20:08 (Gotham City Zip Codes)

Screenshots from the 20th minute and 8th second of 2008 films.
I was missing my 20:07 series so I'm bringing it back in an altered form.

The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan). Released July 18th, 2008 to become the 2nd highest grossing film ever --or 35th if you adjust for inflation but the mainstream media doesn't like to adjust for that. That would force us to remember that the movies existed before we did [GASP] and were even more popular in olden times.

Is Wayne Manor in the city limits?

Curiosity Killed The Bat. The other day I decided to take a peak at one of those film piracy sites. A new co-worker kept bugging me to sample. I don't really believe in piracy and after briefly sampling the goodies I have to say that even if I had no qualms about it ethically (and I do --except when it comes to things like "fair use" and time frames for "public domain" which the major corporations are always trying to distort legally) shouldn't the quality of the image be sacrosanct?

If you watch a pirated version of The Dark Knight --which I didn't. Don't sue -- Aaron Eckhart and Maggie Gyllenhaal look like this (left). Unless they're appearing in INLAND EMPIRE where smeary faces might actually be saying something about disintegration of identity, doppelgangers and psychological breakdowns (ummm wait. Maybe David Lynch should be directing Batman movies?) it seems a great disservice to both of them. On account of you know: pretty.

Pirated movies make all movies, no matter how expensive, look like early no-budget digital indies. They make all movie stars, no matter how gorgeous, look like someone's cousin acting for free for the very first time.

Harvey Dent's much ballyhooed Thesis quote also arrives in this scene

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain

It's a nifty line but I can't see that it's explored in any relevant way later in the movie (Two Face's transformation not being all that satisfying in execution... save for the technical make up and Batman's transformation being completely external and indirect: we're told that the public will think he's the villain after the credits have rolled). But mostly this scene bugs me for a nit picky reason: It introduces us to a busty Russian ballerina. Later there's that yacht shot wherein Bruce Wayne has taken her whole company of dancing girls out on his yacht... it's over in an instant but I could have sworn that yacht was filled with surgically enhanced bimbos from Central Casting rather than the traditional lithe tiny graceful anorexic ballerinas that we were supposed to be seeing. I'm not really into ballet. I've only been thrice in my life. But maybe that's three more times than Chris Nolan.
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