The Dark Knight (2008)
Drama, Action, Crime, Thriller • 2h 32m
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Monique Gabriela Curnen, Ron Dean, Cillian Murphy, Ng Chin Han, Nestor Carbonell, Eric Roberts, Ritchie Coster, Anthony Michael Hall, Keith Szarabajka, Colin McFarlane, Joshua Harto, Melinda McGraw, Nathan Gamble, Michael Vieau, Michael Stoyanov, William Smillie, Danny Goldring, Michael Jai White, Matthew O'Neill, William Fichtner, Olumiji Olawumi, Greg Beam, Erik Hellman, Beatrice Rosen, Vincenzo Nicoli, Edison Chen, Nydia Rodriguez Terracina, Andy Luther, James Farruggio, Tom McElroy, Will Zahrn, James Fierro, Patrick Leahy, Sam Derence, Jennifer Knox, Patrick Clear, Sarah Jayne Dunn, Charles Venn, Winston Ellis, David Dastmalchian, Sophia Hinshelwood, Keith Kupferer, Joseph Luis Caballero, Richard Dillane, Daryl Satcher, Chris Petschler, Aidan Feore, Philip Bulcock, Paul Birchard, Walter Lewis, Vincent Riotta, Nancy Crane, K. Todd Freeman, Matt Shallenberger, Michael Andrew Gorman, Lanny Lutz, Peter DeFaria, Matt Rippy, Andrew Bicknell, Ariyon Bakare, Doug Ballard, Helene Maksoud, Tommy Campbell, Craig Heaney, Sutara Gayle, Lisa McAllister, Peter Brooke, Joshua Rollins, Dale Rivera, Matthew Leitch, Tommy Lister Jr., Thomas Gaitsch, William Armstrong, Adam Kalesperis, Tristan Tait, Bronson Webb, David Ajala, Gertrude Kyles, Jonathan Ryland, James Scales, Nigel Carrington, Ian Pirie, Lateef Lovejoy, Grahame Edwards, Roger Monk, Ronan Summers, Wai Wong, Michael Corey Foster, Hannah Gunn, Brandon Lambdin, Matt Skiba, Jon Lee Brody, Debbi Burns, Maritza Cabrera, Shirin Caiola, Laura Chernicky, Henry Milton Chu, Kelli Clevenger, Richard Divizio, Tony Domino, David Fultz, Natalie Hallam, Jordon Hodges, Erron Jay, Nicky Katt, Thomas Kosik, Don Kress, Tim Krueger, Dan Latham, Tom McComas, James Mellor, Joseph Oliveira, Buster Reeves, Peter Rnic, Amit Shah, Michelle Shields, Sofiya Smirnova, Bruce Spielbauer, Robert Patrick Stern, Robert Stone, Richard Strobel, Tom Townsend, John Turk, John Warman, Chris Wilson, Kevin Zaideman, Rob Clark, Craig Braginsky, Mike Whyte, Rick Avery, John Snowden
Best English-friendly & video release
Caveat: mild DNR throughout the transfer, non-IMAX scenes appear soft due to being scanned from an interpositive rather than the original camera negative.
Updated 4 months ago
UHD tiers
Caveat: mild DNR throughout
About the film
Batman raises the stakes in his war on crime. With the help of Lt. Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to dismantle the remaining criminal organizations that plague the streets. The partnership proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to a reign of chaos unleashed by a rising criminal mastermind known to the terrified citizens of Gotham as the Joker.
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- Alternative Titles
- Batman: The Dark Knight, Batman II: The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight 2: The Dark Knight
Director: Christopher Nolan
WB 4K Blu-ray has Excessive DNR
Director: Anthony Mann
Criterion 4K Blu-ray, Universal 2008 DVD
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
2008 Universal DVD mono
The mono on the Criterion is severely filtered resulting in it sounding incredibly muffled. It is nearly as filtered as the 2003 original Universal DVD which had extreme filtering and sounds horribly thin. The 2008 DVD remaster and original LaserDisc analog mastering are mostly left alone. The original LD master is from a worn element but otherwise sounds very natural. The 2008 DVD is the highest quality version we have without the heavy filtering and the defects of the LD master. It isn't perfect but easily the best of the main four sources by a dramatic margin.
The existing 4K SDR restoration looks excellent, but the Criterion extras are limited and disappointing. The classic Stewart interview commentary from the LD is ported over but given a new mastering. Compared to past releases it has been very slightly noise reduced.
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Criterion 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray
1991 Orion LaserDisc vs 2024 Arrow 4K Blu-ray vs Criterion
Three masterings of the original Dolby Stereo SR mix exist: the original Orion video releases, the Criterion (which is from their LD) and the Arrow. All three are excellent with slight mastering differences between them. The original Orion still is probably the one with the most fidelity, the Criterion is the cleanest with a kind of warm feel to it and the Arrow has a bit of both aspects. The Arrow mastering has a tiny almost imperceptible bit of audio bleeding into the surround that isn't on the Criterion. Each has their own pluses and minuses but you can't go wrong with any of them. Whatever you do though: DO NOT WATCH WITH THE 5.1 REMIX. It is another MGM botch job that fundamentally alters the impact of many scenes. It is vastly inferior to the original mix in every way.
Director: Richard Brooks
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
4K restoration from safety preservation elements
Director: Elaine May
Cinématographe 4K Blu-ray > MoC > Olive Films. From nicolas:
The master is good but it’s not that big an upgrade from the Olive Films disc and Vinegar Syndrome’ encode has some blocky highlights. A shame that they didn’t hire David Mackenzie here.
Cinématographe has unnecessary noise gating not present on the previous releases.
Director: Sidney Lumet
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
1.85:1: Kino Lorber 4K / Capelight 4K
1.66:1: Criterion 4K but low pass filtered
Comparison between the 4Ks, Criterion on the AR choice
Other discs have unnecessary filtering and sound worse, the difference isn't substantial but audible
Director: Dennis Hopper
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Flicker Alley 4K confirmed for 2027 https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24404584&postcount=1
MoC audio is better https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=225532&page=3
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Included in the Complete Kubrick box set with FiM encode of the same master from the Universal release without the filtering.
DTS:X mix on Universal 4K Blu-ray most closely approximates original surround mix
Criterion DVD and Universal 4K Blu-ray has additional features not found on the Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Director: Christopher Nolan
Spain Selecta Vision 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · linkedin.com (opens in a new tab) · dvdcompare.net (opens in a new tab)
Collector's edition of a new restoration from Umbrella
Spain Selecta Vision 4K Blu-ray > other releases and old 2006 release - impressions of Selecta Vision release
Comparison of extras between different releases:
https://dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=999
https://dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=9670
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