The Dark Knight
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Maggie Gyllenhall, Aaron Eckart, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman (whew).
I had already made this movie in my head. It’s a fatal thing to do with something you heavily anticipate. I did it with Spider-Man 3, I did it with Star Wars: Episode 1 and I did it with Indiana Jones 4. Needless to say, I was disappointed in all those.
Knowing this I was already becoming a bit skeptical and tense when I went to watch Dark Knight, the second BatMan film in a superior new series. The reviews had been glowing and in my head I had saw the impossible. I saw Jim Gordon cheating on his wife only to have the Joker shoot her in the stomach similarly to Killing Joke and BatMan: Year One. I saw Christian Bale’s BatMan, pushed to the brink of insanity, pummeling Ledger’s Joker to an inch of his life. I saw Alfred, fed up with Bruce’s obsession, walking out on the child he mentored into a man. I saw Joker burning the left side of Aaron Eckart’s face causing his character Harvey Dent to lose his mind completely. I saw Joker throwing Rachael Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhall) to her death forcing BatMan to spiral into a maniacal bloodlust. I saw it all. I went in tense and I left tense but for two completely different reasons.
The Dark Knight is a lot of things, but it is barely a superhero movie. Which is exactly how it should be. The emphasis is on crime and the moral ambiguity that comes with fighting it. We are made familiar to the three characters that will have their very fiber challenged: Lt. Jim Gordon, District Attorney, Harvey Dent and Industrialist, Bruce Wayne (superhero capitalist are so in this summer). Together they initiate a seemingly losing battle against a corrupt police force, a backended corporate entity, an over-anxious mob underbelly, and, a new player in town, The Joker.
Joker is a mystery shrouded in a face-painted mystery. He lies frequently about his past, has a back up plan for every back up plan and he’s an anarchist through and through.
“Some people just want to see the world burn,” points out Michael Caine’s character Alfred. He’s referencing Joker in a great anecdote that provides insight into Alfred’s personal history but also prepares Bruce Wayne for the task he is about to undertake. It doesn’t help.
Dark Knight deserves a lot of the praise it has been receiving. It’s bleakness is unprecedented for a summer movie of this scope (BatMan goes to Hong Kong!), and Heath Ledger is definitely better than Jack Nicholson’s overrated role in BatMan(1989). Ledger is completely lost in the character (“If you’re gonna go --- go with a smile”). Virtually unrecognizable, he’s funny in a “should-I-laugh-a-that?” way. He’s a greasy, asexual, mad man, licking his make up from his lips as he drives pencils into people’s eyes. It is the performance of a lifetime and I feel sorry for anyone who has to play the heavy in the 3rd BatMan film.
Director Christopher Nolan still manages to keep the plot organized, in spite of juggling many of them (there is no subplot in Dark Knight. It’s all the main story). He plays the exposition quick. Too quick at times. But with actors like these, scenes always carry gravity no matter how brief.
My only real complaint is still with Bale as BatMan (ironically, the title character). Bale is perfect but his costume is awkward-looking and his lispy growl sometimes comes off comical. Yet, it’s a quibble that can wait for a less incendiary movie.
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Maggie Gyllenhall, Aaron Eckart, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman (whew).
I had already made this movie in my head. It’s a fatal thing to do with something you heavily anticipate. I did it with Spider-Man 3, I did it with Star Wars: Episode 1 and I did it with Indiana Jones 4. Needless to say, I was disappointed in all those.
Knowing this I was already becoming a bit skeptical and tense when I went to watch Dark Knight, the second BatMan film in a superior new series. The reviews had been glowing and in my head I had saw the impossible. I saw Jim Gordon cheating on his wife only to have the Joker shoot her in the stomach similarly to Killing Joke and BatMan: Year One. I saw Christian Bale’s BatMan, pushed to the brink of insanity, pummeling Ledger’s Joker to an inch of his life. I saw Alfred, fed up with Bruce’s obsession, walking out on the child he mentored into a man. I saw Joker burning the left side of Aaron Eckart’s face causing his character Harvey Dent to lose his mind completely. I saw Joker throwing Rachael Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhall) to her death forcing BatMan to spiral into a maniacal bloodlust. I saw it all. I went in tense and I left tense but for two completely different reasons.
The Dark Knight is a lot of things, but it is barely a superhero movie. Which is exactly how it should be. The emphasis is on crime and the moral ambiguity that comes with fighting it. We are made familiar to the three characters that will have their very fiber challenged: Lt. Jim Gordon, District Attorney, Harvey Dent and Industrialist, Bruce Wayne (superhero capitalist are so in this summer). Together they initiate a seemingly losing battle against a corrupt police force, a backended corporate entity, an over-anxious mob underbelly, and, a new player in town, The Joker.
Joker is a mystery shrouded in a face-painted mystery. He lies frequently about his past, has a back up plan for every back up plan and he’s an anarchist through and through.
“Some people just want to see the world burn,” points out Michael Caine’s character Alfred. He’s referencing Joker in a great anecdote that provides insight into Alfred’s personal history but also prepares Bruce Wayne for the task he is about to undertake. It doesn’t help.
Dark Knight deserves a lot of the praise it has been receiving. It’s bleakness is unprecedented for a summer movie of this scope (BatMan goes to Hong Kong!), and Heath Ledger is definitely better than Jack Nicholson’s overrated role in BatMan(1989). Ledger is completely lost in the character (“If you’re gonna go --- go with a smile”). Virtually unrecognizable, he’s funny in a “should-I-laugh-a-that?” way. He’s a greasy, asexual, mad man, licking his make up from his lips as he drives pencils into people’s eyes. It is the performance of a lifetime and I feel sorry for anyone who has to play the heavy in the 3rd BatMan film.
Director Christopher Nolan still manages to keep the plot organized, in spite of juggling many of them (there is no subplot in Dark Knight. It’s all the main story). He plays the exposition quick. Too quick at times. But with actors like these, scenes always carry gravity no matter how brief.
My only real complaint is still with Bale as BatMan (ironically, the title character). Bale is perfect but his costume is awkward-looking and his lispy growl sometimes comes off comical. Yet, it’s a quibble that can wait for a less incendiary movie.
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