like unremarkable. There's nothing on this that really stands out to me as unique. It just kind of smells like a standard Rye. What I am picking up though is that it has a lot of bourbon sort of character to it, which I think is what you're getting at Brad.

34:47 It doesn't seem like a really high why Mash bill. There's a lot of oak on this and then I'm getting some of that classic bourbon vanilla and then kind of on the back end of, you know, inhaling it. You get that pepper and spice that you get both from Bourbon. And from Rye, it has a really spicy smell to me. But other than that, I don't know that it really stands out. Yeah, I'm gonna give it a seven on the nose. Its pleasant. It's nice. It doesn't it doesn't hit you too hard. I like it. Yeah. I'm gonna give it a seven as well. So why don't we go ahead and give it a sip? Yeah. That's not bad. It's a little bit watery. Yeah, it has the flavors you're looking for but they're not like crazy strong. So there wasn't really much going on here like on the front of my tongue on the front of my palate. The, when I first sipped it, you're right, it's very watery, it's pretty thin.

35:41 There's not much going on in the taste and in fact, the only things I really picked up where those kind of like saltier saline notes. I was kind of bummed out by the fact that it tasted like that. And then I went to swallow it and right there on the end of the East into the Finish is where you really get a lot of those spicy peppery notes that you picked up on the nose. So, this is, this is a hard one for me. I think, I like the Finish more than I like the taste. And I only give the the taste about a five. I was about to say, I'm just going to go ahead and score, the tastes and finish together. Uh-huh. I would probably give it a 5 on taste and a 6 on finish. Yeah, I think I would do a five and a seven. So, so far, we're pretty much spot on each other's estimate here, in what we think.

36:23 Of this rye bread. What would you give the overall balance? I'll give it a six and a half. I think that the nose gives me more than the taste and the Finish does. But overall it's pretty well-balanced. I mean the the term inoffensive stands all the way through. I mean even now a few seconds after having drank it, it's still sitting on my palette. It's a nice pleasant taste. But it's nothing strong. Yeah. The Finish lingers and it's a really robust finish, but yeah, it's unreal. Kabul and I'm kind of bummed because I've heard so much about how quickly this flies off shelves. It's not a bad ride by any stretch of the imagination and I would be happy to have it on my shelf, but certainly not at, you know, anything more than retail. So, for overall balance, I think I'm just going to go ahead and give it a 7.

37:10 All right? So that brings us out to our final category, which is value. Now we've said in the state of Ohio, this is 25 bucks. But Brad, what do you think about it? Yeah, honestly $25 is a good value. You for a whiskey like this, it's a good Pleasant whiskey. I could see people who want to introduce their friends to a rye whiskey, giving them something like this, we talked about Bulleit Rye, a few weeks or maybe a month or two ago. And I would probably put this in a similar category you know bullet probably costs about twenty two twenty, three dollars. So a few dollars cheaper. But it's a good introductory Rye, it's not going to hit you crazy hard. I'm going to go ahead and give it a seven for the value.

37:51 I'm also going to give it a Seven. Because I think that most of the people listening to this podcast are not going to be able to get this bottle for $25. And so, my recommendation would be if it's any more than retail. You don't need to buy it but the fact is for a lot of you guys, that's not an option. So I do think it's worth trying, you know, if you go to a bar and they have it on the menu, I would recommend tasting it when it comes to buying a bottle, it's really going to be dependent on where you live in the United States and what the availability is. So I'm just going to stick at a seven and yeah, I think that's a fair score and that brings me out for my total to a 31.5 and that brings me out to a 33. So for our final scores at brings us out to a what would that be thirty?

38:37 Two point two five or a 64 and a half out of 100. Yeah which I think is a really fair score. I think so too. This was a good Rye and I'm really starting to realize the variety of rye whiskey that there is. You know I was a guy that From the beginning of this podcast said, I don't really like Rye that much, but I'm finding more and more. That it really just depends on that Mash bill. It depends on the age and it just depends on your palate. And so, this is one that I would probably actually choose this over our Bulleit Rye, that we tried, because it's a little less harsh and I would recommend it. Yeah, I would recommend it to and I would agree. Bulleit Rye is a little bit stronger with its Rai flavor. Whereas this one is really smooth.

