(spoilers)
„Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.”
- Fryderyk Nietzsche, “Beyond Good and Evil”
In 2005 one of the most promising directors of our time, Christopher Nolan, presented the World with the new Batman in “Batman Begins”. The movie got favorable reviews and won the hearts of the fans of the protector of Gotham. But 3 years later Nolan caused something that can only be described as mass hysteria with “The Dark Knight” - the critics couldn't find enough superlatives, I couldn't wait to finally see this movie and spent hours on imdb every day, fanboys were going insane. Why? The legend, the curse...but I come back to this later.
The movie opens with big bang – the bank robbery, which was many times compared to the shootout scene in “Heat”. The scene is clearly a homage to that – blue filter used in the scene, dynamic editing and the cameo by William Fitchner who also appeared in “Heat”. This is only the beginning of the series of the amazingly executed sequences – the scene with Batman chasing Joker, Joker crashing the party, hospital explosion....
But the fantastic music, composed again by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, visual effects and the action are just an addition to terrific performances and great characters.
Paradoxically, the weakest link in the movie is Batman himself. Chrstian Bale has definitely less screen time than he did in first part and that reflects negatively on his performance – it's not his fault he just doesn't have much to do. When he is Batman his voice is so ridiculous, you can hardly listen to it without cringing and when he is Bruce Wayne Bale behaves as if he was in “American Psycho” again – at one point I was waiting for him to grab the axe, wear a raincoat and chop Harvey Dent to pieces with “Hip to be Square” playing in the background. What's making matters worse is that the script makes Wayne a typical playboy, maybe even a rip off of James Bond – the scenes where he and Lucius Fox discuss elaborated toys, the scene where he appears on the party not with two but with three models...Thank God, at least his psychological side got developed – Batman may have only one rule “Not to kill” but he is far from being perfect. He breaks fundamental rights – the right to fair trial, the right to privacy, he massacres Joker in interrogation room and he lets dozens of innocent people die, because he doesn't won't to reveal his identity. Some of his ideas like ignoring Joker or leaving innocent people on the party with him just to rescue Rachel to be quite honest, make him seem as if he was mentally challenged. In this part of the story he is the weak one – torn between what he knows needs to be done and the fact he doesn't have the strength for it. That's why he believes so deeply in Gotham's white knight – district attorney Harvey Dent.
Dent is definitely the most tragic character in the movie. He has lovely girlfriend Rachel, he is kind, noble and has the courage to protect Gotham, whatever it takes. But the viewer instantly notices that beneath all of it lies the anger, just waiting to be released. Ironically, he is ready to sacrifice the entire city to save one person and so does Batman – when Joker gives him the choice to save either Dent – who Batman believes is the savior that Gotham was waiting for, or Rachel, he goes to save Rachel.
Because of that intrigue, Rachel dies and Dent transforms into one of the most well known villains in Batman universe. Two-Face. The signs the transformation will occur are impressive and clever – in the first scene we see Harvey he tosses his lucky coin and in many scenes only half of his face is lit. However after the transformation the make up is so unrealistic and grotesque it was laughable. It is one of the minuses of the movie. Eckhart does great when he is Dent, but because of how rushed Two Face arc feels he is unable to create powerful performance.
Neither Batman nor Dent are crystal clear. But there is one such person in the movie, a true hero. Devoid of fake sweetness and pathos, which happens in cinema nowadays too often. I'm talking of course about the commissioner Jim Gordon, brilliantly played by Gary Oldman. Gordon is a simple, ordinary man, policeman, who despite the omnipresent evil never loses hope and the will to fight. Oldman, who always plays villains or psychos builds his performance here out of subtle means of expression, doesn't try to shine and uses the opposite technique to Ledger, which is very interesting given that despite Joker is such a dangerous and murderous criminal Gordon still treats him with respect. He never underestimates him – that mistake was made by Batman.
Each of those three men has weakness – for Gordon it's his family, for Dent it's Rachel and for Batman it is his only rule, which he can't break because he is scared of becoming like the ones he fights against.
