As we walked out of the theater, my friend turned to me and said, “Holy hell, that was a lot of movie.”
The Dark Knight is an awful lot of movie – at two hours and thirty minutes, it’s a lot to shove in your brain.
We pick up primarily where Batman Begins left off. In one scene, Harvey Dent puts it best — it’s always darkest before the dawn — and that’s where we find Gotham, knee deep in violence and corruption but at a pivotal moment when the scales are beginning to tip in the favor of clean streets and against the seedy criminal element that’s so pervasive in the city.
Enter The Joker, a sadistic, psychotic man who has little aim in life except to create chaos and confusion, but who has a crystal clear understanding of how to win back the streets in favor of Gotham’s hardened criminals – kill Batman.
The main thing is, The Dark Knight is what every comic book movie ever made should have been or should be striving to be. Comic books (or graphic novels, nowadays, depending) aren’t just silly little pieces of fluff dedicated to colorful drawings of extreme characters. Comic books wouldn’t be very popular if they didn’t deal with universal themes and elements that people can identify and associate with, things that come from everyday life, just presented in a far different fashion. The Dark Knight takes things that have always been turned into broad, often comical movies and narrows them down into a real world setting with real life people. Simply put, The Dark Knight succeeds because the filmmakers take this world seriously and seriously enough to give it a dramatic, nuanced feeling.
Batman/Bruce Wayne has become more withdrawn, in a way. He keeps up the exterior of the devil-may-care playboy, but he’s reaching burnout rapidly. Although he wishes for someone else to take up the mantle of Gotham’s hero, a question the film puts forward is that once he’s crossed the line to being Batman, can Bruce Wayne ever really give Batman up?
Heath Ledger’s performance is as excellent as everyone’s been saying. You can’t tell it’s Heath Ledger under all that pancake makeup as the Joker; the creepiest thing is that even his eyes look different. Does Ledger deserve an Oscar for this? Oh, absolutely. WIthout exaggeration, Heath Ledger created possibly one of the scariest villains in the history of film. This is a guy who without reason or remorse will torture you (probably while mocking you) and then kill you just for his own satisfaction. Even when he’s joking, it’s pretty terrifying. And after seeing The Dark Knight, I honestly doubt anyone can not hear the phrase, “Why so serious?” without hearing Ledger intoning it in your head and feeling a small shiver down your spine.
The great thing about the Joker is that he has no backstory, no explanation for why he’s completely insane. He just is what he is.
The real underappreciated actor here is Aaron Eckhart, who does an equally fabulous job as Harvey Dent. It’s one thing to play crazy, but Eckhart takes Harvey Dent and shows him to be a fallible human being which only makes his sharp descent into insanity even harder to bear. Christian Bale is effective as usual as Batman, but he takes a back seat to the supporting cast. Maggie Gyllenhaal is decent as Rachel Dawes, and far, far better than her predecessor, but she’s given little to work with other than to advance the plot along as necessary.
The Dark Knight is not a perfect film. It’s got its problems; some of the fight scenes and other scenes are difficult to follow, mainly because of the lighting and partly because of how certain scenes are shot. Batman gets some neat new technology that becomes really annoying to watch put into practice in the later parts of the film. There’s a side trip outside of Gotham that feels a little forced and unnecessary and only serves to really make a long movie longer.
All in all, though, it’s a stunning film, primarily because the actors and directors treat the material with such care and a sense of responsibility to take it seriously, which 99% of other “comic book” films get so very wrong.
It’s probably my most favorite film I’ve seen so far this year.
After I got over the whole “Damn, that was a lot of movie” thing, I realized that I really, really liked it. I’ll freely admit, too, to having nightmares involving the Joker that night, because, um, yeah, I definitely did. He was, simply put, pretty terrifying.
I saw it this afternoon, and I’m still giddy. Very giddy. I’ve become convinced in the subsequent hours that it’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever witnessed. It never felt long (can’t say that for Begins) – just an incredible series of mind-blowing events culminating ultimately on the purest, most epic level of OMFG.
Christ, Ledger. I keep thinking back to that random mega-praisey critic’s quote for Marion in La Vie en Rose that was something like “The most astonishing immersion of one performer into another ever encountered on film.” It was so overbearing and hyperbolic, but, like, if you replace ‘another’ with ‘a character’… that’s pretty much my quote for Heath. Holy FUCK!!!!!
The third one’s probably gonna be awkward.
SPOILERS AHOY, FYI.
Yeah, J.D., I think the third is definitely going to be awkward, but they’ll find a way to carry it off with class, I think.
I wish they hadn’t killed off Harvey Dent so soon, though. It would’ve been nice to see them bring him back in the third. At least Gary Oldman is sticking around, thank Christ.
I went in with a fair amount of suspicion about Ledger’s performance, mainly because I don’t tend to buy into hype, but it bums me out so badly now that he didn’t live to see this because he deserved to hear all the good things that are being said about his performance right now. He really, really, really did something absolutely amazing that is just…astonishing.
And Cat? I am SO glad you liked it! Whee! Even though it was super long. The popcorn, candy and pretzel helped, no doubt. ;)
Oh, I agree there, but only if Nolan does it. Otherwise there is no chance it’ll be good, I think.
I thought (like most, it seems) that Two-Face would the villain for the third movie, but then like he shows up surprisingly early and does his thing and then falls to his death. Just like that. It was weird.