39:18 I think that might be the defining word. I'm going to use is smooth. It's a nice smooth ride. Why? So yeah, I would definitely recommend Brad. What do you say? We keep sipping on this as we get into the back half of our show and finish talking about the film, The Dark Knight. So that was Sazerac Rye Brad and I both recommended not a terrible whiskey, not a great whiskey but you know, definitely something that if you're going to spend $25 can be on yourself. Yeah, it's a smooth easy sipper so I would definitely recommend it well for season two guys we wanted to do something new and add a couple different segments into the podcast.

40:01 And the first one that we wanted to try out is something that we're going to call. Hot takes hot takes coming at you from filmin whiskey. One of our favorite podcast that we like to listen to Who is the insanely popular show? How did this get made, where they review, really, really bad movies. And on that podcast, they have a segment that they call second opinions where they find Five Star reviews. That people gave to these terrible, terrible movies. And so we thought, why not flip that concept on its head and so what we did is we're taking these Classic Movies on film and whiskey, but we're going to places like IMDb and Amazon and we're finding one star reviews that people gave to these movies. And boy. Oh boy, Brad, did I I find some really, really quality one star reviews.

40:44 Yeah, I'm really excited for this segment. I think it might be the best addition to the film and whiskey podcast. Well, let's get into it because I want to hear what you think of these are first hot. Take comes from an IMDb user known as Tilly. Go mess 92 and it's titled. A disgrace of a movie I just saw it. This is the most horrible movie. I have ever seen, please don't waste your time. The story makes no sense. The characters are stiff like Frozen cucumbers, the purpose and motivations are completely ridiculous. This is a disgrace of a movie. It's as if the director wanted to create the anti Batman, oh my God. Oh, my Buddha wasted life, one star. Oh, My Buddha, huh.

41:32 I just love that that he was covering all his bases. Like, this movie would have offended him in any religion. Yeah, for sure. I mean, who's to say what religion would actually accept this disgrace of a movie? Alright, our second hot take is coming to us from manaan Kumar 1809 1996. His review is titled. Okay, too slow should have shot some good daylight scenes acting was good. One star. Wait, did he actually write the words? One star. No, I've just his game just concluding with the fact that he gave it one star after saying acting was good. One star.

42:12 Yeah, I feel like that take was just kind of like somebody scribbled notes down while they were watching the movie mellow acting seems good, but overall once done star, all right, we're moving over to Amazon for our third hot. Take, this is from Tortuga, the lows. And it's titled violence with no plot. There is nothing. Enticing, thrilling or challenging about this plot. It is all about the violence. The explosions and more violence. Please entertain my human mind. I'm inquisitive. Not just my animal mind with shiny lights and sounds. Give me something to think. To ponder, to desire to look up to this movie is all a bunch of modern smoke and mirrors.

42:59 That treats me like an idiot, monkey. I'm sorry, I wasted two hours on it once. Star one star. Are you sure that Tommy was so didn't write that review? I'm pretty sure that if you read that in Tommy was those voice, its eleven times better do not appeal to my animal mind, appeal to my human mind. You're tearing me apart Batman. Yeah, I think that Tommy was so has a role in this movie Somewhere. Actually, he did a video on swear. He did his audition for The Joker if you ever seen it. No, I need to see though. As soon as we're done recording, you got to go to YouTube and look up. Tommy was those joker? I'm on it.

43:41 All right. Our final hot take comes from Radio GB. And this review goes like this. Not enough, nudity one star. That's the whole review. That's the entire review. Yeah, that's it. Well, we all know what kind of movies he watches, right? Absolutely. All right, so, that has been hot takes. Let's get back into talking about the Dark Night Brad. Yeah. I think we need to talk about how Aaron. Eckhart was a frozen cucumber, but not a naked Frozen, cucumber. No. Well, clothed, it would have been so much better if you'd been a nude Frozen cucumber. Oh man, that's brilliant.

44:22 And it actually, honestly, you bringing those up, makes me feel better about the frustrations that I have with this movie because it helps me understand that I'm a normal human being that can appreciate a movie for what it is. But also critique it on like a normal intellectual level. Like, I'm not a movie critic ready? I'm out. I'm not on some Roger Ebert level. I'm just an average Joe that can give an honest critique of a movie. Well, and that's what we appreciate about you man. And so I do want to get back. Talking about this and I'm really interested to hear you said that you do have some nitpicks with it. So what sort of things stuck out to you on this viewing Brad that you had a problem with yeah, honestly, like the cool thing about the Joker is how meticulous and well-planned he is but there is something about his final like big climactic fight scene that just, I don't know, it just didn't hit the right notes for me.

