The Dark Knight (2008)

Written by Jonathan and Christopher Nolan
Directed by Christopher Nolan

There are so many different incarnations of the Batman character that one can easily get confused as to which one fits where, which movies are actually sequels to which, but in the case of The Dark Knight, there is no confusion. This is the single best Batman film to date, for a plethora of reasons, all of which I will touch on momentarily. First, let me just say that the universe in which this film takes place is a completely separate one from the universe in which both Tim Burton's Batman films and Joel Schumacher's Batman films took place. Taking that into account, The Dark Knight takes place in a world that is different even from Nolan's own Batman Begins (2005), which I felt tried too hard to establish itself as a different reality from the other pictures.

The Dark Knight has no identity issues, it is a ballsy, deep, artistic picture. This Gotham is one we've never seen before. It is a Gotham displayed in full daylight, every nook and cranny are exposed to examination by us, the audience, the outside world looking in. With that said, the characters involved hold up strongly to the microscope they are put under, and they do complex and fantastic things while the eyes of the world are on them.

I don't feel a strong compulsion to explain the plot, indeed, to do so would be to write a few pages of information that everyone should really experience in the film. However, for the sake of this review, I'll touch on a few things lightly. Batman (Christian Bale) is under scrutiny, his vigilante justice is questioned even more heavily by the denziens of Gotham, they feel the city is even more in peril than when he started out as its protector. Batman, also Bruce Wayne, has to content with people who don't want his help, but at the same time, who truly need it.

New in town is Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhardt), the new star District Attorney that is dead set on wrangling the criminals of Gotham and putting them all behind bars. He realizes the power of Batman, and intends to use his power for the betterment of the city, in conjunction with Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) of the Gotham Police Department. However, the criminal element has an ace up its sleeve, or rather, a Joker (Heath Ledger), unknowing of his power as they may be. The Joker is a criminal genius, a psychotic mastermind of complex criminal endeavors who makes enemies of the criminals themselves, but it is no matter, The Joker's genius extends far beyond what any criminal could prevent him from doing in any case.

The difference between The Dark Knight and every other comic book based film before it is the approach to the material. Personally, I like the more baroque settings and characterizations of Tim Burton's Batman, but at the same time I can easily realize the need for a realistic approach to the mythos of Batman, which is what I feel Christopher Nolan failed on in the first film. This realism is needed to display the emotional depth and complex struggles of the characters involved.

Harvey Dent must juggle his relationship with Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), the pressure from the citizens of Gotham to put criminals behind bars, along with Batman, and the possibly crooked police force that is being barely contained by the one honest cop left, Lt. Jim Gordon. His seemingly insurmountable task is heightened when The Joker calls out all three men; Batman, Gordon, and Dent; to stop him from destroying the city for the pure pleasure of it.

Bruce Wayne must cope with his own feelings of loneliness and loss of Rachel Dawes, while at the same time juggling his persona as billionaire playboy and masked vigilante Batman. Jim Gordon has to contend with the corruption of his police department, the constant calls for the end of Batman's reign of vigilantism, and the devious plans of The Joker.

The first third of the film spends its time focusing on The Joker and his mastermind plans, and the twisted logic behind them. It also follows how the three men on the right side of the law try to figure him out, up to the point where they figure there is nothing to be figured out. As Alfred puts it "Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn."

The script deals with the psychological implications of just such a character, and what exactly makes him tick, which it turns out, is not much different than the mechanisms that made Bruce Wayne don the cowl and become Batman. However, with no emotional anchors in the city of Gotham, The Joker is that much harder to stop, not to mention the fact that every move The Joker makes seems to be planned sometime long ago in the last decade. Every move Dent, Gordon, and Batman make seems like a play right into the hands of The Joker, and time after time each task becomes more tedious for the side of righteousness.

This film is really about sacrifice, and what some men are willing to do, what some men are willing to lose, to achieve what they really believe in. Batman is prepared to let Gotham hate him, destroying his public image entirely. Consider Gordon's final line in the film "Because he's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now...and so we'll hunt him, because he can take it. Because he's not a hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector...a dark knight. " Batman makes the sacrifices no one else can make. He shouldn't have to, but because of his incorruptible nature, he takes the weight of the city upon his shoulders knowing he is the only one that can. He does the dirty work that no one wants to do, he walks away from glory and public honor for silent honor, being the savior no one will ever know of.

