THE DARK KNIGHT

THE DARK KNIGHT

I could start this review a thousand different ways. I could begin by telling you how big of a fan I am of the BATMAN mythos. How important these stories are to me. I could start off by saying that the original BATMAN wasn't up to par and took two of the greatest literary characters of American history and converted them into perfunctory summer blockbuster caricatures. I could talk about how the JOKER is quite possibly my favorite fictional character or how I feel that he is the most menacing villain of all time.

I shall start out like this:

It is a great time to be a movie fan. Within the past year, we've been handed three of the greatest movies of all time. Not good (as in obligatory Oscar bait). Not of the "year". Not of the decade. Of all time. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. THERE WILL BE BLOOD. WALL-E. Each of the films features iconic, indelible characters. Anton Chigurh. Daniel Plainview. The Waste Allocation Load Lifter-Earth Class robot.

And if this wasn't enough, THE DARK KNIGHT rips through the summer like a blitzkrieg attack on London. Nolan and Co. offer a revamp on a character unlike anything we've ever seen before. And it kicks you in the ass and keeps on truckin’.

I'm gonna split up the categories on this one. I’m going to observe the proverbial, “…elephant-in-the-room” ‘cause I’m sure that’s what most of you are interested in.

THE LEDGOKER (AKA "FREAK" AKA DEAD HEATH BAR)

Metaphorically, Gotham City is Jake Gyllenhaal's asshole from Brokeback Mountain. The Joker is Heath Ledger's cock from the aforementioned picture. Now, take the tent scene where Heath pounds Jake's ass raw (with minimal lubrication!) and multiply that by a thousand.

THE DARK KNIGHT is essentially a two-hour thrill ride where the LEDGOKER sodomizes Donnie Darko's asshole without question, without mercy and without qualm. Needless to say, the punishment is severe.

The Joker is the very definition of evil. In various forms of media, evil is empathized or given some form of hubris. This is done to establish some form of twisted humanity. Villains are often ordinary people who are unable to squelch their desires for greed, power, vengeance, etc. And if the Joker was to be hindered by any form of hubris it would be that regardless of the destruction he reaps, he cannot be killed. The monster is a malevolent force of nature that endangers or corrupts anything he comes into contact with. His daily mass-murdering activities are little more than a game...A game that often invokes unenthusiastic victims.

Jack Nicholson kinda fucked it up as far as I’m concerned. He lacked the demonic, ethereal qualities the Joker has personified over the decades. While I love Jack; while I love his portrayal of the Joker, it was kind of weak, pedestrian performance merely enhanced by his infectious mania. Mark Hamill’s cartoon Joker from the 1990's cartoon was the most accurate and menacing adaptation of the clown prince of crime, I feel. The Joker’s inherent sadism was toned down and frequently absent as it was a cartoon aimed at children. They weren't allowed to take it as far as, say…Alan Moore’s THE KILLING JOKE or Ed Brubaker’s THE MAN WHO LAUGHS.

I have waited all of my life to see an iteration of a JOKER this cruel. The Ledgoker has absolutely no morals or regard for human life (including his own) whatsoever. And that is the fathom of absolute evil. It isn't concerned with power. It doesn't want to consume the world. It doesn't want to drink your milkshake. Absolute evil frankly has one agenda to fulfill: The punishment of ordinary civilian life. From the Columbine shootings to the horrific events of September 11th, most of us have witnessed unfathomable horror from a perspective that is too close for comfort. That’s the point, though. Induce irrevocable damage on a grand scale and in turn, induce panic at a cataclysmic level. The Ledgoker concocts and executes his plan like a mastermind…and you won’t take your eyes off of him for a second.

Heath, my boy. You died far too young. This film would've catapulted him to the stratosphere of the A-list. Metaphorically, he is the devil; the personification of faceless anarchy. Slithering around like a cosmic, unstoppable force. Spouting off half-lies and half-truths; taking sport in manipulating anybody in order to fulfill his psychotic, multi-layered scheme. As the initial plan twists or spoil in some way, his maneuvers and plotting evolve to exploit the escalating madness that has infiltrated the streets of Gotham. It isn’t about killing people, necessarily. That’s a bonus to him, after all. It’s about hurting them; deconstructing the victim-in-question until there is nothing left but an unfamiliar husk.

Anybody who is not familiar with the Alan Moore version of the Joker will more than likely not notice this at first. Watching this psychotic freak terrorize the citizens of Gotham was darkly humorous and simultaneously dreadful. Not to give too much away, but The Ledgoker essentially wins on some diminutive level. He cuts the central characters fairly deep by movie’s end and their lives will never be the same. Even though he is "stopped", it is irrelevant. He looks at himself as an agent of chaos, one willing to ascend to a martyr of chaos. He is more than willing to take a few punches to get what he wants. Pretty grim shit for a PG-13 movie featuring comic book characters who are sponsored by Kellogg’s. I like to see the bad guy win. After all, this interpretation of the series is more akin to reality, ain't it?