45:16 I really struggled with him hiding in this construction Tower while he set to face. Ferries to blow up and this might not be fair of me, but I think one of the reasons I didn't like it is because as I was watching it, I was thinking to myself. I'm like, man, we're at the climax of the movie and there's a ferry involved, and there has to be a choice about who's going to live or die. And man, I feel like I've seen this before. Oh, wait. I have seen it before from 2002 Spider-Man. Like, do you think I'm crazy for seeing like analogies between Movie in this and I know they're not the exact same situation, but I really struggle because I was like, man, this is like a very, very similar situation as to another superhero movie. I just saw six years ago, I understand where you're getting that from.

46:02 I obviously wasn't thinking about it and I don't think it's a bad comparison, but I do think that what's going on in the Dark Knight is a little more complicated than that because what the Joker's doing is he's not giving Batman. A decision of who to save, you know, the way that the Green Goblin is doing in Spider-Man What? I really love about that scene is that the Joker has Batman pinned and he's convinced that people are like him and people will give in to their darker side. When the chips are down and he is going to make Batman watch other people decide each other's fate and basically say you are powerless in the situation. Yes. And it shows that what the Joker's doing is, he's trying to crush Batman's spirit. And what I love about that is, you know, he tells Batman I don't ever want to kill you.

46:51 You because you're too much fun for me to be around. He'd rather win in the sort of emotional mental, psychological way of crushing, Batman's belief in humanity, and I think that that's what I love about it is that the stakes are so high. And yet so small at the same time because Batman is Gotham's conscience. And the Joker knows that if you can destroy Gotham's conscience, then everything's going to melt down into Anarchy, which is what he wants. So all the Spider-Man stuff, kind of put to the side. I also just really struggled with you know, the Joker's seen of him being in the construction building because like the coolest thing about The Joker Is that even though he uses other people, you know, minions to accomplish his means he doesn't actually trust any of them and he doesn't include them in the plot to the point of the fact that he kills them, you know, the start of the movie as soon as they outlive their usefulness. Whereas now here at the end of the movie, all of a sudden, the joke Soccer is like, using dogs to protect himself, like the one mobster was doing and he's using a bunch of gangsters that are dressed up like doctors to try and kill the SWAT team. And it just feels like he goes from being this self-sufficient, maniacal brilliant, genius, criminal mastermind to just another ho-hum criminal that you know, can't do his own work by himself.

48:14 It just felt like a really weird shift for me. Well, I have other reasons that I think that scene feels met, but before I get, There. I want to piggyback off the point you're making because I think this is a sign of how brilliant the script is, you're talking about how the Joker Goes from, being a guy who really only does rely on himself to by the end of the film. Essentially being no different than the Mobsters, he was trying to get rid of. And I think that gets to the fact that a lot of people in this movie are hypocrites, and Nolan doesn't just force feed it to you. He doesn't just call people Hypocrites. What he does is he lets each character in this movie, come I'm out and just say, boldly what their philosophy is and he leaves it up to the viewer to decide whether they're full of it or not.

48:57 And the way we do that is by seeing whether or not they stick to what they say, they believe in. And I think back to the beginning of the movie, where Bruce Wayne sits at a dinner table with Harvey Dent and Dent starts talking about how, you know, he loves democracy, and he loves Doling out justice. But then he also says, I really like how in ancient Rome when the city was under attack they would Democracy. And just a point, one person to be the Crusader for everybody. And what that tells you is that Harvey Dent isn't necessarily the White Knight that we think he is because he's willing to break the rules. Even at this stage where he's still a good guy and I think for me that planted Little Seeds of doubt in my mind about where Harvey's character was going to go and you see that come to fruition when, you know, something goes wrong in his life and he completely snaps because he's not a man that really sticks to his principles. And I think you see the same thing with the Joker and the only person in the film that really stays consistent in what they believe and what they will, and will not do is Batman. And I think that's that's the sort of wonderful like interplay that we get is that Gotham wants the White Knight of Harvey Dent and at the end of the film, they decide that has to be the image that they project because Gotham's not ready for Batman yet.

