Has it really been over a month? Yikes. My body and soul is recovering from the nearly 1700 miles of travel in just over a month. I'll get back in the swing of things soon. Below is my impression of The Dark Knight. I've tried to keep it devoid of any spoilers, but still...read at your own risk.
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In the early minutes of The Dark Knight, the film reminds the audience of both its immediate predecessor (Batman Begins) and its four far-removed parents (the good to ghastly previous installments), with a run of the mill encounter between the Scarecrow and a slew of fake "Batman"s. Both villain and pretenders are dispatched as the dark knight himself foreshadows the film. The dismissal of not only the Batman Begins villain (and the films predecessor) and the Batman pretenders (the previous incarnations of of the franchise ranging from 60s camp to 90s pretense) is parlayed beyond spandex-clad superfluity into a noir on the state of homo sapiens.
The Dark Knight isn't about the Joke, the Batman, or Two-Face as much as it is a character study on humanity itself. As Gotham comes more and more unhinged, its citizens, and the drawn-in audience are forced to choose; not between good and evil, but between order, chaos, and the gray area in between. Good and evil become intertwined in a gray descent that only delivers dystopia. When the cameras ultimately cut away, there is no satisfaction, only exhalation and examination.
While all the actors imbue a gritty realism to their respective roles, Heath Ledger's Joker crackles on-screen; equal parts hilarious and homicidal, he has set a new standard for any movie villian - costumed or not. Each encounter with him inches Batman, Gotham, and the audience closer to entropy, yet he is charming enough for you to (horrifyingly!) ignore it, from his first "magic trick" to his final cackling assessment of Batman, and the connection therein. The Joke is a lingering kiss with chaos that haunts post theater parking lot.
The Dark Knight fleshes out a number of themes in the space between rotting white face paint and black "titanium weave" suits. Amidst the explosions and new "bat gadgets", an in-depth discussion on the nature of human beings is played out, with the audience standing with Harvey Dent and Gotham on the precipice of chaos-caused madness. Are people "good" or merely controlled? Does Batman exist to protect the public, or does his very existence threaten to exterminate them? Ultimately, is faith in the better part of people fabricated by false ideals or do all of us live between the bat-signal and self-induced scars? One could argue that the ones who play by the rules are those who are ultimately harmed the most.
I am not sure that I have ever seen a finer film. More than anything, it is a violent, visceral journey to the center of Gothamites, and by extension, everyone in the plush chairs. The Dark Knight goes beyond dazzling special effects to deliver a gut-checking thesis on humanity itself.
3 comments:
I've been missing your blog.
This is like the 19th post about the Dark Knight I've seen on a blog today. Okay, so I exaggerate. But it's not the first post anyhow. I’m not going to read it yet because I like to go into a movie with as fresh of an experience as possible.
It's been difficult to get around to the blog, honestly. I have run out of creative energy it seems.
I think you should skip this and go see it. Do it immediately! Let me know what you think about it.
Jason, great thoughts about the movie. I spent the whole time wrestling with the question of if there was even any concept of good in the movie or if it was all a construction based on social influences. It was the best movie I've seen in years, more than just because of the entertainment value of it but because of how thought-provoking it was. I left wondering if there was even such a thing as objective morality based on the movie, very Nihilistic. Thanks for sharing thoughts!
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