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 (072508) When
a movie gets things so right, the least a writer can do is to take the time and
find the exact words that it deserves. While hyperbolic phrases and fan boy
adjectives swim around in my head, they are somewhat cheap and childish compared
to what a rich and mature piece of work that The Dark Knight is. Yes, the word
mature has been applied to a comic book translation. No less to a character that
has endured the campiness of a ‘60s TV show, Tim Burton’s Prince soundtrack and
Joel Schumacher’s emasculating reimagination. Christopher Nolan brought him into
the 21st century and took so much care in setting up Batman Begins that it
immediately became one of the best comic book film ever made. For its inevitable
sequel it would have been so easy, now having reinvigorated Batman fanatics and
hooking a few uninitiated, to take the standard studio approach to bigger,
faster, louder. Throw money at the venture and let the filmmakers run wild until
it acted and sounded like every other big budget summer tent-pole. Along with
his screen-writing partner brother, Jonathan, Christopher Nolan has gone beyond
every call of duty including the unwritten rule that sequels cannot possibly
measure up to the original. You will notice that those which are almost
universally accepted as accomplishing that feat are also considered some of the
finest films ever made (i.e. The Godfather Part II, The Empire Strikes Back).
The Dark Knight rises to that ranking as the most brilliantly complex, perfectly
paced, nerve-jangling, moral-wrangling film ever based on a graphically detailed
literary work and, dare I say, one of the most important American films to be
made in years.
For those remembering the tease at the end of Nolan’s first chapter, a criminal
known as The Joker (Heath Ledger) has been robbing banks across Gotham. We are
witness first hand to one in the opening scene led by the mysterious sociopath
colored with green hair and white makeup. Meanwhile, the Batman phenomenon has
really taken hold around the city. Before he can even answer the bat signal,
crude amateurs arrive on the scene in homemade outfits and awkwardly try to
thwart the criminals. It may seem like precisely the kind of inspiration that
Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) was hoping for with his little gambit but their
sloppiness is liable to eventually produce greater harm than good. Those scars
and late nights are catching up to him though and it would be nice to have a
little more reliable help.
Bruce isn’t sure what to make yet of District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron
Eckhart), especially since he’s dating his childhood friend, Rachel Dawes
(Maggie Gyllenhaal, taking over for Katie Holmes). He’s out there making
speeches and doing his best to put away mob boss Sal Maroni (Eric Roberts) but
is he just another politician or a true-to-life do-gooder that can operate
within the law instead of outside it? Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) isn’t about
to introduce his avenging wild card to the establishment but Dent and
Wayne/Batman find each other on their own and recognize the other’s importance
to stopping crime for good in Gotham. The Joker isn’t interested in stability
though. Once a detriment to the mob’s cash stash, he is also joining forces to
produce a reign of terror and restore his own twisted sense of balance back to
the big city.
When history looks back upon the great villains of the cinema, it would be
shortsighted and downright foolish not to include Ledger’s Joker in the
discussion. And note I said Ledger’s Joker because this is more than just a full
embodiment of even the most nightmarish view of the character. Every
affectation, lizard-like tongue slurp, dialect octave and devil-eyed clarity
that hypnotizes us into believing every word he’s uttering turns the take of the
character from Cesar Romero and Jack Nicholson into a literal interpretation of
his name. Ledger’s turn is no joke. His “war paint” isn’t just for show. He is
death incarnate; a terrorist of the first order that nothing on the color chart
could warn us about, committing crimes in the light of day, escaping under cover
of night and a large piece of The Dark Knight’s master puzzle of moral contempt.
Ledger certainly doesn’t ignore the flamboyance of the Joker’s twisted mental
state. (You’ll never look at a disappearing trick the same way again.) But even
as he’s sliding down a mountain of cash, we are brought up to speed on the
modernization of the character. The gangster archetype of old in it for the
money now being replaced with the “burn, baby, burn” psyche who would rather
introduce fear into the world and watch it implode. While many accept the
chemical bath method as the most common theory of the Joker’s creation (from the
comics or Burton’s 1989 film), the Nolan's have done something very clever. Not
just by throwing us into an already established villain (and not wasting a
minute on a visual origin), but making him a mystery to even himself. Decades of
comic issues have developed varying stories for the Joker’s existence and past
speculation by his accomplices in the opening scene, Ledger spins one horrific
tale after another feeding into his own legend but also the more terrifying
prospect that evil has no definitive explanation.
