Archive for the ‘Rants and Raves’ Category
The Dark Knight…upon reflection…
Sunday, August 10th, 2008
Let me just go ahead and say SPOILERS AHEAD! If you haven’t seen this movie (meaning, if you live on another planet) then don’t read any further.
This is a warning sentence in case you’re jumpy.
So anyways…me and Uncle Jim saw The Dark Knight last night and I have to say it was a riveting movie. It was a bare-knuckle, gritty take on Batman that — under the skillful direction of Chris Nolan — again puts the franchise where it belongs, namely AWAY from the campy crapfest that was “Batman Forever” and “Batman and Robin,” and at the same time reintroduces the world to The Joker, who, in this film, regains his street cred. This is the film’s greatest strength without a doubt.
Instead of a convoluted plotline that involves laughing gas, balloons and “this-plan-could-only-work-in-a-world-without-radar-and-the-military,” Nolan’s (and more specifically, Heath Ledger’s) Joker is a modern day terrorist who deals in anarchy, chaos and with each heist, he manages to reduce humans to their most base instincts (the ferry boat plan towards the end of the film demonstrates this best, I think).
What is most frightening about the Joker in this film is that he really has no agenda other than to “watch the world burn” as Alfred put it in his very telling parable. He creates panic, creates unrest and in this film proves a truly worthy adversary for both Batman and Gotham’s authorities.
That said, I think the films weakest point is it’s third act. The first and second acts of the film honestly could’ve just about completed it, and I honestly thought it was quickly on its way to a denoument.
I was wrong.
The third act really seemed like the beginning of a third movie involving one of the Batman series more interesting characters, Two-Face. In one scene (and not a long scene at that) Joker convinces this once-upright man of the law to become a murderous criminal, and then proceeds to let him go on a killing spree to avenge the death of Rachel Dawes (told you this was a SPOILER!).
His death, however, seems like a waste of such a GREAT character. His reign as Two Face lasts only 20 minutes or so before he’s killed in a fall. I really believe that the Nolan brothers could have done so much more with a script involving Two Face and Batman, but this ended any notion of that.
Who knows? Maybe the third Batman film (which I’m certainly assuming based on the grim ending of The Dark Knight) will revive an even more interesting character? Maybe Bane (not the Frankenstein version introduced in “Batman and Robin” but the South American mercenary who almost killed Bruce Wayne) would be a good way to end it…though a morbid one.
Aside from my criticisms here, I will say that the script was brilliant. Chris and Jonathan Nolan really peer into the soul of humanity and find interesting — sometimes even biblical — allusions to paint their story.
Joker’s repeated schemes that force others to kill or be killed; Batman’s fear that he has inadvertently “raised the bar” of criminality in Gotham; the many allusions to the corruption of power, most notably in Bruce Wayne’s “sonar experiment” that allows him to find anyone by using cell phone signals (a quick nudge-nudge at the Bush administration, I would imagine); and finally the power of terrorism and the panic that it brings, and how that can be exploited by someone strange enough to wield it. The themes aren’t trite and the solutions aren’t easy.
I was especially interested in Jim Gordon’s line as Batman decides to take the blame for the deaths that Two Face causes. He said, “[Batman] is the hero Gotham deserves.” It echoed the story of Israel in the Bible. They wanted a king, wanted a protector and wouldn’t trust God to be that for them, so they begged God for a king. Then he gave them a king. The king’s name was Saul, and he kept Israel in war for years. Don’t know if that was the point, but it rang true anyway.
Overall, the movie is one of the best Batman adaptations for the big screen ever made. I honestly just wish it would’ve been a little tighter and in this particular case, a little shorter.
Maybe I’ll like it better when I see it with the missus this week.
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