The Dark Knight (2008)
Review by Jeffery J. Timbrell
“Well I let their teeny minds think
That they’re dealing with someone who is over the brink
And I dress this way just to keep them at bay
Cuz Halloween is everyday
It’s everyday
O, why can’t I live a life for me?
Why should I take the abuse that’s served?
Why can’t they see they’re just like me
It’s the same, it’s the same in the whole wide world.”
- “Everyday is Halloween”, Ministry
Christopher Nolan’s (Memento) Dark Knight picks up over a year after the events of Batman Begins. Gotham is a little bit cleaner, a little bit safer and the criminals are on the run; not just from the legendary Batman, but from District Attorney Harvey Dent, the police and a host of wannabe copycat Batmen who have followed the Caped Crusader’s glowing example. The criminals and the mobs that control them are under siege from all fronts, physical, psychological and political and they require a radical solution to their problems.
Enter The Joker.
That’s the set-up for The Dark Knight, the best Batman movie yet, and one of the best films of the year. It’s also one of the most ambitious and intelligent comic book movies in history. The Dark Knight takes the whole concept of Batman and the Joker to another level; it’s much more serious than any incarnation of the Batman that we’ve ever been exposed to, and it transcends the modern superhero movie.
The Dark Knight is not a film for young folks, I wouldn’t recommend that anybody take their kid to see this, unless their children are really big on people getting their faces torched off, lunatics with explosives sewed up inside of their stomachs, gang leaders being burned alive or madmen torturing and cutting happy-faces into wannabe vigilantes. Although the film has some obvious cut-away moments and clipped scenes to retain that all-important PG-13 rating, rest assured ladies and gents this is not the Saturday Afternoon Batman playing around here.
This is The Dark Knight.
Superhero stories are simplistic in their morality by design. The iconic picture of 1950s superhero comics showing Captain America punching out Adolf Hitler, is the typical mind-set of the modern superhero. The ideal of superhero comics is that punching out Hitler would have made a difference. Of course, the reality couldn’t be further from the truth. The “never-ending war” with crime that Batman and his buddies fight is never-ending because of the superhero’s tactics. You can’t bully life into being fair, no matter how strong you are, what you dress up as at night, or how hard you punch.
In The Dark Knight, it’s the end of Batman’s innocence, he faces a challenge that forces him to scrutinize everything he’s ever done and everything he’s ever believed. Batman took up this war against crime, this escalating tactic of attacking the mob, but he never stopped to think about the consequences of his actions. Batman thought he was above it all. He set himself up above the law, put on a mask and cowl, talked in a deep voice and pushed around the criminal underworld. Look at the example he has set for the rest of the world. Now the whole city that man oversees is filled with men and women who put on masks or make-up, and believe that makes them above society too. That man in the cowl proved that one ideologue determined and crazed enough, could make a difference. For the better? For the worse? It doesn’t matter, he made a difference. The others follow him in turn. Sure their visions of what the world should be clashes with the one man’s vision, but ultimately? They’re the same. Batman’s influence has unleashed a different kind of threat onto the streets of Gotham; and by the end of the movie, it changes Batman’s perspective on what he truly is and what he must become to defeat The Joker.
I saw Dark Knight at a packed late-night screening in a theater with the most uncomfortable chairs ever built in the history of man, and I managed to sit for over two hours without noticing. From the very first frame of this film, I was a captive audience, and a lot of that had to do with the late Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker.
Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker is a hyper-frenzied combination of Tadanobu Asano’s Kakihara and Anthony Hopkins’s Hannibal Lecter. Ledger blends two of the most iconic villains in recent film history with the hysterical lunacy of Batman’s most notable antagonist, creating an entirely faithful, and yet completely original interpretation of the Clown Prince of Crime. It’s an engaging and exciting performance and the best work Ledger has ever done; but don’t get suckered in by the cult of celebrity, those weasels and walking toad-farts who are attempting to transform Ledger’s acting into some kind of pathetic psycho-analysis of his final days. Let’s not undermine Ledger’s art, his work or the very real suffering of his friends and loved ones with this romanticized horse pucky. I didn’t know Heath Ledger, I never met the man, and I have no idea what problems he was facing in his life; but what I do know is that his performance in The Dark Knight is a cause for praise, not for morbid speculation.
As Dark Knight trailers came out, fans were divided into multiple sides about which Joker adaptation was the best and the most faithful to the Batman comics. The reality is that all of them have been faithful to the role. Jack Nicholson’s over the top performance, Mark Hamill’s popular vocal adaptation for the animated series, and Cesar Romano’s fondly remembered antics in the cult 1970s TV series are all diverse but accurate portrayals of the maestro of mayhem.
The Joker has always been the Clown Prince of Supervillains. Comics have featured stronger villains, bigger villains, and certainly more dangerous supervillains, but there’s never been a better one. The Joker’s inspired a diverse collection of performances because he is such a multi-faceted character with such a wide range. Joker is not bound by traditional criminal logic; he’s not even bound by the general definitions of insanity. As Grant Morrison wrote in the Arkham Asylum graphic novel, The Joker is like someone who completely destroys and rebuilds their personality from the ground up every time you meet them. So one moment he’s a bank robber, the next he’s a prankster, and the next time you meet him he’s eating your flesh off the bone. The Joker is as free as any human being can possibly be, and that’s exactly what makes him so goddamn frightening; because there isn’t a person alive who can’t relate to him. Everybody has had a day when they thought about what it would be like, to not have to play by the rules. That’s the real reason why Joker’s chemistry with Batman is so volatile. For a guy like Batman, who has already broken so many rules, who’s crossed so many lines with a single-minded justification; The Joker is a very dangerous antagonist, not just on a physical level, but on a moral one.
Comic book fans have asked for years “why doesn’t Batman just kill the Joker?” Batman knows that The Joker will never reform, never stop killing people and that no prison or asylum can hold him. The Joker will just keep coming back over and over and over again. Why not just shoot the bastard and be done with it?
Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight gives us a legitimate answer.
Batman can’t kill the Joker, because even if he did, it wouldn’t change a goddamn thing; except the Batman. In Nolan’s Dark Knight, the horrifying reality of the Joker is not just what he does, but that he exists; and by logical assumption if there’s one Joker, there will be another. Batman’s actions and his escalation of the war on crime has opened the flood gates for a new breed of chaos to prey on Gotham City; and that chaos won’t be stopped with a bullet.
Watch The Dark Knight Trailer:
Popularity: 17% [?]
[ ‹‹ Trapped Ashes (2008) Asylum (2008) ›› ]