Title: The Dark Knight Movie Review
Genre: Action/Crime/Drama/Thriller
Cast: Bale, Ledger, Eckhart, Gyllenhaal, Caine and Freeman
Director: Christopher Nolan
Release: (2008)
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Picking up (to some degree) where Batman Begins left off, The Dark Knight finds the citizens, criminals, cops, and superhero of Gotham City, Illinois scrambling to figure out the identity of a formidable new menace known only in hushed whispers as “The Joker”, and what exactly it is that he wants with their toddling town. As The Joker begins to turn up the intensity on his malevolent mischief, the answer to the latter question is worse than any of them could have imagined – nothing. He wants nothing but to see it all crumble for fun. He could, however, be at least temporarily appeased if Batman were to come forward and reveal his identity for all to see. Given pause by the emergence of this new breed of theatrical criminal that he feels somehow responsible for spawning, Bruce Wayne (who **********SPOILER ALERT********** is Batman) thinks hard on the offer and considers whether the time has come to rid himself and the city of the vigilante alter ego that he is no longer sure is doing less harm than good. Angst over the additional responsibility he feels for the new wave of copycat crimefighters putting themselves in harm’s way every night, as well as his growing confidence in the effectiveness of new Gotham D.A. Harvey Dent as a man who can clean up the city within the law, also combine to compound Wayne’s consideration of whether Batman has outlived his usefulness. Now, if box office numbers are any indicator, there’s about a 0.23% chance that anyone reading this movie in America hasn’t already seen this movie. But for the rest of you in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, I won’t elaborate any more on what happens with that (other than to say – do YOU think there’s not gonna be a sequel?)
Along the way a number of various other subplots rise, fall and weave their way through this film – though what ultimately drives them all are the psychological reflections these two characters provide for each other. Almost all of the film’s drama stems from Bruce Wayne’s struggle to move under the weight of two consciences, while almost all of its action stems from The Joker’s freedom to move without one. And (depending on how much credit you want to give the Nolan brothers for meaning to do this), the richness of these conflicts is often greatly enhanced by the heady subtext about human nature and the state of the world today in which they are steeped. Most clear of these is the political subtext. With a dialogue full of allusions to the war on terror and the place of morality in a fight against an enemy who doesn’t share your limits, there is plenty here to be read into. Perhaps even to be over-read into, a territory that overeager and ultra-conservative author Andrew Klavan may have ventured into recently with his Wall Street Journal column asserting that Nolan’s Batman actually represents George W. Bush and that the entire film is “a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by [him] in this time of terror and war.” As crazy as that may sound, and I don’t agree with him on that conclusion, it is not entirely irrational to see how that thought might take hold in the mind of someone looking to see it. The idea of The Joker as an Osama Bin Laden (hey there, Homeland Security flaggers, thanks for the extra hits) type of figure – a man who was able to unite a number of small, localized factions under his command, by means of both promise and fear, to take on a common enemy they were all afraid of alone – is not a completely baseless one. The parallel may not be exact, but it is not too far out there to see how someone like Klavan might begin to build his case. There is one particularly analogous scene in which Batman resorts to an uncharacteristic level of aggression (some might even call it torture) in his attempt to squeeze information about The Joker’s whereabouts out of mid-level gangster Salvatore Maroni. The answer he receives succinctly frames the biggest problem Batman will have to face in trying to fight The Joker, and can be interpreted as well to speak directly to one of the biggest problems the western world has yet to overcome in chasing the threat of terrorism. And while these types of undertones may be the most easily discernible for an audience acutely attuned to the landscape of a post-9/11 America, none of this is to say that a parable of the world today is all the subtext this movie has to offer. In fact, my personal favorite bit of political/human nature commentary came in the Nolan brothers’ adaptation of an old metaphorical exercise, used often in reference to the Cold War, into one of The Joker’s games. (If you’ve seen it I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. If not just remember the two boats.) While I can’t give them total credit for originality on that one, I’ll still give them extra style points.
I suppose I would be remiss here to not say at least a little something about the acting, though I’m not sure what there is left to say that hasn’t already been repeated to death ad nauseum across this very internet. Christian Bale is equal parts remarkable as Bruce Wayne and guttural as Batman. (If The Joker doesn’t reveal his secret identity, I imagine the multiple throat polyp surgeries on his medical records eventually will.) Aaron Eckhart and Gary Oldman are both dead on with their takes on Harvey Dent and Lieutenant Gordon, respectively. And Maggie Gyllenhaal is, at least, an upgrade from Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes. But we all know the real story here is Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker. Contrary to popular belief, this film does not mark Ledger’s final on-screen appearance (and, given the numbers his death is adding to the bottom line of this film, I have to imagine that the producers over at The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus are walking around with tacks in their shoes right now to try to keep themselves from looking too happy about this whole thing). Without spending too much time repeating what you’ve already heard, I will just say that he was simply mesmerizing. Watching his performance, I was reminded of an article I read around the time of Heath Ledger’s death, in which it was reported that Ledger had become partially consumed by the persona he had taken on for the role and had been turning more and more to sleeping pills to try to quiet those darker parts of his mind he had tapped into to create it. In the article, Jack Nicholson was quoted as saying that he had “warned him” about what The Joker role brings with it, and regretted not having a chance to talk to Ledger in person about his experiences before it was too late. Two things occurred to me about this as I finally saw the much-ballyhooed performance for the first time. One is that I understand now what they meant about him becoming consumed by his character. It’s evident from his performance that he probably lived this character 24/7 while filming and allowed himself to go to places in his mind that most of us prefer to pretend aren’t there. Second, was that I have no idea what Jack Nicholson thinks he could have empathized with him about. With all due respect, Jack’s Joker was not exactly the kind of brooding sociopath that required the unleashing of many impulses more dangerous than his inner Fred Astaire to play. If anything maybe a sit down with Anthony Hopkins would have been helpful, as I’d probably have to go back to his first turn as Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs to find an equal portrayal of a comparable role.
The Dark Knight is everything you’ve heard it was and probably a little more. Some may complain about the lack of back story in this one, but I have to give Christopher Nolan the benefit of the doubt on this. I think it’s pretty clear from this film that they were expecting to have The Joker back for the next one, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were purposely holding back some revelations for then. In the grand scheme of things, maybe this more action-packed episode was meant to be like the Empire Strikes Back of their trilogy. So, no complaints here about that. For all it was meant to be, The Dark Knight delivers in spades. And if you can catch it in IMAX – icing on the cake.
But then again, you probably knew all that already.
Grading
Story: A
Acting: A
Visuals: A+
Originality/Innovation: A
Enjoyability: A+
Overall: A
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