The Dark Knight
Review by The Claw
***1/2 out of ****
*****BEWARE, SPOILERS HEREIN*****
Why so serious?!
This often-quoted line from the Joker shows a bit of an irony in the newest Batman installment “The Dark Knight.” It’s ironic because for a comic-book movie this is perhaps the most serious and, dare say, realistic Batman on any screen. They’ll be more to that in a moment.
Of course the talk of the town is the late Heath Ledger whose performance many say will garner an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Ledger was actually splendid as a more sadistic and psychotic Joker. More psychotic than Jack Nicholson, Cesar Romero, and even Mark Hamill’s Joker (Hamill provided the voice of the Joker during the 1990s TV show Batman the Animated Series). Sure there are some one-liners and even goofy moments with this Joker, but the display and the nature of these crimes, while not too bloody, were psychologically terrifying.
Speaking of psychology, there were a lot of psychological and moralistic overtones (but never too preachy) in this film. How does one deal with someone like the Joker who, as quoted by Batman’s butler Alfred, “just want to watch the world burn?” This was a very anarchistic Joker, who even burns money… tons of money after obtaining it. He even pulls a Palpatine in trying to seduce the dark side in all of us in the worst possible ways. There was also the psychological aspect on which people start to blame Batman for the deaths of citizens and police on the streets when all he has to do, according to the Joker, is to reveal his true identity, and then the crime would stop. Of course, as Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), Gotham’s ADA and Bruce Wayne’s ex, correctly points out “What’s to stop the Joker from commiting these crimes if Batman turns himself in?”
New to the movie is Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), an ambitious yet overreaching District Attorney that wants to put away Gotham’s criminals, especially Joker’s underground, away at almost all costs. He joins forces with Lt. Gordon (Gary Oldman) and Batman (Christian Bale) for his crusade, but he suffers a terrible fate that made him a completely broken man.
Also returning is Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), Bruce Wayne’s trusty CEO of Wayne Enterprises who makes all “those wonderful toys.” (Perhaps an off-screen moment made Lucius knew that Bruce Wayne is really Batman because there was no indication that he knew from the previous film). His best moment was when he helped Batman used some kind of sonar technology to help fight the Joker while all communications were in the dark. There was also a James Bond moment in which Bruce used a plane not only to escape from a yacht trip (with all these beautiful women), but also to help a criminal mastermind in which Bruce Wayne was previously doing business with.
Maggie Gyllenhaal is Rachel Dawes, a District Attorney, who is Harvey Dent’s girlfriend, and the only other person other than Alfred and Lucius who knows who Batman really is. Good performance, and served as Batman’s inspiration for true Justice.
Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine), Batman’s butler, also provides moral and effective support for the Caped Crusader. Again, he is equally effective.
And of course the central figure is Bruce Wayne/Batman (Christian Bale), who is just as effective as he was in the previous film, except that he is more morally conflicted because 1) again, how does one deal with a anarchistic, literally-nothing-to-lose criminal like the Joker and 2) how does one deal with the fact that crime-fighting appearances and methods attract more criminally insane elements like the Joker? People like Dent and Batman have good intentions, but the results were actually worse off than what was expected. And because the citizens of Gotham had to deal with corruption from the first film, it does seem natural they got fed up with Batman after the Joker literally intimidates some locals just to get Batman to reveal himself.
The intensity of this movie never slows down. Every moment provides tension on what’s going to happen next. But going back to what was mentioned about the movie being too serious. This movie did not feel very much like Batman at all, but more of a crime drama. A crime drama on the fact that there were very realistic elements such as intimidation, sadism, corruption, moral complexities (lots of them), mature thematic elements, etc that made this movie much more serious than what a comic book should be. Perhaps it was the landscapes of Gotham City (filmed in Chicago) that made the movie less comic-book like in which deeply contrasts with the 1990s movie versions of Batman. While not an objection in itself, it might be a bit too real for comic-book fans to absorb.
Another fault, however minor, was how the movie dealt with the Joker’s fate. Perhaps the film would’ve shown more of it had Heath Ledger still lived (remember that he died during the post-production of the film). Also Batman’s fate was left to a lot of questions (that will not be revealed) on how Christopher Nolan would deal with the third movie (which there will be).
Christopher Nolan really did change the way the Batman story was told. This may have overturn the aspect on how comic-book movies are dealt with, perhaps up to par on how Richard Donner dealt with Superman. Perhaps with a more comic-book feel next time around, there’s no doubt that Christopher Nolan is THE movie storyteller for Batman.
Writer’s Note: At the moment this review was written, the Internet Movie Database users (7,000 plus) has voted this movie as the #3 movie of all time. Rotten Tomatoes has the movie at 94%, while Metacritic has it at 82%.
