The Dark Knight
It isn’t an overstatement to call The Dark Knight the most sophisticated and ambitious work of its kind.
Superior to all three Spider-Man installments and even its amazing predecessor in terms of conceptualization, writing, acting, and direction.
Nolan’s follow-up to Batman Begins is a dark, complex and disturbing film,
its unique because it grafts its heroics onto the actual reality rather than that of spandex-clad superheroes.
Suffice it to say that The Dark Knight qualifies as the first official comic book adaptation that truly succeeds in being a great artistic achievement in its own right.
This time around there will be more complex emotional conflict hammering Batman.
A new adversary named The Joker (Heath Ledger) proves particularly dangerous because he seeks not only to advance the cause of Gotham’s underworld, but obliterate the foundations of liberty and order that Batman protects.
Meanwhile Harvey Dent will put more weight on that conflict, while we would see Mr. Dent transform into another famous Batman villain the "Two-Face"
The great triumph of The Dark Knight is that it manages for the first time ever in the history of the genre to transplant comic book theatrics into the real world
-and moreover, to examine precisely what it could mean if a person decided to strap on a super-suit and start attacking the world’s criminals.
More important than this, however, is the idea that Batman is not just a guy in a suit, but a symbol and there are people in the film who want to destroy that symbol.
While Batman’s identity remains secret and his motives unknown to Gothamites, he represents hope in a city that has little to spare and embodies a pursuit of justice, a code of behavior.
By throwing Gotham into chaos and testing the limits to which Batman holds himself, The Joker is not merely plying death and destruction but willfully destroying the philosophical foundations of organized society.
Wayne not only has to find a way to maintain his moral compass, but consider what the repercussions of his heroism are to both the public and the criminals themselves.
Impressively, Nolan examines these themes in beautifully human terms, projecting his examination of "the hero" into the hearts and minds of his characters.
Meanwhile, the violence is quite possibly the most intense I have ever seen in a PG-13 film, wondering how The Dark Knight avoided an R. With the Joker as a superb psychotic maniac criminal perhaps ever shown.
But what is more disturbing is the unrelenting menace that hovers over every scene like a dark cloud. The Joker sounds like a cross between Ligeti’s "Lux Aeterna" (from 2001) and the scraping, metallic curlicue that was used in trailers for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and enhances the clenched-fist feeling that anything can and will happen at any moment, even scenes in which he doesn’t appear.
Bale is predictably effective as both Wayne and Batman this time around (indeed, he and his characters seem to possess more confidence). Though Wayne is a necessary second-fiddle to Batman, he is a better defined and more poised character in this film.
Meanwhile taking over for Katie Holmes, Gyllenhaal adds real depth and energy to Rachel Dawes, showing how her feelings for Bruce Wayne aren’t simply unrequited, but actually based in both sincere affection and common sense.
Finally, there’s the late Heath Ledger, whose performance I suspect will be the subject of many analyses of all sorts in the weeks and months to come.
What he does with The Joker is, quite frankly, nothing short of transcendent.
Early in the film he explains the origins of his trademark facial scars, and you worry for a moment that the filmmakers are giving this psychopath some kind of convenient explanation, which, talented though he was, Ledger won’t be able to overcome.
But by the third time he’s explained where they come from – each time telling a different tale – you realize that Ledger was a master of his craft, only in his final years finding roles that truly offered him the chance to explore that mastery. His is the definitive movie Joker, and he owns the role and achieves a level of abject insanity that is terrifying as it is irresistible.
Overall, the film does maintain a steady pace and function with such continuously unnerving momentum
Nolan’s approach to The Dark Knight gives you exactly what you want, but does it so well that it manages to completely catch you off guard when it happens. But there really is no better way to describe The Dark Knight than to call it a great work of art because its transcend both the boundaries of comic book moviemaking and even the parameters of good filmmaking.
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