THE BATMAN (AKA THE DARK KNIGHT)

One of the problems with the live action Caped Crusader flicks was that he was not THE DARK KNIGHT (not a pun). He was just some asshole in a bat costume. The persona of the Batman was not fully fleshed out in previous entries—including BATMAN BEGINS. Regardless of his fancy-schmancy attire, I could never view him as the Batman from the comics.

Irony aside, albeit this is the first Batman movie to not feature his primary moniker in the title, this is the definitive Caped Crusader. The Batman. The Dark Knight.

Here, he's mean, he’s lean...a fighting machine. The action sequences were a much needed improvement over BATMAN BEGINS as in the original, the scuffles were practically indiscernible. The giddiest aspect of THE DARK KNIGHT is that Bruce Wayne (clad in Bat-ears or not) endeavors on several detective stints. He is known as the WORLD'S GREATEST DETECTIVE for a reason. And here, we see him utilize odd technology and abrasive interrogative strategies to put the pieces together of this travesty of a terrorist puzzle. The middle of the film, with the forensics, the "ongoing investigation" and shakedown of Eric Roberts (That’s a HARDCORE moment) were my favorite sequences of the movie. Just nice to see Batman explored fluidly and with the utmost respect. The new costume was a bit bothersome, even though it was better than the Nomex suit from part I, nonetheless. Note: Needs to wear spandex. Well, not necessarily spandex. The Armed Forces are working on a lightweight Kevlar armor no less thick than my T-shirt. I don't know...why doesn’t Nolan incorporate that into the story instead of the uncomfortable infantry battle armor? And let's quit with the black shit, huh? Many bats are grey on the underneath. Idea for part III: have Bats create a lightweight Kevlar costume containing a bit more then a hint of grey. Include the character of Edna Mode from THE INCREDIBLES and have her design it. That way it doesn’t come off as a superfluous sequence bogged down in unnecessary exposition.

I hated the Sonar, by the way. The construction site battle came close to "Nuking-the-fridge" or “nippling-the-batman”. But not quite.

HARVEY DENT (AKA TWO-FACE)

Enter the White Knight of Gotham. Harvey Dent is the latest District Attorney seeking to cut off the flow of crime. A man whose balls are so brass that he inspires the good in this metropolis of decadence; who is willing to take the punches (not too hard, though). (Take note, Lucas. This is how you portray a tragic villain.) If the Joker's plan had not come to fruition, Dent would've inspired the citizens of Gotham City to reclaim their home by facing corruption head on and not backing down regardless of the threats or consequences.

Harvey Dent is the Barack Obama of white people.

That is before he gets fucked up hardcore and begins to act a motherfuckin' fool. So, I don't know. More power to him, I guess. Aaron Eckhart kicks ass as an actor. I liked him more in THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, however. I guess it's because he's nicer to look at (in a non-homo way...the man has the most masculine traits of all time) when he isn't missing half of his face and trying to murder children by threatening them with a revolver. I don't know. Perhaps I'm vain.

LIEUTENENT JIM GORDON (AKA COMMISSIONER GORDON)

I love Gary Oldman. He is quite possibly my favorite character actor. When I first heard of BATMAN BEGINS and discovered that he was playing Gordon, I said (paraphrasing), "Fuckin' A!” The previous films treated Batman's second best friend and ally as an absolute incompetent doofus. In these films, he's a prominent character; he's like the Han Solo to Batman’s Luke Skywalker. And I like that. Gordon is a badass character (see Frank Miller's BATMAN: YEAR ONE) and it's good to see him receive the treatment he deserves.

STORY

All 152 minutes of this film is ass-kick. There are plot twists and tonal shifts that completely threw me off guard—and I had a 90% understanding on the overall plot. THE DARK KNIGHT begins like a 70’s bank-heist noir. It quickly shifts to your typical Batman plot. As the film introduces the secondary players and subplots, the perfunctory superhero yarn is quickly fastened on hiatus and we watch a crime saga stem from the remains. The minute the Ledgoker reveals that he does not aim to intimidate the citizens of Gotham with empty threats; the film descends into DIRTY HARRY/SEVEN territory. The end certifies this picture as a powerful Greek tragedy. We feel the anguish and we certainly feel the impending dread of this standoff all the way up to the credits. And while the film is damn near three hours long, it never once overstays its welcome. The time flew by seamlessly.

DIRECTION, CINEMATOGRAPHY, SCORE, ETC.

This is the miscellaneous section. Um, the direction is spectacular. Nolan is living up to the SPIELBERG OF OUR TIME award that many people are throwing at him. Every movie of Nolan’s is filled-to-the brim with compelling characters complete with thought-provoking subtext to boot. I personally feel that THE DARK KNIGHT is the pinnacle of limited albeit impressive filmography. Distinctly an unbiased metaphor for 9/11 and the aftermath, it provides a plethora of "food-for-thought" dissimilar to other fright-inducing, catastrophic-themed films by means of exploring the social and political changes brought on by a hellish day of disaster. This is a social examination of America, told through the microcosmic point-of-view of the most fucked up fictional city on this Earth. Seriously…Gotham City is like Liberty City from the GRAND THEFT AUTO video games. Terrorist serial killer clowns (not from outer space) and a traumatized playboy bachelor dressed up as a ninja Doberman pincher. That shit ain’t in the game. The last movie featured Liam Neeson and his army of well-financed ninjas hijacking monorails and burning down mansions. Shit ain't normal. And perhaps I don't have the correct cheat codes for GTA IV, but it would be cool if your character could dress as a psycho killer clown (not from outer space) and ram stationary pencils into people's eyes. Fuck carjackings. Let's get innovative. Rockstar Games developers are beginning to lose the lead from their pencils, let me tell ya.

