The Dark Knight (2008 Warner Bros.)
by Zedian 
Dark, grim, haunting and visionary, welcome to the latest envision of Gotham City. "The Dark Knight" is nothing short of a spectacle, the best and scariest comic hero adaptation you are likely to see, possibly of this year and I will bravely say maybe of all time.
I say that above paragraph with the upmost of confidence as this film clearly goes two notches above 2005’s "Batman Begins," this follow-up represents Christopher Nolan's most accomplished and mature work to date. This is the same guy who gave us the modest noir "Following" , the witty post-modernist "Memento" through the well-acted and skillfully shot "Insomnia".
Through all the morbid imagery and events that unfold in this bleak movie that never really shows a lot of hope, the real hero is not the hero at all. It is indeed the Joker, which I am sure by now you might have heard of that guy…the Joker I remind you, not Heath Ledger. That is the thing though is Ledger’s brilliant performance goes beyond all that smudgy clown makeup he has on, you forget that there really is just an ‘actor’ underneath it all. In his dark, macabre humor and malevolent nature, Ledger goes way beyond the Joker that Jack Nicholson portrayed in the first "Batman" (1989).
Of all the Batman movies, including the first four, singly and jointly made by Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher, "Dark Knight" is the most technically impressive and the most resonant in tone, a picture that's in tune with the fear and paranoid that prevail in our society that is wrapped in still a 9/11 era.
Richer in text, characterization, and subtext, this movie once again suits Christian Bale, who reprises the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman, and with Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman, as his loyal team members. Christopher Nolan and brother Jonathan, whose scenario is based on a story by Nolan and David S. Goyer, the brothers have doubled the number of major persona to include Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and the committed new District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), both of whom try to help Batman fight and destroy organized crime in Gotham City and bring a ray of light in the dimness of it all. In a shrewd piece of casting, the filmmakers have chosen Maggie Gyllenhaal to play the only significant female role, Rachel Dawes, who once again is not much of a factor.
The organizing principle of the narrative is that of the triangle, or triad. There are at least four significant triads. First, there is Wayne-Batman/Alfred Pennyworth/Lucius Fox, then there is the romantic triangle of Wayne-Batman/Harvey Dent/Rachel Dawes, but arguably, the most intriguing one is that of Wayne-Batman/the Joker/Jim Gordon.
This heroic triumvirate of officers initially proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves nothing more than prey to a rising
| "Through all the morbid imagery and events that unfold in this bleak movie that never really shows a lot of hope, the real hero is not the hero at all." |
criminal mastermind known as the Joker, who thrusts Gotham into anarchy and forces the Dark Knight ever closer to crossing the fine line between good and evil. Then there is the BAD triad, consisted of largely crime figures headed by the Joker and including Naroni (played by Eric Roberts in a comeback performance), as one of the heads of the city's crime cartel, and Lau (Chin Han), an Asian business mogul. Almost each character has two sides and/or experiences worth of inner conflict. This is particularly the case of Harvey Dent, the newly elected DA, who begins as Gotham's White Knight and transforms into Two-Face, a horribly deformed man obsessively driven by one goal, revenge, which makes him closer to the Joker or more like him I’ll say.
The tale is more centralized on how Batman's very existence has changed Gotham, initially not necessarily for the better. There are negative consequences of his crusade brewing in Gotham City, which he brings to the surface both advertently and inadvertently, thus blurring the line between absolute good and absolute evil, notice how I am bringing up everything in twos. As a result, the tale is more complex, the morality more ambiguous, with many shades of gray that define both "heroes" and “villains”, in different prisms.
The billionaire playboy Wayne--with his fabulous cars, beautiful women, and nonchalant attitude--is no longer who this man really is. While Wayne wears a mask to hide his identity as Batman, it's actually Batman who becomes more of a Bruce Wayne’s identity.
As interpreted by the inventive actor Heath Ledger (in one of his last screen roles), the Joker is colorful, outrageous, and dangerous, devoted solely to prove that everyone is too consumed in their own ways and that maybe we are all freaks. Ledger throws himself completely, in looks, body, and soul to the exploration of the multiple effects he can have as a solitary figure on the entire population, the scary ways in which he upsets the social order, not once thinking about anything else other than complete chaos.
The interesting thing is we never get a good picture of why he is here, where he came from and what is his true intent, outside of telling different stories of how he got his scars.
In this picture, Batman's pursuit of justice also takes him on an odyssey halfway across the world to Hong Kong, in a visually stunning sequence, which marks the first time that the Caped Crusader has left the confines of Gotham City. The execution of the whole scope benefits primarily from the haunting music, that would make Bernard Herrmann proud, is composed by Oscar winner and multiple Oscar nominee Hans Zimmer ("The Lion King," "Gladiator") and seven-time Oscar nominee James Newton Howard ("Michael Clayton," "The Fugitive”). From The Departed-like entrance, we get a good ear on what to expect, the themes for each of the characters goes along nicely with the characters, such as the Joker’s single chord played out in a high pitch…setting a unsettling nerve of pain and discomfort that heightens many of his threatening moments onscreen.
Technically speaking, six sequences of "The Dark Knight" were filmed with IMAX cameras, including the opening six minutes, which represent bravura filmmaking. This marks the first time ever that a major feature film has been even partially shot using IMAX cameras, in what is an intriguing integration of the two formats. One that is hardly noticeable between sequences.
In closing, The Dark Knight is a true masterpiece of an epic, dark, complex and full of dialogue that allows us to focus more on the acting and the characters more than the man-behind-the-mask or the fact that this is a comic film. Truly one of the best hero movies, crime sagas, dramas and action films to come around in a long time, seeing this film makes you feel like you are apart of something special in cinema history.
| Visuals: | 9.5 |
| Sound: | 9.4 |
| Cast: | 9.2 |
| Plot: | 9.3 |
