After 10 Years, "The Dark Knight" Continues to Be a Milestone in Superhero Cinema

Scene from The Dark Knight

It's sort of a cliche, but it's hard to describe the impact of director Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight without stating the obvious: it started with a bang. The camera entered the world of Gotham by zooming in on a window shattering, on the other side is a group of men in clown masks running through the plan, which is essentially a game of last man standing. With each piece of the puzzle unlocked, another person dies. Nobody knows who the mastermind is, nor will they really until it's too late. It's a world that superhero cinema wasn't used to, as even Nolan's previous D.C. movie Batman Begins didn't think to go this dark, finding a world where order was finally meeting chaos, as portrayed by a 28-year-old actor who unfortunately had died earlier in 2008 only to deliver (to date) the only superhero performance that was so revered that it got a posthumous Oscar win. The Dark Knight was a behemoth in 2008 and set the template for a new era of "dark and gritty" cinema that followed. It was unafraid to take risks, and in the process solidified the mythos of Nolan's godlike hold on the blockbuster. It changed cinema, plain and simple.

Review: "Sully" Loses Momentum When it Leaves the Plane

Scene from Sully

Director Clint Eastwood has been known for making miserable films for quite some time. He has won two Best Picture awards for Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby: both of which resonate around death. Even his highly controversial American Sniper takes a solemn look at P.T.S.D. while suggesting the addiction that war brings. This is why it seems almost bizarre that he would choose to tackle something like Sully: a film where nobody dies, and the ending can be described as happy. It's a tale of America overcoming a major conflict, starring Tom Hanks in a role that he could play in his sleep: the stern yet emotionally wrought Sully Sullenberger. While the film centers around the "Miracle on the Hudson" incident from 2009, it is Eastwood's attempt to make a unifying message of hope in time of crisis. The results, which are thoroughly upbeat, are messy but effective.

Super Delegates: Harvey Dent in "The Dark Knight" (2008)

Aaron Eckhart in The Dark Knight

Welcome to Super Delegates, a bi-monthly column released on Tuesdays and are done in part to recognize politics on film, specifically in regards to Oscar-nominated works. With this being an election year in the United States, it feels like a good time to revisit film history's vast relationship with politicians of any era and determine what makes them interesting while potentially connecting them to the modern era. The series plans to run until the end of this 2016 election cycle, so stay tuned for every installment and feel free to share your thoughts on films worthy of discussion in the comments section.