we can watch the world devoured in its pain
so. the dark knight. saw it last night- interestingly the annoying part wasn't waiting in line to get tickets, or the concession stand, it was the line to actually get into the theater. they were cramming so many showings of the film so close to each other that when we got out of ours at ten there was a line going down the entire hallway to go in after us. normally i like the atmosphere of a crowded movie theater, but not this time - it was packed with kids born in 1992 or later, who giggled far too much at inappropriate moments and talked on their phones in the middle of the show. and as vidal put it, "they think they know batman" (vidal seems to have a particular revulsion to this generation, he must have more contact with them than i do). mostly for this reason i want to see the dark knight again, but in a much smaller setting, to the point where i'm thinking of downloading it, which i've never done with a movie and don't like to (not like they need any more of my money).
but on to the movie itself. it was excellent, i'd say a little bit shy of a masterpiece. the amazing atheist made a show of comparing it to many of the past best picture winners in the last twenty years and how the dark knight trumped the majority of them. but i have a hard time comparing it to other movies because it didn't have the typical hollywood structure. vidal pointed out that it was really like watching a tv marathon of all the good joker episodes. and i kind of liked that, you never knew where it was going, but it was all good and you could sit there watching it for hours. perez hilton said that it didn't have a trump card, it didn't dazzle with special effects, but most of all the characters were not developed enough. but that's the point. its like that very wise quote - the difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense. and the dark knight refuses to adhere to that - the joker is an agent of chaos, he has no tortured back story, no burning motivation behind his actions. he just is. he is one part mischievous demon, one part utterly ordinary human being. i'm amazed how heath ledger captured that - he's not suave, he possesses no extraordinary presense. but he is incredibly intelligent and, like this movie, has no rules.
probably one of the images that this movie will go down in history for is that of heath ledger, in face paint and a nurse's uniform, waddling happily like a 5-year-old out of an exploding hospital. not surprisingly, this was one of the moments that the teenyboppers in the theater were giggling - they laughed at a lot of the joker's scenes, and i can't really blame them. the joker is the embodiment of absurdity, in all its darkness and lightness, the easiest way for a person to cope with that level of chaos is to laugh at it. but there was definitely a point where i just wanted to say "stfu, it isn't funny anymore." the moments where the joker became truly frightening were made even more so by his contrast with humor. he was jarring and unpredictable, without a plan but always ten steps ahead - what a villain should be.
the dark knight is very much an ensemble movie, to the point where its not necessarily about batman anymore. thankfully, its not called "batman" so really they haven't broken any promises there. the name the dark knight serves several purposes. there's the obvious pun of the dark night, representing the darkness that envelops gotham city - the night is darkest before the dawn, as harvey dent says - and the joker's reign over it. and also there's "the dark knight" as a symbol, an entity that exists in all people. we have bruce wayne's story, we know where he comes from, we know where his darkness is. the movie is about him finding the light in him, where other men are finding their darkness. aaron eckhart really was surprisingly fantastic - he was rather cheesy at the beginning, almost having too many good lines that he didn't know what to do with. but he handled harvey's descent incredibly well, i was really stunned and amazed. i'm glad also that i got to be impressed by gary oldman yet again - i felt like he got a bit ripped off in the last film, but they made up for it in this one. the fact that nearly everyone in the theater was quietly devastated when he "died" says some great things about the old man. and maggie gyllenhaal i liked, possibly more than katie holmes.
as for being dazzled - you know, in the first 20 minutes i was a tad bit worried. the atmosphere was not as rich as i expected, and i was afraid that this film wouldn't pull me in the way i wanted it to. it was a tall order - the film has so much going it ran a very distinct risk of feeling disjointed and lacking flow. but somehow christopher nolan pulls it off - the film just keeps building and building slowly. i think i spent the last half hour of the film, probably more, with my hands to my face, at one point with my legs curled up into the seat (shoes off, of course). because, of course, he couldn't start out with full impact, the film was exhausting enough as is, people would've hyperventilated half way through. like i said, i have to watch it again, but the film wasn't jam-packed with gorgeous cinematography or crazy amazing special effects. it was just enough, just at the right moments. i think one of my favorite things nolan used was something that i'm going to call the roller coaster shot, these floating air shots that tipped and dropped in way that gives the audience the legitimate stomach-lurching effect of vertigo. not only were those things like that that nolan used unique and gorgeous, but they complemented the story and theme of the film.
this really is an extraordinary put together piece of art. it is packed to the rim which every ounce of quality that everyone involved in it could muster, and you can feel that and see that. i really really need to see this again, i loved it but i feel like i only absorbed a fraction of it. and to anyone who sees it and has trouble because it isn't enough of a "superhero" movie, like perez hilton thought, then you just don't know batman.