The movie features Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine again, as Batman helpers and Maggie Gyllenhall, who, thank God, replaced Katie Holmes as Rachel. Rachel, the weakness of Wayne, the Joker will exploit in his master plan.
Which bring me to the movie's biggest asset..
“One may smile, and smile, and be a villain!”
- William Shakespeare, Hamlet
Joker is the opposite of Batman and one of the most recognizable villains in pop culture. In the comic book he fell into the pot with chemicals which turned his face withe, his hair green and gave him grotesque appearance. Jack Nicholson showed that in “Batman”.
When Nolan announced Ledger is going to be the new Joker, the fans were outraged. But everything changed on 22 January of 2008, the day the actor died. His death is still surrounded by mystery and his persona – by cult status.
In the movie, Joker is like the force of nature – he appears as if from nowhere, he is always armed, seems to have explosives everywhere in Gotham. He paints his face white, he has horrifying scars on his cheeks, as if his mouth was widened and he wears strange clothes. He is the force of anarchy – first he plans to kill the authorities, then the last ones fighting for justice and then he goes after Batman.
He is a true mastermind – he can predict another move of not one person, but of the police and Batman himself, he cares about nothing – he burns piles of money, leaves his own associates. He also is a sophisticated sadist – he tells awful back stories about his scars, threatening a victim with the knife. But you have to give it to him – he is the only one consequent in his ideas. He never changes his way, or his reasoning. Batman does, Dent does. Joker doesn't. The only reason he loses in the movie was because Nolan most likely panicked when he saw how great Joker is and had to put in the movie some of the most retarded plot devices ever so that Batman would win (I'll return to that later).
Not only is the Joker brilliant, he also manages to be hilarious and sarcastic. And he is right – everything he says to Batman in the interrogation room is true. He also plays a complex game with everyone in Gotham and controls the city. That's why when those ferries don't explode by the end of the movie it's the only time you see true emotion on his face – sadness and despair. I felt the same way when those ferries didn't explode for it was one of the stupidest things I've seen in my life.
But despite the miracle of ferries not exploding the Joker wins – in the end Batman publicly takes the blame for deaths of many and in the eyes of Gotham breaks his one rule, he corrupts Dent (another scene where you see the intellectual advantage – Joker just killed that dude's fiancee and he manages to bring him over to his side)
When Nolan was asked why he chose Ledger to play the part he replied “because he is fearless”. And fearless he is – reportedly Ledger lived alone in a hotel room for some time whilst preparing for the role, he kept a diary in which he wrote stuff he imagined Joker would write and he was heavily inspired by “Clockwork Orange” and Sex Pistols music. But it was his laugh that took the most time to come up with. Ledger is said to had improvised a lot – like with the sarcastic applause for newly appointed commissioner Gordon, he apparently asked Bale to hit him harder during interrogation scene. Not only that – it is the performance from the beginning to the end complete and absolute – you cannot recognize Ledger under the make up, if you walked blindly into the theater you wouldn't know he is the guy from “A Knight's Tale” and “Brokeback Mountain”. His whisper is petrifying, but he can be hilarious, in hailed by many the best scene of the movie, sequence where he tries to set off the bomb in the hospital whilst wearing nurse's uniform.
But the kind words about this character also have to go to Nolan himself and his brother who co-wrote the script – they managed to create the character of the terrorist in the world post 9/11 that still gets the sympathy of the viewer. If you told me the majority wanted Joker to lose and Batman to win I wouldn't believe you for a second.
Nolan juggles with symbols and allegories – Batman, the creature of the darkness but also the protector of harmony and his opponent, not waiting for the dark to cover Gotham to act, the one who represents utter anarchy. As the fight continues each of them will soak in another one's traits – Batman will spin out of control and Joker will become more determined, and despite his love for anarchy, he will turn out to have a plan.
Joker compares himself to”a dog chasing cars who wouldn't know what to do if he caught one”. The chase is important for him, because it's fun. Does he really care about outcome? Dogs are loyal and that is something Joker is too – he is loyal to himself and to his rules (or the lack of them?) he never changes.