Whatever he may or may not have done to himself, to go out on a performance of
this magnitude will only feed into the tragedy of Ledger’s passing, especially
when he IS nominated for supporting actor. It’s unfair to deflate the chances of
all the unseen performances of 2008, but whatever may be in store for us during
the final five months, The Dark Knight still should be nominated for Best
Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Makeup, Cinematography, Editing and
Sound. Just to name a few. It’s also off the mark to spend multiple paragraphs
on Ledger’s Joker when The Dark Knight is a true ensemble piece with even minor
characters like Morgan Freeman’s Lucius Fox, Michael Caine's Alfred and Gary
Oldman’s welcome-ly elevated Lt. Gordon receiving major moments that define
them.
Without clocking each actor’s screen time, it would not surprise one if you were
told that Bale, Ledger and Eckhart were within seconds of each other. As Batman
Begins dealt primarily in beginnings, Bale’s Bruce Wayne/Batman was a necessary
dominance. The Dark Knight delves deeper into duality; another chunk of the
giant puzzle. Batman on one side. The Joker on the other. Harvey Dent
in-between; a split that obviously achieves an further allegorical slant towards
the end. And still, Dent is no black-and-white figure. Making it clear early on
that he sees Batman as a necessary evil, Dent cannot help but be fueled by the
same anger when he feels unable to protect the citizens or even himself by those
who don’t prescribe to rules and codes. His lucky coin of chance allows him to
ignore the tough choices and leave it to the higher power of fate, which has a
not-so-funny way of deciding who lives and who dies. Since seeing the film, I’ve
already been asked twice by friends why we should care about Harvey Dent. It’s
very simple. Because Bruce Wayne cares about him and what he represents. Hope.
Promise. A Better Life. We’re already keyed into Bruce from the first film and
instinctually we care about his interests and relationships, which are slowly
being torn apart since his newly minted nightlife. First his house, the Wayne
legacy and everything in-between. The Dark Knight is the tragedy of Harvey Dent
for certain, but it is foremost a tragedy of us all.
With an election forthcoming this November, no matter what side you’re on we can
all agree that the prevailing factor in one candidate’s popularity is our belief
in what he represents – Hope. Promise. Change. We want to believe. We want to
care. We are Bruce Wayne wanting to protect him and will share the devastation
if he turns out to be just another politician. Gotham is our world, the grungy
half-empty glass where the Arkham inmates are running the asylum. (Even the
privacy vs. safety debate surfaces during a key moment.) At least it was until
Batman began making a difference, so it makes sense for Nolan & Co. to drop the
pretense of Gotham being otherworldly and making the city look a whole lot like
Chicago. (We are, after all, the much cleaner New York.) We all, also, have a
little vigilante in us. Could just be through words or an errant thought on some
unspeakable crime we hear on the nightly news. The Dark Knight finites the
concept though (to far more lasting effect than Neil Jordan’s pretentious The
Brave One last year) and has its villain do what another Gotham-esque hero
preached and that’s (paraphrasing) “taking the battle to us.” How will the
public react when presented with the choice. Will we – could we – kill? Or would
we BE killed? Boasting a lion’s share of solid action set pieces (and
drink-clutching moments of suspense), Nolan has avoided making everything that
Batman does as “cool.” Sure he can handle a motorbike as well as any circus
performer and over-end a semi like nobody’s business, but we also see the scars,
the consequences and the outrage of his actions.
The only film that even comes close this year to matching the power of this
experience is
WALL-E. But if that masterwork spoke to the
child within me then The Dark Knight assuredly spoke to the adult. Blowing out
of the water the elevated perception that fans have about the Spider-Man series
(which went from good to outstanding to outright bad), Nolan is only two
chapters in and he’s already not just given us the greatest comic book series
ever (with the two best films), he is only wetting our appetites for a finale to
this presumed trilogy. Unlike Superman II and Spider-Man 2 (the now #3 and #4 of
the cinema comics), the Nolan's leave a lot of room for an even greater
psychological mind-screw about our own roles as masters of our society. The Dark
Knight is bursting with so many ideas, so much tragedy, so much brilliance that
its tempting to suggest that the filmmakers have thrown everything into it the
way Spidey or Kal-El did in their second outings. As illustrated, tempting fate
is never a good idea, but I’d be willing to stake everything that by the time
Christopher Nolan, his brother Jonathan and all the cast members deliver the
final chapter, we will be looking at the definitive comic book series that is
likely to endure for centuries. Nolan proves that the comic book movie does not
have to be disposable junk food. It's about time.
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