"Some men aren't looking for anything logical. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn."
- Alfred Pennyworth, The Dark Knight (2008)
Many people will be going to see The Dark Knight for the morbid novelty of witnessing a great actor's final curtain. Many others will be going due to a bad case of Lord of the Rings Syndrome, a condition with causes cool teenagers who have made a career out of mocking and bullying people who read comics to attempt to convey a sudden knowledge of them now that Christopher Nolan has made comics unbelievably hip. Both groups were amply and irritatingly represented at last night's packed house. Both reasons are bad reasons to go see the film. With all respect due the late Heath Ledger - and much is - I fear many people are flocking to The Dark Knight because of his legacy, and not simply because it is a truly great film in its own right.
There's not a whole lot to say about The Dark Knight that you haven't already heard, without spoiling anything. Rest assured that, overall, it is every bit as strong if not stronger than Nolan and Co.'s first outing in the Batman universe. The main cast - Bruce, Alfred, Gordon, Harvey, and the Joker - is uniformly excellent. Maggie Gyllenhal puts on a good show taking over Katie Holmes' role as non-comic character Rachel Dawes, but for the most part doesn't have a lot of good script to work with. The supporting cast is riddled with familiar faces - much of the GCPD that has any dialogue or notable presence in front of the camera, as well as the bank manager in the opening scene, are established television and film actors. Lost's Nestor Carbonell has a mid-sized role as the mayor of Gotham, and his aide, who has no dialogue, is the man who portrays Matthew Abbadon on the same show. As Scott pointed out, people were probably throwing themselves left right and center at Nolan for the chance to have any participation in this project. The ones Nolan picked up did not disappoint - rarely is every player in a large ensemble cast so able.
On the visual side of things, The Dark Knight is stunning. Some reviewer whose name escapes me described it as "the most architectural film of the summer", and I couldn't have put it better. As in Batman Begins, the city itself is (quite rightly) a character. Visually, the film hits every right note between dark and horrid and achingly lovely. Nolan's desire to eschew CGI in favour of good buildings, good locations, and a mechanical concept dream team resulted in one of the most normally mind-blowing productions since, well, his last film. And I don't want to give anything away, though you've all seen the Batpod in the trailers, but let's just say that the manner in which it's deployed is a concept beyond genius. One of the very few benefits of watching a big film in a packed house is witnessing the collective gasp when the Batpod appeared in a way no one could have predicted.
Christian Bale is a true master actor, as demonstrated not only by his huge talent and diversity but by the fact that he's willing to step back and make necessary room for his supporting colleagues. It's safe to say that Ledger's Joker outshone Bale's Batman every step of the way - which was probably how it should be in relation to the story being told. The Joker is such a large, overwhelming persona that he simply wouldn't be effective playing second fiddle to the hero. His casually gleeful and unhinged yet morose brand of anarchy sets him apart from the average on-screen psychopath. I've been long familiar with Ledger's body of work, and as such have always known that he was excellent, but...wow. I can't say I was prepared for this. He took all the best existing interpretations of the Joker and ran with them to a new level. Not "re-invented", as so many ignorant reviewers who's only experiences with the character are Cesar Romero and Jack Nicholson's interpretations are claiming - the Joker has been one of, if not the, most unsettling villain in the comic universe since before I was born. When I say "new level", I refer to depth and quality. Up 'til now, the general consensus for on-screen Jokers amongst Batman fans has been that Mark Hammill's voicing of him in Batman: The Animated Series / Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was the benchmark performance, capturing the rather whimsical insanity that makes the character so frightening. Ledger's performance is stunning, terrifying, profound. The CanWest News Service reviewer astutely noted that what makes the Joker so much more scary than other psychotic villains is the fact that he is the ultimate embodiment of anarchy. For as much as he likes to claim that he is pure chaos and makes no plans, he is as skilled a schemer as he is a liar, and his schemes are carefully crafted to provoke the most chaos possible. This film certainly gives V for Vendetta's ridiculous attempt to suggest anarchy as a healthy, viable, logical socio-political model a firm kick in the ass.
It must be noted that Ledger had a wonderful script to work from. Even the little non-verbal details of his literally insane sense of humour were present on-screen, like creating a roadblock by setting a fire truck on fire. The Joker was clearly intended to be brought back into Nolan's version of the franchise at a later date. I highly doubt he'll make any attempts to recast the role, not only out of respect for Ledger's memory, but simply because, who else would he find who wouldn't be a disappointment after this? I doubt anyone will make a live-action film featuring the Joker again until all the people who remember Ledger's performance are dead and gone. I think it's a safe bet that he'll be awarded a posthmous Oscar. The sad irony is that he probably wouldn't be recognized if he were still alive, because at the end of the day, The Dark Knight is still just a comic book movie in the Academy's eyes. Not even the superior technical excellence of Batman Begins turned any voter's heads.
The biggest and best surprise of this picture, even beyond the Batpod, was Aaron Eckhart's portrayal of Harvey Dent. Having been familiar with Eckhart, and less than impressed, I've spent a lot of time wondering what ever possessed Nolan to hire him. Well, now I know. With very little dialogue prior to becoming Two-Face, Eckhart beautifully captures Harvey's simultaneous inner/outer conflict of restraint versus passion. The only disappointment I had in this film was the material Eckhart had to work with. By confining the brunt of his dialogue to blanket statements of his ambitions for Gotham's future, by not giving sufficient space for his peculiar bonding with Batman and Jim Gordon, and by focusing his grief on his relationship with Rachel rather than on his destructive frustration at being unable to accomplish the sort of vigilante justice he needs to get things done, a line he can't even convince Batman to cross, Harvey's degeneration into Two-Face became rote rather than tragic. But what Eckhart did have to go on - especially a courtroom scene that was pure Long Halloween - he ran with beyond my wildest expectations. Harvey Dent, contrasted with Batman, is one of the most poignant contemporary critiques of our oxymoronic justice system, and seeing him brought to life by such an able actor was a real treat. And kudos to the makeup department for an unbelievably impressive and disgusting Two-Face that makes Tommy Lee Jones' version look like a bad children's Halloween mask...oh wait, it already did. Seriously, folks, it's the most impressive F/X makeup I've seen this side of Lord of the Rings and the late Stan Winston.
In the end, any other disappointments I had with the film - except for the sound editing - were of my own making, because I'd convinced myself that, due to Harvey's presence, it would take more material from The Long Halloween than it did - an unfair expectation, perhaps, as The Long Halloween is fantastic, you can never do more in a 2.5 hour picture than you can in a good book, and this is Nolan's picture, not Jeph Loeb's. Anyways, there were several nice nods to it, from a few small references in the Joker's dialogue, to the afore-mentioned courtroom scene, to the casting of an actor who bears a passing resemblance to Tim Sale's Sal Marioni.
An all-around great production anchored by a casually terrifying Joker, The Dark Knight will likely remain one of the best films of the year. Hopefully, people will recognize it for its own merits, and not for the tragedy surrounding its production.
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