When Gordon “died”, my mom (who constantly watched the show in the sixties and saw the Burton/Schumacher movies and loved Begins – despite her not really being a fan of comic book anything) started freaking out. It was sort of fun.
Also, she won’t accept the fact that Rachel is dead, and she’s half-convinced me that she really isn’t. I mean, she’s mid-sentence and then it cuts and we see the explosions. We don’t even know if they found her corpse (if there was any corpse to find), and there’s nothing of existence told to us after that, arguably besides the note. IDK.
Heath. God.
Otherwise there is no chance it’ll be good, I think.
Yeah, Nolan is the only hope for this arc. He started it; now he’s going to have to finish it.
Your mom and I are much the same. My irrational love for Gary Oldman is so great that I thought Christopher Nolan and I were going to have a throwdown over Jim Gordon’s fake death. Once I realized it was fake, I could breathe again, because I would’ve been so upset if he died.
I mean, she’s mid-sentence and then it cuts and we see the explosions. We don’t even know if they found her corpse (if there was any corpse to find), and there’s nothing of existence told to us after that, arguably besides the note. IDK.
Oh, I can see that for sure, but I just have the feeling that she’s dead. She was holding the coin in her possession when she died (like, on her person) and it was pretty scorched on that one side.
I thought (like most, it seems) that Two-Face would the villain for the third movie, but then like he shows up surprisingly early and does his thing and then falls to his death. Just like that. It was weird.
Yeah, it felt odd. I mean, I understand why he had to die at the very end, in order for the “Everyone Hates Batman Now” thing to begin, but I felt a little robbed of having more awesome Aaron Eckhart. I don’t know who the next villain could be; I know Nolan’s said he refuses to do the Penguin because he’s too unbelievable. I know there was some talk of Harley Quinn (the Joker’s girlfriend, in the comic series) being cast in this one, but I theoretically don’t see how they could cast her in the next without the Joker, and they’re obviously not going to replace Ledger.
Who knows? They have a great deal of literature to pull from and I’m not familiar with 99% of it, so perhaps there’s a great villain out there somewhere they already have in mind.
re: Rachel: I get that, yeah.
I remember reading somewhere that Nolan is really only interested in doing villains that haven’t been done on-screen for the 3rd one. Like, Ra’s al Ghul and Scarecrow in Begins is a good start. Though, The Joker is way too obvious a choice NOT to do, so that excuses that, right?
Harley Quinn would’ve been awesome.
. Like, Ra’s al Ghul and Scarecrow in Begins is a good start. Though, The Joker is way too obvious a choice NOT to do, so that excuses that, right?
That would be awesome! OMG, and HOW MUCH did you love that Cillian Murphy cameo?! I irrationally love Cillian Murphy (if only he would gain a little more weight so he wouldn’t look like he’d snap like a twig in a strong breeze) and so it made me happy to see him pop up again, if in an odd place.
I seriously want to know who’s gonna do the third now! I waited years for this one and I’m already craving news for the third. What’s wrong with me?
At least hot-ass Christian Bale will be in Terminator Salvation, which will be the ONLY reason I’m going to see that movie.
Harley Quinn would’ve been awesome.
A thousand times agreed, but I think they would’ve had to give the Joker some backstory to explain her, and I think that would’ve been a little odd, to say the least. I like the idea of the Joker just … being the Joker and no one else. :D
CILLIAN!!!!!!!!! No one creeps me out and makes me insanely sweaty as much. He’s SUCH a great actor, too.
And, like, the moment I saw the Scarecrow mask I sort of brain-squealed.
I’m, like, insanely glad I FINALLY realized Christian Bale is a sexy beast a few months ago – before that I didn’t think he was, for whatever reason, IDK. GOD HE IS SO HOT. So of course I’m gonna see Terminator: No Arnie, Yay!!! next year. Well, that and Anton Yelchin. Older men in comic book franchises love perving on him, and so do I!
Yeah. What? Yeah.
LOL, why is this at the top?
JD: Yours is at the top because uh, I switched the default time settings on the blog while you were commenting! Whoops! I thought we were done for the night! :D
No one creeps me out and makes me insanely sweaty as much. He’s SUCH a great actor, too.
Red Eye was so much better than I expected, partly because of McAdams and a lot because of Murphy. Love. Him. I need to sit down and watch The Wind That Shakes The Barley; it was supposed to be good.
So of course I’m gonna see Terminator: No Arnie, Yay!!! next year. Well, that and Anton Yelchin. Older men in comic book franchises love perving on him, and so do I!
Anton Yelchin…(drools) God, I’m easy to please, aren’t I?
The Wind That Shakes the Barley IS great, and he’s great in it. Le duh.
God, I’m easy to please, aren’t I?
You say that like it’s a bad thing… :D
The Wind That Shakes the Barley IS great, and he’s great in it. Le duh.
Yeah, I’m sure – and it’s in my Netflix queue…along with 487 other movies. Seriously.
You say that like it’s a bad thing… :D
Hee!
I have 447 on mine! *jumps up and down screeching like a mentally ill teenage girl at a Jonas Brothers concert*
I have 447 on mine! *jumps up and down screeching like a mentally ill teenage girl at a Jonas Brothers concert*
Eee! So we’re in the same boat with being Netflix-obsessed, then? I’d pull more out of my queue, but out of the 450+ I have in my queue, only 60 are Watch it Now films, and none of them I’m dying to see.
Fantastic review Cait :)
Awww, Nick, thanks so very much!
Netflix is of the gods.™