A ‘Dark Knight’ Triple Feature Review
David brings us another glowing review after adding much money to the WB bottom line
I saw The Dark Knight three times during the 40 hours after its release. When I love a movie, I do that. I’m possessed with the need to see it over and over again within a short time span. Usually after the third viewing I’m ready to sit out a week or two before visiting the film again. At this very moment, about 15 hours since my third viewing, I could easily jump in my car and speed off to it again. Yes, the hype is true. The movie is great. Brilliant. A pop masterpiece. It ain’t hyperbole if it’s true.
After the opening midnight screening, I crawled into work the next morning. Co-workers lined up outside my cube for a fuzzy-brained review. For most, a lazy string of superlatives sufficed. Others desired reasoning with a tad more beef. Then through the fog of two-hours sleep it hit me: a respectable, but still easy way to get my point across about the film’s thematic complexities. Imagine No Country for Old Men, change the plot some and throw in people dressed up as bats and clowns and that’s the sort of sandbox of ideas and areas of darkness that The Dark Knight plays in. Without a doubt, if you combined the film’s interpretation of Two-Face and The Joker you would have Anton Chigurh.
Yes, co-writer/director Christopher Nolan fills The Dark Knight with blood-pumping car chases, fist-fight beat downs, wild stunts, shoot-outs and everything else you’d expect from a big summer blockbuster. On top of that you have a superb and epic script focusing on several characters who all feel rounded and useful. James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer expand their thundering powerhouse score from Batman Begins, yet add ballast with an understated and brilliantly creepy-intense theme for The Joker. Then there’s the performances from what can only be described as a dream cast. Christian Bale, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman all deliver terrific work, as expected from actors of such high caliber.
Oh, and you might have heard about the late Heath Ledger’s portrayal of The Joker. It’s a topic that has unfortunately overshadowed the equally praiseworthy performances from the rest of the cast. Nonetheless, just like the film as a whole, believe the hype.* Ledger’s Joker indeed belongs in the canon of great villains. He’s a vicious agent of death and chaos, and a killer magician to boot. A remorseless terrorist in every sense of the word. Simply said, Ledger is mesmerizing and scary as hell.
Yet, The Dark Knight is much more than a superb piece of cinematic craftsmanship. This is a film of ideas. A film about good and evil and the moral choices in-between. A film unafraid to call Batman’s heroics into question, throw impossible decisions at its characters, and explore moral quagmires. I am in awe of Nolan’s decision—a very risky one at that—to hinge the climactic battle not on whether our hero can toss the villain off a cathedral, but letting the victory of good over evil be determined by tough moral choices made by said hero. Yes, the climax pinwheels on discussion, not explosion. This is one dense, thought-provoking film—and that’s why I can see it three times in quick succession and not be tired of it.
The Dark Knight refuses to kowtow to the notion that summer movies must only fit the mold of hollow spectacles. The movie throws the audience into an emotional meat grinder. It’s disturbing, draining and most importantly it resonates long after the credits roll. It’s not a summer blockbuster we deserve, it’s the one we need.
GRADE: A+
* There has been some debate on whether Ledger’s death is what laid the road for the fervent Oscar buzz. Well, since I have a gigantic ego, I like to believe the Oscar hype began here at RopeofSilicon by me in a backdoor fashion. If you click here and scroll to the bottom, you’ll notice a post from yours truly explicitly putting the idea of Oscar buzz out there. The time stamp is several week’s before Ledger’s death. Without a doubt, talk of an Oscar nom was inevitable regardless of whether Ledger was still alive. The performance is that iconic.
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