Heath Ledger kicks Christian Bale in The Dark Knight
by Gary Sundt
It is a shame Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight will be lumped into the same category as films like Spider-Man 2 and Iron Man. Not that those films aren’t wonderful and all, but I’m being very honest when I say this new Batman film functions light years ahead of the comic book movie genre. Not even Batman Begins can keep up with this exercise in adrenaline and fear.
Notice I used the word fear. The Dark Knight is terrifying, grabbing you from the word go and then pushing the petal down until it breaks through the car floor. Right from the picture’s opening bank robbery, there is a raw power to the production that overwhelms the audience. Even on opening night, nobody is shouting at the screen. People only laugh when it’s appropriate to do so. Even the fan boys (which, in some circles, I have been lumped in with) shut their mouths. Everyone watches in stunned silence as the story brilliantly unfolds, marveling as the story takes us to the edge and back.
The power of that opening scene comes in so small part from the introduction of the Joker (Heath Ledger), a make-up clad nut job who seems to have a counter-intuitive agenda of cutting the legs out from under the organized crime bosses of Gotham City. And he isn’t the only one. The new District Attorney, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), has joined forces with the Batman (Christian Bale) and Captain James Gordon (Gary Oldman), who are doing everything in their power to do away with the city’s mobsters as well.
However, in a town as corrupt as Gotham, Dent’s goal is no easy task. He finally catches a break when Batman travels to Hong Kong and kidnaps Lau (Chin Han), the mafia’s accountant, leaving him gift-wrapped for the prosecution to make their case. What is the criminal underworld going to do? The Joker offers his services in dealing with Batman and Dent, and the mob begrudgingly accepts.
The Joker is then unleashed upon Gotham City, promising that people will continue to die until Batman takes off his mask and reveals his identity to the public. This is part of the Joker’s many schemes to undo the moral and psychological fabric of the people, with his favorite targets being Dent, Gordon and Batman. He makes a game out of Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), Harvey’s new squeeze and billionaire Bruce Wayne’s old one. The Joker doesn’t know Wayne is Batman, so at first he doesn’t have a full handle on the damage he is doing. But rest assured: this clown is a quick study.
The film’s development rests on the backs of the three men seeking justice. The Joker, on the other hand, is the ultimate catalyst, challenging every facet of moral character these guys can muster. Fortunately, Gordon has Batman; Batman has trusty butler Alfred (Michael Caine) and tech-man Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman); and Dent has Rachel. Will they prevail? Will good triumph? Well, I don’t think that’s for me to say.
As a comic book fan, I was very sure that I had The Dark Knight’s plot pegged. I’ve read enough comics (particularly those stories which inspired this film specifically) to know all of the crazy things they could draw from. To sum it up, my expectation was Jeff Loeb and Tim Sale’s The Long Halloween mixed with this Joker-mob storyline. Was I right? Not really.
I’m going to be honest: unless you have read specific spoilers for The Dark Knight online, you really have no idea where it’s going. The script by director Nolan and his brother Jonathan has many tricks up its sleeve; you’ll never know what’s coming until it slaps you right in the face. There were moments I wanted to turn and give my friends that “WOW!” look, but my eyes remained fixated on the screen. I didn’t want to miss a millisecond of film.
For the record, the rumors regarding Ledger’s Joker are absolutely true. He is the proverbial ringleader of this flick, and I will jump on the posthumous-Oscar bandwagon when I say a better performance won’t be seen this year. He is literally invisible in the role, and we don’t remember until the very end that the dude from A Knight’s Tale is under all that face paint. Would he have become a Marlon Brando? We’ll never know. All we can do is accept that stabbing sadness when the Joker utters the painfully ironic statement near the film’s climax: “I think we’ll be doing this forever.”
However, Ledger is only the icing on a perfectly-casted cake. Every performance in the film is simply electrifying. Bale and Caine are now, and forever, Batman and Alfred. Gyllenhaal does a wonderful job in a role that many consider to be the weakest link of Batman Begins. Oldman, the wonderful actor that he is, continues to be the perfect Jim Gordon. And Eckhart functions as the perfect moral backbone in The Dark Knight. Harvey Dent has been my favorite Batman character since I picked up my first comic book, and he has never been more tragic a figure than he is in this film.
How does a critic review a film like The Dark Knight? There is so much to say, so much to communicate, but the desire to not-spoil the whole affair overwhelms any wishes I have to discuss the twists Nolan has in store for his audience.
What I will say:
1) The Dark Knight has the honor of walking with Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and the aformentioned Halloween as one of the finest Batman stories ever told.
2) I’ve seen the film in both regular and IMAX format, and the latter is the way to go if you have the option. The cinematography by Wally Pfister (who has been working with Nolan since his breakout film, Memento) is mesmerizing, and everything looks that much better in IMAX.
3) The people behind The Dark Knight have created a masterpiece. The film is certainly the greatest superhero film ever made, but overcomes that distinction by being among the greatest American films of the last 10 years. If Nolan decides to return for the third installment, one can only imagine what will happen now that the genre has been freed of the camp shackles the comics walked away from over 25 years ago.
Running time: 152 minutes. Directed by Christopher Nolan. Produced by Nolan, Mark Roven and Emma Thomas. Screenplay by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan. Based on the characters created by Bob Kane. Starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman and Chin Han. A Warner Bros. Pictures release. Rated PG-13