50:13 But the irony is Batman, is more of a white knight than Harvey Dent will ever be. So I think, And I'm saying this slightly facetiously but like you're missing out on the true White Knight of Gotham who is Alfred the butler. Like, when you really think about it, Michael Caine sticks, to his guns and his principles, throughout the movie, even when it seems like, Batman might compromise on his even though he doesn't in the end. Yeah, I think you're right, he definitely is the support system for Batman. And I think it's funny because Batman for being a guy that, you know, doesn't kill people. He Definitely seems to kill like, at least five people in this movie and he so easily.

50:54 He throws at least eleven dogs off of a skyscraper throughout. That wasn't easy to those poor dogs, you know, he's throwing them down the the car ramp at the start of the movie and down a not built yet. Elevator Shaft at the end of the movie like those poor Rottweilers. What did they ever do to? Well, they did bite him. Yeah. And for me, the thing that really dragged that whole sequence down, was this really random subplot about surveillance? It's and using Sonar to, you know, to find the Joker. Yeah, that was a really weird thing that like it makes sense because in the end like I guess maybe they were trying for this thing where they're like, hey bats have sonar we should give Batman sonar but like looking back on it that has not aged well. So what I think, I mean obviously what was going on in America that time was the Patriot Act was still in full effect and they're making a commentary on that and I don't so much.

51:50 CH mine that they did that but it's so underdeveloped. It just seems like all of a sudden Batman has this obsessive need to find the Joker that wasn't really established at any point prior and he just really quickly. And on the Fly gets access to everyone's phones in Gotham and makes this like Doomsday Machine. And so there's this really weird ethics plot about is this ethical for us to do this. But for me, what really screws the whole thing up is that it's built into Batman suit and at some Wait, when Batman goes into that building to try to find the Joker, you know, Lucius Fox turns on this sonar and then everything we see is this weird blue Jump by. Looks like he's in The Matrix almost and it really pulled me out of the movie because I couldn't understand what was going on. You didn't really get a good sense of the geography of the building and it just was disorienting and it really screwed up.

52:43 What should have been a pretty suspenseful fight scene? Yeah, it just felt really poorly done like that. Kind of Feels like one of those things that might have gotten thrown in last minute, or it's one of those things where in Christopher Nolan's head, it looked really cool and he forced it into the movie even though how it actually turned out was not that great. So, another small and this is a much smaller nitpick than the, you know, the fairy scene and that final sonar weirdness. But like, did you think it was weird at all that they really played up the terrorism theme when like Batman is like standing on the As if he was a firefighter on 9/11 standing on the girder, you know, of the world, the rubble of the World Trade Center, that's really interesting. I don't think that I interpreted that so much as like this patriotic, Nolan is a British guy, right? I mean, he may be an American citizen at this point, but I didn't take that so much as like, a rah-rah America thing. I do think he was trying to like evoke images of 9/11 and I do think that might be a little bit irresponsible because, like, then, what is Man you know, like what role is Batman playing in this metaphor that you're trying to design about 9/11 but yeah, I think you're right.

53:57 It's a really weird sort of out of place shot in the movie. And it probably would have been better without it. Yeah, I think what I'm realizing as I've watched this movie, this is probably my sixth or seventh watch of this movie, and I'm starting to realize that a solid 80 to 85 percent of this movie, is a 10/10, like, it hits on so many different levels. It induces fear and anxiety, and you don't know what the Joker's going to do at any given moment, but there's some stuff in the movie that the movie could just honestly do without. And I really think that, you know, this movie has a two hour and 32 minute run time. I really think that if you cut out about 15 minutes of this movie, and you finished at like to 1:45 20, this movie could be pretty much a perfect movie.

54:48 But unfortunately, I think, I think that Christopher Nolan starts grabbing it too many plot straws if you will and you see the seeds of the bad movie, that will come out as The Dark Knight Rises. So here's the thing Brad and it kind of segues us into our final analysis and our final thoughts on the movie, there are parts of this movie that hold up. So, well, I mean, it's only been 11 years since the movie came out. So it's not like it's super outdated, but I think when this film came out, It was so revolutionary. It was so unlike anything that we'd seen that, no one was willing or able to find fault with it. And now I go back and I think like there's two or three really great action sequences in this movie. I think the underground chase scene is just spectacular but then, like we said, there's the climactic action sequence in the building and its really, terribly done, if we're being honest.

