Movie review part deux: The Dark Knight

by by David Harwood

Hope y'all had fun trying to get tickets for this over the weekend. I saw it Wed. night (July 16). And - let me say - wow...

Now let me admit that I didn't care one bit for Batman Begins. I read that film's screenplay last week in an attempt to gear me up for this film. It let me get a better appreciation of what they were trying to accomplish, but it didn't work for me. It was far too serious, almost completely devoid of humor, and yet, what is it the film is about? A guy dressing up and playing with a load of expensive toys in an effort to become a do-it-yourself superhero. It just didn't work for me.

Which is why I'm perhaps more surprised than anyone when I say I absolutely loved The Dark Knight. It is truly a staggering achievement, and I am willing to bet a substantial amount of money that this is going to take the Oscar for Best Picture. I'm serious. It's that good.

Right off that bat (no pun intended) this film is an improvement on its predecessor. Why? Because Batman arrives on the screen fully-formed. We've suffered through the tedious backstory already, so we're straight to the good stuff. For some reason studios seem to think we live to see the origin story, which is why the vast number of comic book movies out there are so boringly mundane - do we really need the first movie of every franchise to chronicle every single element that led to the hero gaining his powers or have his costume tailor made? In my opinion, we all know who Batman is. He's a guy in a black suit who fights crime. He's a good guy. Also, he's really Bruce Wayne, billionaire. There, I just saved you the hassle of watching Batman Begins. You're all caught up ready for Dark Knight.

So since Batman's origins have already been explained we launch into the movie hitting the ground ready. It is a credit to Christopher Nolan that he doesn't waste time explaining how this movie's super-villain (The Joker, in case you haven't heard) came to be how he is. How boring would that have been? Instead, Joker is who he is from scene one, and Nolan actually makes no effort to explain Joker's background or give him any sympathy. I counted three separate occasions where Joker told someone a story of how he came to get his scars, and it was a different story every time. The point of that? It's so we never know what really happened. It feeds into the theme of Joker as Chaos versus Batman as Order. But it returns to my previous point, just like there is a collective public knowledge of who Batman is, The Joker is a cultural icon too. We already know Joker is a crazy bad guy. We don't need to be spoonfed like we're seeing that purple suit and green hair for the first time. We get it already.

Allow me to waste some time here talking up the merits of Heath Ledger's astounding performance as The Joker. It truly is great. I first became a big Ledger fan after seeing him in Brokeback Mountain. It was the kind of quiet powerhouse acting that you can recognize as one of the masterful performances of our times even if you know nothing about the nuances of acting, as I don't. Already the blogosphere is saturated with praise and hype for Ledger's performance, and I'm happy to report it is all completely justified. Will his performance win him a posthumous Oscar? It damn well should. It might sound cliche, but Ledger genuinely does disappear from the screen in this film. He is The Joker. And guess what? Joker is the perfect counterpoint to the unsmiling Batman giving this franchise the breath of fresh air it desperately needed. Did I mention I loved this film?

Forgetting the opening bank robbery where we are first introduced to the concept of Joker, we've all seen it online months ago... Joker has one of the most poignant entrances in the movies in recent memory. Rare have the the words "How about a magic trick? I'll make this pencil disappear..." ever captured your attention so completely that you'll be unable to look away for the remainder of this two-and-a-half-hour epic. And once everyone has seen the film, the one scene - the one shot - that is not only going to get stuck in everyone's mind but become some sort of defining cultural image is that of the Joker skipping out of a hospital in a nurse's uniform, loopy as ever, and blowing up the hospital as he comes skipping towards us. Trust me, it's going to be iconic. And also, that is one motherfucking big explosion.

So why is this such a good film? How about this bit of hype for ya: Dark Knight is the Godfather Part II of comic book movies. And yet, compared to others in the genre, it's nothing like a comic book movie. It expands on the best element of Batman Begins - the depiction of a Gotham City saturated with corruption, policed by the mob, and run by crazy wackos. It transcends the genre. In my eyes this is a sprawling crime drama. It's the story of the one good cop and the heroic new DA coming together with the operation of their lives to take down the various gangs that make up the Gotham Mafia Massive and clean up their city once and for all. It just happens to also have this bad guy called The Joker, and a Batman vigilante. I'm going to say it again: staggering achievement; Best Picture.

However...

There are a couple of negative points I want to make. Not many, which is a good sign that I mean it when I say this is a good film. First off, we have Maggie Gyllenhaal inexplicably take over from Katie Holmes as Assistant DA Rachel Dawes. I know nothing of the methodology behind this, I can only assume it has something to do with the fact her real-life love interest is just an incy bit loopier than a guy who dresses up as a bat to scrap with bad dudes. But whatever. It's not like I was paying that much attention the first time around anyways. That said, one of Gyllenhaal's first scenes (it takes place in a corridor immediately after a court hearing) is just downright bizarre. She does something with her voice and her gestures... I don't know if she's trying to channel Katie's interpretation of the character or if she's going into some kind of seizure... But after that she sinks into the role seamlessly. Another nit-picking element I wanted to highlight was the old somebody-dies-only-it-turns-out-they're-not-really-dead thing. I guess it kinda works to an extent, but it's undercut when the scenario repeats itself with a different character all within one of the final scenes. Which brings me to my biggest gripe of the whole shebang...

This movie is two and a half hours long. Of course, I can't really complain, 'cos as they say - how can you have too much of a good thing? The reason I say it's too long is because the film reaches a point where you think it could all wrap up nicely within about ten minutes. But of course it doesn't. But for me, the last twenty minutes were so anticlimatic after everything that's gone before, I can't help but see it as a bad thing. So what's the deal? Well, as we all know the "white knight" of Harvey Dent is involved in a horrible accident which deforms him and blackens his mind to turn him into the villainous Two Face. Y'all know it's coming, although I was surprised that it all played out in this film. I was expecting Dark Knight to merely set up Two Face as the bad guy for the next movie, but actually it's much more self-contained. In a way it's a credit to Nolan that the various storylines are handled so deftly that it really does work. My problem with it is that the final problem Batman must overcome - saving Gordon's family from hellbent Dent is, well, a bit of a comedown after battling Joker in a towerblock full of hostages and saving two ferries full of evacuees and boom-boom. As bad as it sounds, you just don't care about a little blonde kid so much after that. But hey, if that's the only major complaint I can come up with, it's hardly a problem, right?

At the end of the day, this is the most substantial movie of the year. I honestly can't see anything topping it, and I am certain it's going to take the Oscar. Sure, Wall•E was great, and Benjamin Button looks magical, but think on the last two Best Picture winners: The Departed and No Country For Old Men. Academy likes their violent flicks right now. And if they can award Lord Of The Rings their highest honor, why not the most artistically mature film in the genre of the moment? It's going to win. Dead sure. The hype machine has been rolling full steam ahead for Dark Knight for probably over six months now. Theaters across the country are already reporting being sold out for the first week. This isn't just a another summer blockbuster. This is an honest-to-God proper film. It's a defining moment in cinema. And you know what? I'm just glad Heath Ledger's final performance is in a film that is worthy of his legacy.

(Ed. note: David T. Harwood has contributed previously to these virtual pages on subjects cinematic.

This review was submitted by a member of the Pegasus News community

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