(p.s. the subject line is from smashing pumpkins "the beginning is the end is the beginning," which was used in the watchmen trailer - squeeeeeeee - and was originally from the batman & robin soundtrack. that just amused me hehe.)
but on to the movie itself. it was excellent, i'd say a little bit shy of a masterpiece. the amazing atheist made a show of comparing it to many of the past best picture winners in the last twenty years and how the dark knight trumped the majority of them. but i have a hard time comparing it to other movies because it didn't have the typical hollywood structure. vidal pointed out that it was really like watching a tv marathon of all the good joker episodes. and i kind of liked that, you never knew where it was going, but it was all good and you could sit there watching it for hours. perez hilton said that it didn't have a trump card, it didn't dazzle with special effects, but most of all the characters were not developed enough. but that's the point. its like that very wise quote - the difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense. and the dark knight refuses to adhere to that - the joker is an agent of chaos, he has no tortured back story, no burning motivation behind his actions. he just is. he is one part mischievous demon, one part utterly ordinary human being. i'm amazed how heath ledger captured that - he's not suave, he possesses no extraordinary presense. but he is incredibly intelligent and, like this movie, has no rules.
probably one of the images that this movie will go down in history for is that of heath ledger, in face paint and a nurse's uniform, waddling happily like a 5-year-old out of an exploding hospital. not surprisingly, this was one of the moments that the teenyboppers in the theater were giggling - they laughed at a lot of the joker's scenes, and i can't really blame them. the joker is the embodiment of absurdity, in all its darkness and lightness, the easiest way for a person to cope with that level of chaos is to laugh at it. but there was definitely a point where i just wanted to say "stfu, it isn't funny anymore." the moments where the joker became truly frightening were made even more so by his contrast with humor. he was jarring and unpredictable, without a plan but always ten steps ahead - what a villain should be.
the dark knight is very much an ensemble movie, to the point where its not necessarily about batman anymore. thankfully, its not called "batman" so really they haven't broken any promises there. the name the dark knight serves several purposes. there's the obvious pun of the dark night, representing the darkness that envelops gotham city - the night is darkest before the dawn, as harvey dent says - and the joker's reign over it. and also there's "the dark knight" as a symbol, an entity that exists in all people. we have bruce wayne's story, we know where he comes from, we know where his darkness is. the movie is about him finding the light in him, where other men are finding their darkness. aaron eckhart really was surprisingly fantastic - he was rather cheesy at the beginning, almost having too many good lines that he didn't know what to do with. but he handled harvey's descent incredibly well, i was really stunned and amazed. i'm glad also that i got to be impressed by gary oldman yet again - i felt like he got a bit ripped off in the last film, but they made up for it in this one. the fact that nearly everyone in the theater was quietly devastated when he "died" says some great things about the old man. and maggie gyllenhaal i liked, possibly more than katie holmes.
as for being dazzled - you know, in the first 20 minutes i was a tad bit worried. the atmosphere was not as rich as i expected, and i was afraid that this film wouldn't pull me in the way i wanted it to. it was a tall order - the film has so much going it ran a very distinct risk of feeling disjointed and lacking flow. but somehow christopher nolan pulls it off - the film just keeps building and building slowly. i think i spent the last half hour of the film, probably more, with my hands to my face, at one point with my legs curled up into the seat (shoes off, of course). because, of course, he couldn't start out with full impact, the film was exhausting enough as is, people would've hyperventilated half way through. like i said, i have to watch it again, but the film wasn't jam-packed with gorgeous cinematography or crazy amazing special effects. it was just enough, just at the right moments. i think one of my favorite things nolan used was something that i'm going to call the roller coaster shot, these floating air shots that tipped and dropped in way that gives the audience the legitimate stomach-lurching effect of vertigo. not only were those things like that that nolan used unique and gorgeous, but they complemented the story and theme of the film.
this really is an extraordinary put together piece of art. it is packed to the rim which every ounce of quality that everyone involved in it could muster, and you can feel that and see that. i really really need to see this again, i loved it but i feel like i only absorbed a fraction of it. and to anyone who sees it and has trouble because it isn't enough of a "superhero" movie, like perez hilton thought, then you just don't know batman.
(p.s. the subject line is from smashing pumpkins "the beginning is the end is the beginning," which was used in the watchmen trailer - squeeeeeeee - and was originally from the batman & robin soundtrack. that just amused me hehe.)