55:44 And so, I'm really struggling with how to evaluate this movie because I do think it's a Great movie. But I also wonder sometimes like when I've seen a movie as many times as I've seen The Dark Knight and I love a movie as much as I love The Dark Knight. Am I just trying to find things to nitpick or is this actually a movie that has a few more flaws than we just wanted to admit ten years ago? Yeah, I don't think it's a bad thing at all to recognize that there's some faults. In this movie, there's some fat on the movie that needs to be trimmed off. And it's interesting because, you know, when I watch the original Batman of this, Gee Batman Begins, that movie is extremely tightly wound. It moves quickly from scene to scene, and you don't have all these extraneous, you know, plot lines that you need to follow. And so, unfortunately, I think you see how this movie leads you to the Dark Knight Rises where there's just so much going on, that it ends up being a pretty bad movie because of everything that's happening.

56:45 And so while I definitely like the Dark Knight, more than Batman Begins, and I think the Dark Knight Is a better movie than Batman Begins? I think the Batman Begins had some elements that probably should have stayed in the second movie. Yeah. I definitely still prefer this one to the dark, or to Batman Begins. Just because this one has more to say, and I feel like, Batman Begins is just a pretty standard like origin story. One of the things I've also found myself really struggling. With this time around is, how much am I holding the Dark Knight responsible for all of the crappy? Quote-unquote, dark movies that came out after it. Because it was so influential, and I felt like, movie studios really misread what the public loved about this movie, and they just thought they needed to make everything gritty and dark. And for a long time, now we've been stuck in this rut of like the gritty dark superhero movie and even the MCU movies that are kind of lighter, fare, you know.

57:41 I actually just watched another DC movie the other day. I watched Shazam. And that movie was kind of a mess because part of it, was this really happy go. Lucky, Why you know, story about a 13 year old who becomes a superhero? And then the other part of it was like about these demons that would eat people's heads off. And it was just weird. It was this weird jumble of like, does everything have to be dark now and, you know, I don't think we should blame the dark night for that, but at the end of the day, if it wasn't for this movie being so successful. I don't think we'd have all these crappy. Rip offs that we have either. Well, yeah, and even on top of that, not only like bad, not very Rip offs, but even certain things in media have been ripped off that are done really.

58:25 Well maybe would have been better if they weren't direct ripoffs of, you know, the Dark Knight. And what I'm thinking of is the TV shows Sherlock. And Bob, you are the one who first pointed this out to me that, you know, the character of Moriarty in Sherlock is in a lot of thematic ways. A pretty clothes, rip off of the Joker, you know, performed by Heath Ledger. And so I look at that and I go was His performance was Moriarty. Amazing. Yes was Sherlock. One of the best TV shows I've ever watched. Yes, was it dark and gritty and real? Yes. But could, they have gone a different Direction with their main big villain? Moriarty than to make him this Anarchist, psychotic criminal mastermind.

59:08 They probably could have and it might have been better off because of it. Yeah, I think that's a really good point. I didn't even think about how the Dark Knight may have influenced that TV show, but you can see the footprints are are the Fingerprints of this movie everywhere? And I mean it even in a roundabout way changed the course of Oscar history. This movie won two Oscars for Heath Ledger as best supporting actor and it won for best sound editing, but it was nominated for six more. But they were all in, what we would call the technical categories. It was, you know, cinematography sound mixing, things like that visual effects, and it was pretty conspicuously not nominated for best picture. Now it was super highly regarded by critics. It was obviously loved by audiences. It was the highest grossing movie of 2008. The next closest movie was Iron Man and it made like 200 million dollars less.

59:58 This was a runaway smash that changed the course of Cinema history and yet it didn't get nominated for best picture and what the academy did as a result instead of nominating a movie. Every once in a while that is a cultural Touchstone. What they decided was know. What we need to do is just nominate more movies every year and so their response to the Dark Knight. Being snubbed was to then, expand the field of Best Picture nominees from 5 to 10. But what they've ended up doing is basically, they still don't nominate the movies. People go to see, they just nominate five more movies. That no one has ever heard of. And I think that's, that's part of the problem with how the academy has responded to The Dark Knight is they, you know, in theory? Yes.

