The Dark Knight
Wow, what an experience! The movie starts hard core with a crime in progress, a common every-day cinema crime. All the rules are being broken again and again, making what was a workaday heist into a peek into the madness behind the perpetrator’s madness. The Joker’s paradigm is eschew predictability, and the Dark Knight movie then follows suit.
It seemed to me that this movie had flirted with an R-rating (for Joker-on-victim violence) but was reined in for the profitable PG-13 teen set. Two scenes featuring the painted sociopath which could have verged on torture porn had they not been so (thankfully) santitized. Why mention it? Much ballyhoo has surrounded this, the late Heath Ledger’s last performance, and rightly so. What makes the rating relevant is that the almost-R shows us how unhinged this Joker is, how reckless with life, mercy, honor, any form of rules. I regret director Christopher Nolan had to constrain such a delicious beast for the sake of box office dollars. Not that this film is hurting for them – despite our eagerness to see this as soon as possible, it still took 5 days to get a ticket. Hopefully the (already pre-ordered) Blu-Ray will have the director’s Chaotic Evil cut.
Nolan’s last reinvention of this storied franchise brought the cinematic path of the Caped Crusader back to the dark brooding alleys and rooftops he was always meant to haunt. This one introduces the burdens of Bruce Wayne’s underground activities, the futility of saving a public that still vilifies you regardless of your saving deeds, and addresses some kind of mob/money plot confusion. Be not fooled, this movie may circle D.A. Harvey Dent, and may toy with Wayne’s weariness and loneliness, but this story belongs heart and soul to Ledger’s Joker. No disrespect to star Christian Bale, but even an interesting and tormented hero disappears under the glare of such a fantastically realized character.
Ledger’s voice-overs in the early teaser trailers recalled the PG-13-friendly Jack Nicholson’s turn at bat (a bridge from the pastel 60’s to the darker 1989) with his mealy pronouncements and kooky japery. In context, however, Ledger’s venomous and alarmingly cogent murmur is its own beast, circling his victims invisibly. To compare Nicholson and Ledger is ridiculous, everything here is different. But Ledger’s Joker, while truly anarchic, sociopathic, is also more solid, more real, more possible – and therefore more terrifying than whimsical. It is a great, hypnotic performance, aided by the story laying itself bare to him like a volunteer for sacrifice, making him more powerful, more ahead of the game, not just some scarred guy mugging for attention. That is, once you clear the jumble mob-Hong Kong business and get down to the nitty gritty. No distracting or artificial motives or backstories muddle his waters. You can see all the way down into the bottomless depths of his naked wickedness. He is just a force of nature, and we’re all swept up by it. (I know, hyperbole much? But it’s what makes the movie really stick with you, not the crazy vehicles or the new suit.)
James Newton Howard (with Hans Zimmer contributing) repeats the slow burn score from last time, but with a terrific intense crazy-theme for the Joker. It’s such a simple, spare score but one that supports rather than distracts. Some of the regular folk in the movie are pretty colossally stupid, falling into bad guy traps like lemmings on a steep slope. With a smarter populace, Gotham City wouldn’t have gotten into half the mess it’s in now (or elected patently evil-looking Nestor Carbonell as mayor) so probably it can’t be helped. Our leads are smart and that’s what we need.
Replacing Katie Holmes with superior, and age-appropriate, Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel was a good choice, especially because her character has to do more heavy lifting in the story and needs to have the full range of adult emotion at hand. Besides the clumsy mob story line, my only real complain is the over-the-top gravel filter on Christian Bale’s voice box when he’s in the suit. It’s all well and good for mysterious and/or dramatic one-liners like “I’m watching you,” but for extended conversation it’s a bit much. It’s a strong movie, Ledger’s delicious menace overriding any of my minor quibbles to keep the rating at Full Price Feature. It’s also a strong farewell to the barely tapped reservoir of Ledger’s potential work. Definitely see it, if you didn’t beat me to it already.
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Epilogue: Thanks to Michael Uslan for recommending I see this in IMAX. Better sound, simply gorgeous and epic and worth the $16 admission to see it a second time.
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MPAA Rating PG-13
Release date 7/18/08
Time in minutes 152
Director Christopher Nolan
Studio Warner Brothers
