The Dark Knight [2008]
Director: Christopher Nolan
Actor: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Eric Roberts, Michael Jai White, Cillian Murphy, Anthony Michael Hall, William Fichtner, Jim Priz
When Batman Begins came out, it was a break from the campy direction that the Batman franchise had taken since Tim Burton stopped working on it. It was already getting close to a gothic fantasy, which Burton is wont to do, but once Joel Shumacher took over and made Batman Forever (Batman 3) and Batman & Robin (Batman 4) the movies really started to suck real hard. It took roughly a decade before they decided to try it again, this time with Christian Bale in the lead, playing Bruce Wayne and his vigilante alter ego Batman. As you can read in the Batman Begins review linked above, I really, really liked it, even though the storyline was a bit chaotic. Imagine my surprise when they got a great storyline, with a fantastic villain!
That villain is The Joker, played, masterfully, by Heath Ledger, a then young and budding method-actor who sadly, shortly after finishing the film passed away from an overdose prescription medication. It’s sad because they did a hell of a job in setting him up to become a regular and appealing nemesis to Batman. In short, his performance is brilliant; from his voice and demeanor, down to his mannerisms, like obsessively licking his lips while he talks, making him at the same time kind of gross as well as eluding to some complication resulting from the massive scaring on his face. Oh, let’s not forget the delivery of his several explanations of his scars, each different, but each told with an almost moving ring of truth to them.
I also liked The Joker’s motivation; chaos. Not greed, not revenge, not malice. No; chaos. In response to a question of money, he says; “See, I’m a man of simple tastes. I like dynamite, and gunpowder, and gasoline! Do you know what all of these things have in common? They’re cheap!” He doesn’t need anything, and therefore material gain or any absolute ideology is not what drives his actions, which makes him all the scarier as a villain because he doesn’t follow a predetermined, cookie-cutter, formulaic course throughout the story.
Storywise, the film is simple and straightforward, without too many frills, which, after Batman Begins, was exactly what I was hoping for. The story is solid and well thought-out, and basically sets up a long-lasting rivalry between Batman and The Joker, which sadly won’t come to fruition with Ledger’s untimely death. The Joker comes to town and steals large sums of money from a mafia-run bank. He does this to verify a ruse set up by Gordon (Oldman) and Batman, who have lightly irradiated money and put it into circulation among the criminal enterprises in order to identify the banks that they use in order to launder their money. Once The Joker learns this, he approaches several crime syndicates; the Blacks, the Russians, the Italians, etc. He explains to them what Batman and Gordon are up to and proposes that in exchange for half of their money he’ll kill Batman and secure their funds for them. This is how his reign of terror in Gotham starts, while chief district attorney Harvey Dent (Eckhart) is busy collaborating with Batman in order to convict all the crime bosses.
And there’s the Harvey Dent hook. Dent, played by Aaron Eckhart, is considered a hero in Gotham, much like Batman is considered a hero. Many similarities exist between Dent and Batman, but there’s one big, defining difference; while Dent is the public hero, Batman is the vigilante hero. Dent rules the day while Batman rules the night. Dent is the White Knight of Gotham, and Batman is the Dark Knight of Gotham. And guess what? They both vie for the love of the same woman; Rachel Dawes, this time played by Maggie Gyllenhaal instead of Katie Holmes, who turned down the opportunity to reprise the role after Batman Begins.
Spoiler Alert
One of the things I didn’t like about the film was the fact that they go through great lengths in order to create this villain; Harvey Two-Face, giving him a great backstory and well fleshed out personality, only to let him die off near the end of the film. Considering Ledger’s death, it would seem even better to keep Two-Face alive, in order to give Batman a recurring villain to combat. Personally, I was a little surprised and disappointed at the fact that Scarecrow only has a small, walk-on cameo on The Dark Knight, and perhaps it’s best that Two Face died, because perhaps he’d be relegated to the same cameo-roles in future movies. Still, I considered it a missed opportunity.
And, of course, let’s not forget that Big Jim had a small, but very visible role as an extra during Wayne’s fund-raiser for Harvey Dent! It’s not hard to spot him if you know what Jim looks like, but being the only one cheering.