1:00:41 You can put more quote, unquote, popcorn movies on that list. Now of Best Picture nominees, but there's only been one superhero movie. That's got Mated and that was Black Panther and so I don't think they've solved the problem, but it is really interesting to see how the backlash from The Dark Knight has changed things even up to the level of the Oscars. But yeah, it is interesting to look back and see how a movie like The Dark Knight can change the way that the academy does things, even if it doesn't actually change the end results of what the academy choose rice. We all know it was the best film of 2008. Well, what did, when best picture that? Year, that was the year. I believe that Slumdog Millionaire won best picture. Oh, I mean, that was a pretty good movie. That's a good movie.

1:01:28 You know, whatever. I'd still think it should be the Dark Knight. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't think Slumdog Millionaire deserves the best picture over Dark Knight, but whatever. Well, Brad, I think we've said about everything there is to say about this movie. You know, it's been such a huge part of our lives and I'm anxious to see what your score would be for this film. And would you recommend it? This is an extremely hard, right? Thing for me, because in a lot of different ways, I think that this movie deserves a 10/10 even with the flaws that we talked about and the struggles that I have with it, I just, I don't know, but I also want to give it a nine and a half because of all the flaws that we talked about how to Bob.

1:02:08 This is tough. I this is a really hard. This might be one of the hardest scores I've had to give out. Well, can I jump in then? Yeah, go right ahead. I'm in the exact same place you are. And, you know, I feel like every time That I come down on the more critical side when I'm debating between two scores. I feel like a snob you know and I think that if you had asked me when I was 18, like is this a 10 out of 10? I would have no. Hesitation said yes, right? I do think with, you know, a decade plus of distance between me and the time this movie came out that there are elements of this movie that could be better. And there are elements of this movie that I think even other superhero movies have taken and improved on. So it's not a perfect film.

1:02:50 Umm, and at the end of the day, I think I am going to give this movie a nine and a half and I'm okay with that because it's one of the most famous, most popular, most beloved movies ever, made me, giving it a 9 and a half is not going to really change anyone's opinion on it, or make it less watched. We all know and we all love the dark night and I think giving it a 9.5 or like a 95. Out of 100 is not taking anything away from it. It's still a phenomenal movie. It deserves to be seen and watched and reviewed and Apart forever. Yeah, this and this is one of those situations where like we are limited by the constraints that we put on ourselves, but I would imagine that if we did a full, you know, 100 scale. You might give this like a 97 or 98 out of 100. Sure.

1:03:34 But we are limited by the constraints we've made for ourselves. So we go by .5 increments and I'm going to give this movie a 10 out of 10, all right? Yeah. I I just I keep coming back to it and I just keep thinking to myself, man, this movie He has too many good things for the few bad things to keep me from saying this is a, this is a 10/10. It's a truly great movie and Brad, I'm glad you gave it a 10 because I think you're right, you balanced it out to the point where I think we'd both be comfortable seeing this movie at a 97 and a half. Yes. Because he's the hero Gotham deserves but not the one it needs right now, so we'll hunt him.

1:04:21 Because he can take it. Because he's not a hero. He's a silent guardian and watchful protector. Well, there you have it, folks. We both recommend. We both give it incredibly high scores. If you haven't seen the Dark Knight. First of all, where have you been living under a rock? For the last 10 years? Yeah. Are you one of those reviewers that wasn't wrote one of those stupid reviews? Not enough. Nudity one out of ten or you could give us a call on our call in line. Leave us a voicemail we'd love to play it interact with it on air.

1:05:05 Our number is two one, six eight hundred five nine, two, three once again, that number is two one six eight hundred five nine two three. We want you guys to tune in this Thursday, we have a special bonus episode with Josh Larson, host of the insanely popular podcast film spotting. He's going to be joining us to talk about his book movies, our prayers and we have a whole list of questions to ask him as well. Brad. I'm so excited to do this interview. Yeah, this interview is going to be fantastic. Josh is such an amazing guy and we're so excited to bring him to film and whiskey Nation. Next Monday, we'll be back with another regular episode. It's going to Halloween special. We're bringing in our regular guest host, gentle hours. And we're going to be looking at Ridley, Scott's 1979, classic alien for the film and whiskey podcast. I'm Bob book, I am Brad.

1:05:58 She will see you next time.