The Dark Knight (2008)

I take too long to write these things. The immediacy of a blog certainly does not appeal to my more meticulous nature. Not that writing a review is an effort in parsing the layers of Shakespeare, but some films lend themselves to criticism better than others. Then there are those that won’t leave you once you leave the theater; the reviews that refuse to write themselves because the film won’t stick to the usual paradigms. Comic book movies tend to fall into the easier side of things. But not this time. THE DARK KNIGHT may have drawn its inspirations from the pages of a comic book, but what ended up on film is an exercise in excellence.

I’m a little more than a week late getting this in. What more can I say that hasn’t already been addressed in the great pantheon of writing and thought this film has produced? I’ll see what I can do, but the easiest thing to do is echo Jeffrey Overstreet’s sentiments--this film is everything you’ve heard it is, and probably more.

Christopher Nolan (dir. MEMENTO, THE PRESTIGE) somehow has an ability to turn a screen story into a layered morality tale. Even his early work on MEMENTO, apart from its creative use of exposition and narrative, explores its themes with a subtle hand, slowly twisting you deeper into the bleak realm of the protagonist. When Nolan delivered BATMAN BEGINS, he brought the same aplomb to a world perhaps ripest for this kind of development. The Batman has always held one characteristic that sets him apart from all of his peers. Underneath all that spandex, he’s just a man. Bruce Wayne’s hero is entirely self-made, driven by the horror of witnessing his parents’ murder, determined to return his fear to the criminals who rule the underworld of Gotham.

As THE DARK KNIGHT opens, Batman (Christian Bale) has the mob on the run and has inspired the city to stand up for justice. Some folks have even taken to the streets dressed as the caped vigilante. But the work of this dark hero has lit the fire under the good people of Gotham and moved them to elect a District Attorney, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), to prosecute the criminals Lt. James Gordon (Gary Oldman) and his major crimes unit apprehend. Bruce Wayne can see the day coming when he can hang up his cowl for good. Enter The Joker, a criminal bent on nothing more than pure, nihilist chaos, determined to remake the world in his image.

Heath Ledger is the Clown Prince of Crime. He disappears, even in the one moment (blink and you miss it) he appears without the white face. All that you see is the Joker. And his smile stabs a fright as deep as John Doe’s placid grin from SE7EN. Ledger has turned in a performance as iconic as Kevin Spacey’s Doe, Anthony Hopkins’s Lecter, and Javier Bardem’s Chigurh.

My favorite performance, however, has to be Gary Oldman’s turn as James Gordon. He is the anchor of this story, a righteous man with almost no resources summoning the courage to do the thing right. Oldman reaches back to the subtler power of heroes like Atticus Finch, the everyman determined to see justice out. He runs almost counterpoint to Batman/Bruce Wayne, the truest acolyte of the caped crusader’s call to justice.

As the plot unfolds, it asks serious questions. How far must one go to defeat evil? What measures must one employ to end tyranny? The Batman walks a ragged edge, facing a villain with no modus operandi, just straight up villainy. His evil recalls, as others have stated (and with far greater eloquence) the senseless tyranny of terrorism. He does it all with a smile. He is, as he says in the film, like a dog chasing cars. “I wouldn’t know what to do if I ever caught one!” His only goal is to see the righteous succumb to his madness, and everyone enters his sights eventually, including the city’s white knight, Harvey Dent. So each knight is tested, and each endures the scorching flame of the Joker’s madness.

This is a dark movie, one that reaches into the heart of darkness with every bit of probing awareness as NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. Yet THE DARK KNIGHT lets its curtain descend on a note of nobility and hope. The Batman might walk a razor’s edge, but he keeps his perch so that others would not have to. He may not be the hero Gotham wants, but he’s the hero Gotham needs.

Every movie has a few rough patches. There were rumors a few months back that the filmmakers were trying desperately to whittle down the running time from three hours to something a little more manageable. What they turned in runs 145 minutes, and some moments leave behind a sense of something missing. But those moments run few, and the pace screams so fast that the minutes tick by almost unnoticed. The IMAX presentation of select scenes will rekindle your love for the 4:3 aspect ratio. The audience in my screening cheered four times, folks. This is a film for the age; a perfect manifestation of contemporary myth. See this movie. And then see it again.