Impressions of "The Dark Knight"
I finally felt well enough today to go see "The Dark Knight" and I am still, hours later, at a loss to accurately describe it.
It's one of the most complex, nuanced movies I've seen in recent memory, despite being "just a comic book movie." Chris Nolan and his brother Jonathan took the idea from Alan Moore's legendary one-shot The Killing Joke and combined it with Two-Face's origin and a liberal dose of moral ambiguity to create a dark, interwoven story where Batman's eternal quest for justice and order meets its ultimate challenge: the unbreakable foe.
I don't want to talk about Heath Ledger's performance, except to say that he got the Joker right. He put Jack Nicholson to complete shame, making him nothing more than a pitiful imitation of Cesar Romero's crappy-puns-and-silly-bombs TV version. The Joker is not a jolly man in a colorful suit. The Joker is a man so far around the bend that "insane" is like calling Stalin "disagreeable." He's Batman's ultimate villain, a living symbol of fear, chaos, and anarchy, the man who can't be defeated because he has nothing to lose. The Joker paralyzed Jim Gordon's daughter (as Batgirl), killed the second Robin, and always, always comes back for more.
But Batman won't kill him. He won't cross that line, break his one rule and take a life. It's the thing that separates him, in his mind, so starkly from those against whom he battles. But it's also the only way to beat the Joker for good. They're eternal foes, locked in combat until one of them finally kills the other. But Joker won't do it because he needs Batman. He has to have someone to trade blows with or he'll get bored. And boredom is as good as death for the Joker. All this is a pageant, a massive practical joke he's acting out for his own amusement, regardless of the consequences. It's all worth it if he gets a laugh.
And I've been waiting for that version of The Joker on the big screen since I heard Mark Hamill's psychotic giggle on "Batman: The Animated Series." He could flip that switch from merry to mental instantly and as a child, it chilled me a little to think that there might be people in the world like that. That's what the Joker is there for. He is everything that's wrong with modern society and its constant lust for instant gratification, folded into a sick and sadistic sense of humor that makes his casual brutality all the more unnerving. It's like he said in the movie: as long as people think there's a plan, even the most monstrous acts can make sense. The Joker strips away the context and kills, steals, maims, and destroys just for the hell of it. The only thing that could have possibly made this film better would have been if the Joker had been whistling the melody that was his theme on the animated series as he strolled casually through the mayhem at some point.
And don't get me started on Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent. His entire story dovetailed so well with The Killing Joke and they did such a great job setting it up that it all made perfect sense. And the special effects for Two-Face. And all his tropes (the half-and-half suit, the scarred two-headed coin, the name itself) all fit so...so perfectly. So expertly done as to make all previous attempts seem shallow and childish by comparison.
I think I may need to see it again to fully appreciate it. And I will be buying the DVD. Plus, I'd get to see the Watchmen trailer again and get the chill when I see The Comedian and Dr. Manhattan mowing down coolies in Vietnam as casual as you please. The new Spirit tralier, though, I'm not so excited about. It looks like another story from "Sin City" with a domino mask slapped on it, not the real Spirit.
It's one of the most complex, nuanced movies I've seen in recent memory, despite being "just a comic book movie." Chris Nolan and his brother Jonathan took the idea from Alan Moore's legendary one-shot The Killing Joke and combined it with Two-Face's origin and a liberal dose of moral ambiguity to create a dark, interwoven story where Batman's eternal quest for justice and order meets its ultimate challenge: the unbreakable foe.
I don't want to talk about Heath Ledger's performance, except to say that he got the Joker right. He put Jack Nicholson to complete shame, making him nothing more than a pitiful imitation of Cesar Romero's crappy-puns-and-silly-bombs TV version. The Joker is not a jolly man in a colorful suit. The Joker is a man so far around the bend that "insane" is like calling Stalin "disagreeable." He's Batman's ultimate villain, a living symbol of fear, chaos, and anarchy, the man who can't be defeated because he has nothing to lose. The Joker paralyzed Jim Gordon's daughter (as Batgirl), killed the second Robin, and always, always comes back for more.
But Batman won't kill him. He won't cross that line, break his one rule and take a life. It's the thing that separates him, in his mind, so starkly from those against whom he battles. But it's also the only way to beat the Joker for good. They're eternal foes, locked in combat until one of them finally kills the other. But Joker won't do it because he needs Batman. He has to have someone to trade blows with or he'll get bored. And boredom is as good as death for the Joker. All this is a pageant, a massive practical joke he's acting out for his own amusement, regardless of the consequences. It's all worth it if he gets a laugh.
And I've been waiting for that version of The Joker on the big screen since I heard Mark Hamill's psychotic giggle on "Batman: The Animated Series." He could flip that switch from merry to mental instantly and as a child, it chilled me a little to think that there might be people in the world like that. That's what the Joker is there for. He is everything that's wrong with modern society and its constant lust for instant gratification, folded into a sick and sadistic sense of humor that makes his casual brutality all the more unnerving. It's like he said in the movie: as long as people think there's a plan, even the most monstrous acts can make sense. The Joker strips away the context and kills, steals, maims, and destroys just for the hell of it. The only thing that could have possibly made this film better would have been if the Joker had been whistling the melody that was his theme on the animated series as he strolled casually through the mayhem at some point.
And don't get me started on Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent. His entire story dovetailed so well with The Killing Joke and they did such a great job setting it up that it all made perfect sense. And the special effects for Two-Face. And all his tropes (the half-and-half suit, the scarred two-headed coin, the name itself) all fit so...so perfectly. So expertly done as to make all previous attempts seem shallow and childish by comparison.
I think I may need to see it again to fully appreciate it. And I will be buying the DVD. Plus, I'd get to see the Watchmen trailer again and get the chill when I see The Comedian and Dr. Manhattan mowing down coolies in Vietnam as casual as you please. The new Spirit tralier, though, I'm not so excited about. It looks like another story from "Sin City" with a domino mask slapped on it, not the real Spirit.