I’m probably one of five people who didn’t see The Dark Knight in the theater. Since films come out on home video so quickly these days, armed with either closed captions or subtitles (the best friends of a hearing impaired person like myself) it’s just better for me to wait. And while I waited, I could not avoid the hype that had been spread regarding this film--mainly about the late Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker. Glowing adjectives along the lines of "brilliant" and "marvelous" and "dazzling" had been used--in describing both Ledger’s performance, as well as the film overall. And I just couldn’t help but wonder if this praise was overdone. To be blunt, I wondered if the critics’ gushing over Ledger’s Joker was simply because the poor man was dead. But, having now finally seen the film, all I can say is one thing:
Wow....
I’ve got to admit that I was hooked from the very opening sequence--which plays like a stark, gritty 1970s heist film--where the Joker informs a bank manager that "whatever doesn’t kill you simply makes you…stranger." With his alabaster-white face, greasy green hair and red-lipstick-connect-the-dots-smile to a pair of scars in his cheeks, I knew that I was in the presence of a rare big screen villain who was truly mesmerizing--as well as terrifying--to behold. There’s no labored origin story here; the Joker just blows into Gotham City like a force of nature, ready to give the Batman the challenge of his career by hiring himself out to the local mob bosses as Batman’s executioner. Ledger is so good that you barely recognize him here. Gone is the well-known Brokeback Mountain actor, replaced by a pure psychopath who genuinely loves creating anarchy and murderous mayhem wherever he goes.
But, unlike 1989’s Batman, where Jack Nicholson’s more campy (and just as entertaining in his own way) Joker stole the movie, The Dark Knight’s director, Christopher Nolan, smartly keeps the story’s focus on the Dark Knight himself. Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne/Batman may have successfully waged his personal war against crime to the point where the mob bosses--now fearful of the Batman--only meet during the daytime, but he now faces a nasty surprise when the Joker escalates the battle to a full scale war in the streets of Gotham City. And to top it off, the love of his life Rachel Dawes (now played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, who’s superb) is now dating dashing District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart--in a great, underrated performance that’s just as good as Ledger’s).
Bale is very good as a decent man with his own heart of darkness who’s still
relentlessly driven to fight crime--to the point where he goes all the way to
China to hunt down a thug--yet has now become so weary of being the sole
protector of Gotham City that he looks forward to the day when he can pack it in.
I reviewed the two-disc special edition of the Dark Knight, which has a digital
copy of the film. There’s no commentary (just like on Batman Begins), and the
second disc has a pair of documentaries (one deals with the creation of the
unique musical score, while the other looks at the designing of the new Batsuit
and Batpod), along with several scenes as they appeared in the Imax
format. There’s also a collection of slickly-created news broadcasts from the
fictional Gotham Tonight news show. And there’s also a gallery of stills.
Frankly, while I thought the movie was well worth owning, this second disc of
special features really under-whelmed me. Just get the single disc DVD (the
Blu-Ray version has all of these features). Many profound reasons have been
given why The Dark Knight was such a spectacular success (the Joker’s
anarchistic nature spoke to an audience that had become cynical of the
prevalent greed in today's society), but perhaps the real reason is more simple: The Dark Knight was an extremely well-made film. It’s a summer popcorn movie that still offers much food for thought. And the fact that it transcends the genre of the superhero film by speaking to so many people on so many different levels is ample proof of its genius.
--SF
Main Review Page | Fantasy |Email Me |Buy This on DVD
