After screening Ferris Bueller's Day Off, West Side Story, Purple Rain and plenty of other great movies over the past two months, the Millennium Park Summer Film Series is closing out with a fan favorite. Earlier this summer, the city launched a website where users could vote for their favorite Chicago-made film, choosing from a ballot that included Adventures in Babysitting, High Fidelity, Road to Perdition and Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon. Thankfully, voters made a heroic choice.
On Tuesday, August 30, Christopher Nolan's grim superhero romp The Dark Knight will be screened in Millennium Park—out of the 12,433 votes cast in the Millennium Park Summer Film Series, the movie earned 2,333 votes. The 2008 film transformed the streets of Chicago into the seedy world of Gotham City, sending Batman through Lower Wacker Drive toward a confrontation with the Joker on LaSalle Street.
Frankly, after a summer in which we've had to endure the subpar Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice and a brief appearance by the caped crusader in the equally awful Suicide Squad, it will be nice to see Christian Bale's gravelly-voiced interpretation of Batman back on the big screen.
While it probably won't be as packed as the screening of Purple Rain, we expect plenty of people will come to Pritzker Pavilion to watch The Dark Knight. The screening starts at 6:30pm, so bring a blanket, show up early and prepare for the Summer Film Series finale we all deserve.