my brain has just been blown. with awesome.
The Dark Knight is probably the best superhero movie ever made. I say "probably" only because I haven't seen them all. Also, it broke my heart.
Holy good Christ, was this movie dark. Like, you know how the media blitz keeps ramming that down your throat? A movie is "dark"? They keep saying that about Harry Potter movies; each one that comes out is darker than the last. And The Dark Knight is "dark." Well ... fucking yeah, this movie really is "dark."
There was so much death and destruction that it was unbelievable. Watching it was kind of like getting like getting a very slow, full-on body wax. Every victory of the Joker's just hurt more and more.
That was one thing that broke my heart. Over the last two years, I'd say, I've gotten really interested in ethics, in fiction and in real life, and the utter bleakness and hopelessness that clouded most of the movie really got to me. I have this addiction to seeing goodness in movies. Human decency is sort of an obsession of mine - a lot of the stuff I write comes from this perspective. But there's not a lot of it in The Dark Knight. Sometimes, it comes out, through a crack in the blinds. It's a struggle, though.
So watching this movie kind of hurt. It's a film about terrorism that, by virtue of being a comic book movie, doesn't need to be a political film. I guess you could make parallels to current events or whatever - and if you really want to, nothing will stop you - but I liked that the movie said a lot through a fictional world, without needing to tie it in to real life. That's the way good fiction should work - there's no reason a film can't be relevant even it's about a guy in a bat costume.
(As a side note, it was completely awesome to watch the movie and recognize Chicago locations. I mean, at one point I thought to myself, "I was just there a few weeks ago!")
And yeah, Heath Ledger. So when I first saw the teaser for The Dark Knight, my interest in Batman went from "Yeah, I'll see it, why not" to "The Joker looks amazing and psychotic and I want to see this movie." And this was before Heath died.
It's a really, really fabulous performance. Not sure what adjective would cover it. I totally support Oscar nomination. Actually, if by some chance I hadn't known who was playing the part, I would never have guessed Heath Ledger. Not because I doubted his acting abilities, but because he's so unrecognizable in the role. Goddamn.
Surprisingly, it was easy to watch the movie without thinking all the time about the unfortunate reality subtext. That's a testament to his acting. But every now and then I'd think about this being Heath's last role, and while it's a hell of one to leave us with, it also makes me kind of sick. His last performance is a cackling psychopath, and Heath is nowhere to be found, kind of like the Joker has no name, no history, nothing to track him - where the hell did Heath go?
I know a lot of people on my f-list hated Brokeback Mountain, but I loved it, and it's hard for me to think about Heath in that movie compared to this one. Like the last scene of BBM is so human, and there's nothing human in the Joker. Something about it kind of screws me up.
I don't think I ever posted when he died, probably because I didn't know what to say without sounding self-centered or trite, but I was surprised by how sad I was. I mean, I didn't shut down or anything. And I was kind of like, well, I didn't know the guy or anything. Why do I feel so upset? But it was just so strange and pointless, and he had so much left to offer. (And his kid.) I think I'll watch Brokeback Mountain this weekend and pretend that it came after The Dark Knight, so the last scene is one of him enduring, even in the face of grief.
Okay, there's more to be said about this movie, but it's late and sleep probably is a good thing. I'll certainly lose the track of what I'm feeling about the movie (btw: Gary Oldman is love, all the haters from Prisoner of Azkaban can suck it; Christian Bale is hot and a complete badass and I would subscribe to his newsletter; Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine, holy cow how do they get such good actors in the movie; I don't know what the general opinion is on Maggie Gyllenhaal, but I will say that I love her, and here is a list of movies people can see her in if there is no love: Secretary, Happy Endings, Stranger Than Fiction; Aaron Eckhart is like one of the few people who can play bland without being bland, if that makes any sense; what the hell, Anthony Michael Hall was in this movie???)
Holy good Christ, was this movie dark. Like, you know how the media blitz keeps ramming that down your throat? A movie is "dark"? They keep saying that about Harry Potter movies; each one that comes out is darker than the last. And The Dark Knight is "dark." Well ... fucking yeah, this movie really is "dark."
There was so much death and destruction that it was unbelievable. Watching it was kind of like getting like getting a very slow, full-on body wax. Every victory of the Joker's just hurt more and more.
That was one thing that broke my heart. Over the last two years, I'd say, I've gotten really interested in ethics, in fiction and in real life, and the utter bleakness and hopelessness that clouded most of the movie really got to me. I have this addiction to seeing goodness in movies. Human decency is sort of an obsession of mine - a lot of the stuff I write comes from this perspective. But there's not a lot of it in The Dark Knight. Sometimes, it comes out, through a crack in the blinds. It's a struggle, though.
So watching this movie kind of hurt. It's a film about terrorism that, by virtue of being a comic book movie, doesn't need to be a political film. I guess you could make parallels to current events or whatever - and if you really want to, nothing will stop you - but I liked that the movie said a lot through a fictional world, without needing to tie it in to real life. That's the way good fiction should work - there's no reason a film can't be relevant even it's about a guy in a bat costume.
(As a side note, it was completely awesome to watch the movie and recognize Chicago locations. I mean, at one point I thought to myself, "I was just there a few weeks ago!")
And yeah, Heath Ledger. So when I first saw the teaser for The Dark Knight, my interest in Batman went from "Yeah, I'll see it, why not" to "The Joker looks amazing and psychotic and I want to see this movie." And this was before Heath died.
It's a really, really fabulous performance. Not sure what adjective would cover it. I totally support Oscar nomination. Actually, if by some chance I hadn't known who was playing the part, I would never have guessed Heath Ledger. Not because I doubted his acting abilities, but because he's so unrecognizable in the role. Goddamn.
Surprisingly, it was easy to watch the movie without thinking all the time about the unfortunate reality subtext. That's a testament to his acting. But every now and then I'd think about this being Heath's last role, and while it's a hell of one to leave us with, it also makes me kind of sick. His last performance is a cackling psychopath, and Heath is nowhere to be found, kind of like the Joker has no name, no history, nothing to track him - where the hell did Heath go?
I know a lot of people on my f-list hated Brokeback Mountain, but I loved it, and it's hard for me to think about Heath in that movie compared to this one. Like the last scene of BBM is so human, and there's nothing human in the Joker. Something about it kind of screws me up.
I don't think I ever posted when he died, probably because I didn't know what to say without sounding self-centered or trite, but I was surprised by how sad I was. I mean, I didn't shut down or anything. And I was kind of like, well, I didn't know the guy or anything. Why do I feel so upset? But it was just so strange and pointless, and he had so much left to offer. (And his kid.) I think I'll watch Brokeback Mountain this weekend and pretend that it came after The Dark Knight, so the last scene is one of him enduring, even in the face of grief.
Okay, there's more to be said about this movie, but it's late and sleep probably is a good thing. I'll certainly lose the track of what I'm feeling about the movie (btw: Gary Oldman is love, all the haters from Prisoner of Azkaban can suck it; Christian Bale is hot and a complete badass and I would subscribe to his newsletter; Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine, holy cow how do they get such good actors in the movie; I don't know what the general opinion is on Maggie Gyllenhaal, but I will say that I love her, and here is a list of movies people can see her in if there is no love: Secretary, Happy Endings, Stranger Than Fiction; Aaron Eckhart is like one of the few people who can play bland without being bland, if that makes any sense; what the hell, Anthony Michael Hall was in this movie???)