Another symbol is Dent's coin. Two sides – good and evil, harmony and chaos. Joker and Batman are the two sides of one coin – they cannot exist without each other. Joker has to have someone to corrupt, Batman needs to have enemies in order to exist. Dent carries the coin because he says “chance is fair”. It's hard to agree with him – it's because of the chance Wayne's parents died. Joker believe chaos is fair, which is pretty similar. But I won't agree with him either – it's because of chance and chaos, personified by Joker Rachel died and Dent was rescued, but his kindness died along with Rachel.
Chaos wins in Gotham by the end of the movie – Batman's legend is destroyed, Dent is dead, Gordon doesn't have their guts or wealth to step up and protect it himself. I love the lack of happy ending in this.
But there are no movies without flaws – as I mentioned Two Face's make up and the whole arc is quite terrible. That man has cheek bones coming out of his face and he immediately goes on a killing spree. It was too unbelievable to buy.
Entire cast looks bad comparing to Ledger – everyone does great job, but the viewer keeps waiting for the Joker to appear. He is too damn good.
And the triangle thing – Rachel character seems interesting only because I suspect her of having some SM fetish – she loves the man who dresses up like Bat and fights the crime and district attorney who is target number 1 of the mob in the city. There is zero chemistry between Gyllenhaal and Bale or Eckhart which didn't help. To be fair – Eckhart and Bale had more heat going on between them.
But Nolan is so skillful he knows how to hide things that didn't work out – with bravery. The movie is a summer blockbuster but the director kills off the only important woman in the cast and the beloved one of the hero in the half of the movie, he finishes the film without happy end. And he laughs at cliche situations. In any other movie when character has a choice to make – who to save, he would probably find a solution like in childish “Spiderman”. Here Rachel dies and half of Dent “goes to hell”.
But all of the points goes to hell as well when the sonar is introduced. My good God. Remember deus ex machina cloning machine in “The Prestige”? Well one ridiculous thing I can forgive if it at least rises some interesting questions and is a big part of the plot. But what I presume happened here is either the producers or Nolan himself noticed - “God dammit – Batman is so weak how will he beat Joker who has great plan, balls and he is actually right?”. So what they came up with to save the summer blockbuster. The Sonar. And If that was it, I would still give the movie 10. But no. There was something so awful, something so stupid that I thought I passed out, woke up and another movie was playing. The ferry sequence.
That sequence is like a slap for the audience, as if Nolan personally punched you in the face for watching the movie. Here is the situation. Joker plants explosives on one ferry and people on another ferry have the detonator. If they detonate the other ferry they will live. If they don't Joker will blow them up. That scene is first of all pointless – what Nolan wanted to do is to show that Joker was wrong and Batman wins. But Joker won – people on the ferries are not innocent – they are either cowards or they want to blow others. Witch is, let's face it – not the worst thing to do if you and your close ones are in danger. And then Nolan introduces second deus ex machina which is even dumber than first one and one too many – reformed African American (ah let's be politcally correct by all means! I bet Nolan anticipated that as usual there will be the rant “why so few black people in the movie”?) who wants to start law and God obeying life and throws the detonator off the ferry. I was spechlees. If I were Nolan I'd spent at least a year whiping my back for actually having sequence so utterly bad, “Saw” rip off without pay off, in a movie that good.
But the movie still remains a solid 9/10. It's known now there will be 3rd movie. The success of “The Dark Knight” is largely due to Ledger's death and some other events (Freeman's accident, the death of Conway Wickliffe, who did special effects for the movie) which created the "curse" around that movie and the incredible hype the movie got mostly because of his performance. So the only way Nolan can beat that is by not having something like sonar or ferry sequence in his movie. And perhaps by including Catwoman? After reading several “Inception” reviews I'm confident he can beat “The Dark Knight”. Hell, someone people say he already did with “Inception”.
* this is a short version of my polish review of TDK http://www.last.fm/user/lady_sati/journal/2009/02/18/2hwkvm_%22the_dark_knight%22._the_review_%28pl%29.
