Dorkgasm Gonzo Is God

Why So Serious?
By
Michael C. Riedlinger
Editor-In-Chief

            At their heart, Batman stories are morality tales. Sure, they are about a guy who dresses up in funny pants to beat up other people in funnier pants, but at the core, these are stories about the ambiguity of good and evil. The best of these have always focused on the relationship between the Joker, a force of pure chaos, and Batman, a symbol of hope in the darkest of times. Christopher Nolan has captured this dynamic in a way that outclasses any attempts by his predecessors. The Dark Knight is one of those rare films that manages to combine a well written script, technical mastery, and phenomenal performances into a cinematic masterpiece.

            This incarnation of Batman, the first film without the character’s name in the title, is so grounded in reality that we never doubt its veracity. Christian Bale returns in this outing to finish bringing down the hydra that is the Gotham City mafia. His antics have inspired copycat vigilantes who only get in the way. Cillian Murphy reprises his role as the twisted Dr. Crane/Scarecrow, if only to remind of where we’ve been. The mob, at the end of their rope, turn to a new maniac to try and thwart the ever-present Dark Knight, and soon learn that you cannot control the rabid dog that is the Joker. Also back is Rachel Dawes (this time played masterfully by Maggie Gyllenhaal) who is now the assistant to D.A. Harvey Dent, Gotham’s best hope for a legal solution to its crime problems. Jim Gordon returns as well, heading up the Major Crimes Unit and partnering with Batman to take back the city from the forces of evil. The strength of the screenplay is not in the basis of its story, but in the progression of the plot and characters. Not a single character remains static besides Joker, and he is so beautifully chaotic that any attempt to change him would be criminal.

            Visually, the film is stunning. It opens with the best bank heist ever captured on film and keeps moving at a solid pace for two and a half hours without slowing down. It manages this without the shaky hand-held shots or choppy editing techniques seen in most action pictures lately. Nolan’s frequent collaborator, cinematographer Wally Pfister, captures visuals so stunning they’ll take your breath away. Working in conjunction with this is a superb score that is simultaneously haunting and exciting. But enough of my love of this film as a piece of art to rival Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights, does the film kick ass? Does it live up to the hype?

Click image to visit the site

            In the words of Tom Petty, “Oh my my, oh hell yes”! Heath Ledger stands out from the get-go as a psychopath to put Hannibal Lecter, Max Cady, and Annie Wilkes to shame. He doesn’t chew the screen, he devours it, spits it back in your face, lights it on fire, eats it again, craps it out and then force injects it into your mama’s stomach with a turkey baster, all before he tells the first version of how he got the scars! Holy crap! There has never been a villain so intense and scary as this. Ledger’s performance has a little of ourselves in it, the part that laughs at jokes about us having the heart of a small child… in a jar under the sink. He isn’t crazy, and he isn’t evil. He is pure chaotic force, as raw and as visceral as can be captured on film in a world of make-believe.

            The rest of the cast shines as well. These characters have had no better avatars, ever. The power of the supporting cast, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine, to give us characters we not only believe, but care about despite minimal screen-time is phenomenal. Not to mention the sojourn from light to dark we get to see Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) take in becoming Two-Face. We come to trust and believe in Harvey before the fall, and the character finally gets a fair shake at unleashing his psychoses, unlike the sugared cereal portrayal Tommy Lee Jones gave us in a film I’m ashamed to have seen. In the end, we believe that these people, and their city, exist and that sometimes even hardened criminals can do what is right, even if it means their own ferry blows up.

            Unequivocally, The Dark Knight is the best, smartest, and prettiest comic book movie too date, but it is more than that. It is a force to be reckoned with all its own. This film is a clarion call to literate people everywhere to demand more from their entertainment. Combined with trailers for The Spirit and Watchmen, this film sounds a death knell to the thinking that movies based on graphic fiction must be campy and geared toward an audience of 17 year-old boys. Christopher Nolan brings us a story that gets us thinking like Memento, surprises us like The Prestige, and kicks major ass like, well, Batman Begins.

Final Verdict (out of 5):