I bought a copy of “The Dark Knight” for 99 cents a few days back, and was going to watch it tonight. The first and only Batman film I have ever seen was the original with Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson back in the early 90’s…
Will “Dark Knight” make sense without seeing all the other Batman movies?
(if not, I am probably not going to bother, so if someone wants my copy of DK, let me know, I will be happy to mail it out, my pleasure)
The Nolan Batman franchise only has one other movie in it (Batman Begins).
There are a couple of minor references to the first movie in TDK, but nothing that matters and nothing you need to know in order to follow the plot. The only way you’d be lost is if you had no idea who batman was at all, and didn’t understand why he was wearing that cape and climbing around on buildings.
Absolutely don’t worry about “all the other Batman movies”. Batman Begins was completely unconnected to any of the Batman movies that had come before, with the story being re-started completely fresh.
The question then becomes whether you can watch The Dark Knight without having seen Batman Begins. I would say that you can, but you’d probably enjoy it more if you saw Begins first. If you decide not to, then really all you need to know (spoilers for Begins) is that
Conventional (non-masked) organized crime is rampant in Gotham. Batman’s been making progress against them, but they’re far from finished yet.
Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) is a VIP at Wayne Industries, and makes all of Batman’s gadgets for him.
Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is Bruce’s old girlfriend. Both Rachel and Lucius, and Alfred the butler, know that Bruce is Batman, but nobody else living.
James Gordon (Gary Oldman) is just about the only honest cop in the city, and is not yet comissioner (the title he holds in most Batman lore). He’s an ally of Batman, but does not know his secret identity.
Wayne Manor and the Batcave were burned out at the end of the previous movie, so Bruce is living in a downtown penthouse and using a backup “cave” in the docks district while it’s rebuilt.
Bruce/Batman struggled with the question of killing in the previous movie, eventually coming to the conclusion that he won’t kill the villain, but that doesn’t mean he has to save the villain’s life, either.
Spoiler: Bruce Wayne is Batman
Hah. Next you’re going to tell me that Tony Stark is Iron Man.
Thank You both (Dio and Chronos)
I will plan on watching it tonight!!!
BTW, this will be the first time I have watched a movie with Heath Leger in it. When he died, I was familiar with his name, but have never seen any of his films.
(The raves he got for his Joker performance are what caused me to shell out the buck for the copy of “Dark Knight”)
Hey Big Spender, if you want to drop anymore big bucks on stuff, send me a private message. 
Somewhat on topic: Because of the face paint, I have a very hard time picturing Heath Ledger as the Joker. I just cannot for the life of me create a mental image of that pretty boy as being underneath the facepaint of someone as twisted as the Joker is.
So because of this, I have a hard time attributing the role as the Joker to Heath. It’s as though Nolan just ran out and actually got the Joker, not someone playing him
This all of course has to do with Ledger putting on an amazing performance, so many props go out to him. 
I’d be somewhat interested to hear how someone who hasn’t seen Batman Begins likes TDK.
A lot of times in sequels, the director/writer feels like he doesn’t need to establish characters who’ve already been established in the previous movie, so a sign of a well-made sequel is how easy it is to pick up for a beginner. Since my opinion of Nolan is that he is the physical embodiment of god himself, I’d hope you could go into TDK without having seen BB. In fact, there might be the bonus of having the mental roadblock of the actress switch for that one character.
For example, try to imagine seeing The Matrix Reloaded without having seen The Matrix. Yikes.
I also bought a copy of “The Good Shepard” (for 99cents as well) that I watched last night.
I will gladly pay any of you out there 99 cents to allow me to sent this psuedo-complex, self important, laughably convoluted POS to your location, where you can beat it to death with a stick and bury its ashes under a waxing moon, so it cannot waste 2+ hours of someones life ever again…
I think a lot of people, when they’re rating an acting performance, they’re actually rating the character. You might say, “I liked George Clooney in Ocean’s 11” because you liked his character, but as far as acting goes, well, yeah.
Ledger in TDK exemplifies the notion that when you’re judging acting, you’re judging whether the actor disappears and is replaced with a character. In my mind, Heath Ledger is not even in that movie. His Joker is a walking talking character.
Jack Nicholson’s Joker in Batman is Jack Nicholson playing Joker. Heath Ledger’s Joker is Joker.
/comicbook&filmsnob
Think of it like this, you spent two bucks on The Dark Knight and some worthless stray movie followed you home despite repeated attempts to get it go away or else it’ll infect the rest of your family and waste two hours of their lives. It’s already gotten you, just keep it away from loved ones.
EDIT:
See Also: My second to last sentence.
I didn’t see Batman Begins.
I didn’t understand The Dark Knight at all.
I don’t do real well at understanding movies under the best of circumstances, though, so I’m not sure it would’ve been helpful if I HAD seen Batman Begins.
Just my 2 cents on the matter–
I should specify, in response to wierdaaron’s question, that I didn’t LIKE Dark Knight either. Maybe that went without saying, given that I didn’t understand it, but just so we’re clear.
I watched The Dark Knight, and I have yet to see Batman Begins. And I liked it. It seems I did miss some details (Scarecrow, the drug dealing thing at the beginning), but those looked more like details or fan service, they were scenes that were not crucial.
And it is not hard to understand that Fox knows who he is, so does the Butler, and so does his ex-girlfriend.
When you say you didn’t understand “The Dark Knight,” was it because you felt you needed some set-up as to who was who and why they were doing what they were doing from the very beginning of the movie? Or did you feel there was some explanation missing about the plot of the movie itself?
I thought Jean-Paul Valley was Batman. 
No. Dick Grayson is Batman.
Hijack: I’m curious where you’re able to buy these movies for 99 cents.
Spoilers are not allowed in CS. I’ve reported your post* and hereby call for your permanent bannination from this board.
*Not really.
No, I’m Batman!