Cinematography was stunning. The skyscrapers were impressive especially as all of those scenes were filmed in IMAX. Having the on-set location of Chicago gave viewers a sense of much-needed variety, as most blockbusters shoot on-location at NYC. Fuck NYC. Let's face it. When it comes to the Big Apple, that town is the quintessential arena for various forms of Pwn'age. On celluloid, NYC has faced destruction from the martians from INDEPENDENCE DAY, THE PLANET OF THE APES, the ice storm from that one liberal propaganda movie, AI and CLOVERFIELD. In real life, they are cursed with The Yankees, MTV studios and a real-life Ground Zero.

FAIL.


Chicago has Al Capone. Chicago wins! Don't wanna fuck with that town. Shit, only the Joker would be crazy enough to fuck with Chicago. You could reawaken the dead spirit of Capone and I don't think he'd take kindly to you tampering with his renowned stance on prohibition. Screw that noise. Watch THE UNTOUCHABLES. Motherfucker had the world's greatest batting average in his day. Who needs that shit? I don't. Got enough problems as it is.

THE DARK KNIGHT has some of the most breathtaking action sequences I've ever seen (the batpod chase...Ho. Lee. Shit.) even if the editing was a bit shoddy in some of those sequences (note: The IMAX cameras are ridiculously heavy, jarringly noisy and can only carry three minutes of continuous film footage). This does not take away from the true feat of the film:the performances. Most of which are top-of-the-game and Oscar-Worthy. The story was fairly simple, yet layered. There was an imminent doom pacing up the spine of the narrative and it culminates in a heart-stopping finale.

As for the score: I liked it much more than BEGINS. The score for BATMAN BEGINS grew grating over time (that was the point of the score though; to establish mood whilst enhancing the insight of growing psychosis within the titular character) this score is a bit more conventional. However, I will say that it is more effective. I do believe Batman gets his own theme; a motif if you will. In the last film he had no definitive theme. I don't really know what the hell his "theme" was throughout the film (or where it appeared for that matter), but from the score I've listened to, it could be a combination of several motifs used in the original movie. Good shit, though. An apple to Danny Elfman’s orange, THE DARK KNIGHT’S score is as audibly heroic when called for. The Joker's theme, on the other hand, is as disturbing as the character on screen. It's like a cross between Jonny Greenwood's tracks from THERE WILL BE BLOOD and Clint Mansell's "Lux Aeterna" from REQUIEM FOR A DREAM.

In conclusion, this is amongst the finest genre films ever. It's the film that any and all following superhero movies will be judged. It transcends one genre of film and becomes its own amalgamation. This is like a latter year Johnny Cash record. In his waning years he covered a vast collective of variable songs, and recreated them in his own distinguishable style. THE DARK KNIGHT is a horror film, a crime thriller, a dark comedy/satire and a classical detective story. The ingredients were thrown meticulously into a blender and the restaurant has discovered a recipe for the ages. It's a fully cohesive, striking work of motion picture. I rarely say this with new releases, and I think I said it with WALL-E: This is one of the greatest movies ever made. This isn't a bias judgment from a hardcore BATMAN fan. If anything that makes me even more critical.


I have ridiculously high standards and I'm not afraid to bash something when it isn't up to par. I have even higher standards when it comes to the things that molded my childhood. I liked the SPIDER-MAN movies, sure. But I don't regard them as classics or Grade-A movies. More like mid-grade, actually. Like a Toyota, not a Lexus. SPIDER-MAN 3 was like my old beige Corolla. Six months to go on the payments and the fucker goes POOF.


I could go on and on and on about this film for hours. But I'm not going to. It really is that good. You've read all about it from other critics. For the first time in history, they're absolutely correct. To be honest, I don't believe I've ever heard this much unanimous praise for a film EVER. Everybody I've talked to about this film has loved it and is anxious to see it again.


THE DARK KNIGHT is the best summer movie since THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. And THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK is my favorite movie of all time. Do the math on that. That's how strongly I feel about this movie.

As Gordon says in the final lines of the film, that Batman was not the hero Gotham needs, but the hero Gotham deserves. This parallels my thoughts on the film. THE DARK KNIGHT is not the film we deserve, but the movie we need.

A RFB FUCKIN' SEAL OF APPROVAL MOTION PICTURE. THE DARK KNIGHT DELIVERS. AND THEN SOME.



--Don't die in a fire.--

RFB



P.S.: Bob Hoskins as THE PENGUIN in BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT BEGINS THE CAPED CRUSADE (WITH THE BOY WONDER)! Not the actual title, but it would be a good one, I think. Look for another blog down the road where I will attempt to dissect the social and political angles of the movie. There is a lot here to digest. Savor the meal.