The Dark Knight Is Simply Brilliant

The term “comic book movie” can’t even be used in connection with The Dark Knight. While its characters may have originated between the pages of DC Comics, Christopher Nolan has forged a masterpiece that is a gritty crime drama, a study in human behavior and a knockdown, dragout action flick.

Spoilers after the jump.

The movie revolves around the amazing performance of Heath Ledger as The Joker, and here he creates one of the great villains in screen history. There are no acid squirting flowers or joy buzzers here. This psychotic clown’s choice of weapon is a knife because of the sheer brutality he wishes to inflict.

This Joker isn’t just a criminal, he’s a violent, destructive force of nature. His mind games push Gotham’s heroes to the brink of insanity in some cases and completely over the edge in one. Batman, Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent are charged with figuring out how to use society’s rules to catch a man that doesn’t play by them. As Michael Caine’s Alfred explains to Bruce Wayne, “Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

Ledger has earned the posthumous Oscar nomination that is being talked about. He creates a character unlike any that has ever appeared on screen. He inspires laughter, tears and disgust all within moments of each other. In playing Gotham’s criminal element against those who would enforce the law, he exposes the fears and weaknesses of both groups.

Soon even the mafia that offered him free reign of Gotham City realizes The Joker can’t be trusted, controlled or contained. He makes a perfect foil for Batman because deep down neither man is stable.

Christian Bale again nails the tortured soul of the crimefighter while playing Bruce Wayne as the dim bulb oblivious to the world around him. This Batman’s true disguise isn’t the mask, it’s that Bruce Wayne is such an arrogant, selfish boob no one would possibly suspect him of being noble. In this film we learn just how much Batman has to sacrifice to save Gotham.

And sacrifice he does. This movie shows us that Batman can’t save everyone and that not everyone in Gotham thinks the Caped Crusdader should be the city’s savior.

Equally compelling is Aaron Eckhart’s descent into madness, also spurred on by The Joker. Gone are the two-sided suits, dual girlfriends and scene-chewing of Tommy Lee Jones’ Two-Face. The first time this villain’s face is shown sends shockwaves through the theater. The heroes are left to ponder what hope Gotham has if a man like Joker can do this to the best of them.

Morgan Freeman and Caine show these elder statesmen can hold their own with this generation’s best actors. They portray some of the few men that can tell Batman when he’s making a mistake and rightfully expect him to listen.

Gary Oldman, best known for some of his villainous roles, gives a powerful humanity to Commissioner Gordon. We feel his uncertainty about who to trust, which rules must be kept sacred and which have to be broken.

Some Batfans didn’t feel Nolan’s Batman Begins had enough action. Those fans will find little to complain about here. Though this pair doesn’t have superpowers, Batman and Joker’s battles tear the city apart even better than Hulk and Abomination did a few weeks ago. Nolan’s use of IMAX cameras for the action scenes is a smashing success and one of the many reasons this film will stand up throughout the years.

The bar for comic book adaptations has been raised almost impossibly high by Nolan and this cast. The Dark Knight is one of the best films ever, succeeding on multiple levels. It will make you think, make you gasp and make you expect more from those who take on action films.

TM & © DC Comics.
Photo by Stephen Vaughan