As for the acting, most of it is top notch. In Batman Begins, it felt like many of the actors were hired because of their stature of known actors, but that is a result of the slow, lazy nature of that story. The Dark Knight kicks off with a bang, and doesn't let up the entire time, leaving the actors to become their characters, cogs in this giant machine that is The Joker's lack of a coherent narrative plan. Aaron Eckhardt is fantastic as Harvey Dent, he is the clean pretty face that Gotham has put on its crime fighting squad, and he proves early on that they were right to bestow to him the crown. Bale gives another solid performance as Batman, under the cowl he still has that terrible voice (which I finally figured out is enhanced with post-production reverberation strangely enough), but his Bruce Wayne is perfect. He is the tortured billionaire that everyone sees as a spoiled brat, when only so few know that he is actually the most selfless and sacrificial man in the entire city, as evidenced by the scene where he saves the life of the Wayne Industries accountant when in reality he could have easily let him die and kept his secret life as Batman sealed forever.

Gary Oldman pulls through again as the clear headed central authoritarian of the film through the character of Jim Gordon. Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine stand out this film as the wise sages that set Batman on his path towards accepting the responsibilities of the entire city, instead of being corny comedic relief or convenient plot points as they were in the last film.

And then we come to Heath Ledger. His performance is very solid as The Joker, he plays the character with such malice and psychotic freedom that he sets the tone of uncertainty for the entire film. However, I don't think this is some kind of acting revelation. Sure, it's good, but just because he's dead doesn't mean that this character is the greatest creation in all of cinema, as some people are hinting towards. In the realm of science fiction/fantasy these characters are easy to create, because they have no basis in reality. The actor can let go and be over the top without ruining the nature of the picture. Heath Ledger does this just fine, but so does Robert Downey Jr in Iron Man, and I don't see people raving about his performance in the same manner.

The rendition of the Gotham reality is what sets this film apart from every other Batman film and gives it a life of its own. The scope that is achieved by this picture is another element that creates a complete universe for this action to take place in. Using the real Chicago downtown as the basis for the action is what gives it an air of authenticity, and the style in which the city is shot, the way the streets and tall buildings are displayed also lends to this feeling of being rooted in reality. It makes the car chases, explosions, and peril of the citizens real, because we can imagine ourselves in parallel situations at the hands of such a terrorist. However, one must keep in mind that these themes are only rooted in reality, because if they were to take place in real life the catastraphy of it all would be enormously different than what takes place in this film.

As with all of Nolan's films, this is yet another spectacular technical achievement. The cinematography, the set design, the wardrobe all evoke a world that is parallel, but at the same time completely different from our own. The music plays nicely in the back, never overpowering the action being shown, but underscoring it and evoking the needed sentiments from the audience. Another vast improvement from the first film is the use of CGI. No, it's not that the CGI got exponentially better, it was just much better used in this film than in the first one. It accentuates certain scenes in the film, rather than driving them and overpowering the human drama that is involved in every scene of the film.

With all of this praise, one might be hard pressed to find a single negative about the film, but while watching it there were a few things that came to my mind that I would have liked to see changed. For one, I thought the film was overlong. Now, there are no scenes in particular that I would say cut, but instead I felt they spent too much time in certain scenes that could have been shortened but still carried the same emotional impact. Also, I was bothered by the fact that the entire narrative of the film is this four way power struggle between Dent, Gordon, Batman and The Joker, but when it comes down to Dent turning to the dark side he upstages The Joker in the end and the final scene is lackluster. We switched over to see that? I would have rather seen Two Face's final scene before the climax of the Batman/Joker fight, it would've given the film more finality and it wouldn't have changed the picture at all really.

However, anyone can realize that these are minor squabbles in comparison to the achievement of the rest of the film. It is a deep, brooding picture that uses action in a way that not many action films can, there are epic action setpieces that are only in place to serve the overall objective of the film. Some of my favorite scenes are the explanations of the motivations of the characters, such as The Joker's multiple explanations for his wrongdoing, or his speech to Harvey Dent in the hospital that drive him over the edge. These are complex thoughts and explanations for characters and actions that typically aren't touched in summer action blockbusters. Kudos to Christopher Nolan for finally figuring out character depth, a clean narrative structure, clever plotting and pacing, and that sometimes an actor's ability should supercede the fact that he has the right physical features for the part. This is what a comic book movie should be, and I'm sure it will easily be the standard for which all genre entries are compared for many years to come. Hear that Jon Favreau? I think that was a challenge from Mr. Nolan.

9.6/10