Urban Thought Collective

THE DARK KNIGHT (PG-13)

MAJOR PLAYERS:
Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman (all “Batman Begins”), Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain), Aaron Eckhart (Thank You for Smoking), Maggie Gyllenhaal (Secretary), co-writer/director Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins).

THE DEAL:
Richard Roeper calls it one of the best movies of all time. It’s got a ridiculous 94% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I have yet to hear a discouraging word about it or the late Heath Ledger’s last complete, Oscar-buzzy performance. I’ve even heard that this movie can cure the common cold. Enough with the hype! Here is your REEL Review…

Gotham City is afraid. Once overrun by the lawless, the city’s criminals are now running scared from the specter, if not the reality, of Batman (Bale). Teaming up with steadfast Lt. Gordon (Oldman) and crusading, new District Attorney Harvey Dent (Eckhart), who’s swept into office with a hands-on, White Knight style of seemingly incorruptible justice - as well as Batman/Bruce Wayne’s ex-flame, ADA Rachel Dawes (Gyllenhaal) - Batman scours Gotham’s international crime syndicate of its monetary lifeblood en route to breaking them entirely. That is until the Joker (Ledger), and his chaotic solution to the mob’s giant Bat Problem, arrives, threatening not only to destroy the Caped Crusader, but also society as we know it.

Alfred (Caine), Batman’s faithful butler/father figure, says early on, “Know your limits, Master Wayne.” A movie like this HAS no limits. When it comes to “The Dark Knight,” the hype has not nearly been enough. This movie is unhypeable because it’s ALL TRUE. Nolan’s panoramic, swirling camera is majestic and daring - even more so in five-story high IMAX film - providing visuals as slick and professional as it is wildly inventive.

Back for another tour of duty, Hans Zimmer (Gladiator) and James Newton Howard (The Fugitive) collaborate for another iconic score that leans heavily on their thrillingly orchestral work from the previous “Batman Begins.” Even the high-tech, Lucious Fox-inspired gadgetry has been ramped up enough to make a Bond film’s Q envious. In fact, every aspect below the line on this feature in all departments - art, sound, visual effects, makeup, etc. - are top notch and utterly compelling.

Speaking of compelling, “The Dark Knight’s” cast, no matter how brief the role, shimmers with talent like fish in a koi pond. All the elder statesmen (Caine, Freeman, Oldman) are so talented in delivery, you almost take them for granted, including Oldman’s cagey, distrustful, smarter-than-his-job Lt. Gordon. Oldman is quietly fabulous serving yeoman’s duty in an unexpectedly complex role. Aaron Eckhart, whose lantern jaw, cleft chin, and sun-kissed, Aryan hair perpetually makes him look like a politician you’d like to have a beer with, brings his guy’s guy swagger into the role of Harvey Dent, a similarly swaggering, forthright DA who speaks in heroic platitudes about justice and fate. For those aware of the comic as I was, his metamorphosis is particularly interesting, credible, and wholly earned.

Not enough, I believe, is said about Christian Bale’s performances as “the Bat Man.” In “Batman Begins,” I hailed his dour, cynical existence as a crime fighter who hopes to create a symbol to strike fear into the hearts of criminals all over a genetically corrupt Gotham. Now past the insouciant anger that propelled “Begins’” origin story, Bale’s Bruce Wayne/Batman hybrid is a weary, worn-down superhero, one who longs for a normal life with a woman who won’t have him (Gyllenhaal’s Rachel is a welcome upgrade in talent and character from Katie Holmes’ previous take) and a city who will appreciate the moral rectitude he tries to instill on the streets.

But is his vigilante justice doing more harm than good? Doesn’t that make him just as evil as the criminals against whom he has sworn to fight? How does a hero define himself or, even worse, how does a COMMUNITY define a hero - or a criminal for that matter? Can they be one in the same? In managing all these mental machinations, not to mention a city that cheers him one moment before hating on him the next “Hancock”-style, Bale is, in a word, effortless.

Yes, Heath Ledger’s Joker is a cinematic tour de force; BELIEVE the hype. With the Best Supporting Actor Oscar now officially his to lose, Ledger’s Joker is the ultimate psychological terrorist, a scar-ridden, hygienically challenged, self-proclaimed “freak” who hides beneath horrific, smiley-faced makeup as war paint designed to intimidate and confuse. He likes knives. Chaotic displays of social engineering and experimentation. Rules? Mmm…not so much. With a chimp-like laugh and a literally slithering delivery, Ledger gives a disturbingly psychotic performance that is as inspired as it is simple, unabashed genius. Gleefully anarchic (”I’m an agent of chaos”) and stultifyingly rational in his irrational lunacy, his Joker proves to be the yang to Batman’s yin, the other side of a thin coin whose persona, by being linked to Batman, completes a strangely symbiotic relationship, the duality of heroism, if you will. Are we truly bringing freedom to Iraq, or something more terrifying? Is heroism just a matter of perception, if not propaganda or PR? Don’t we all have a little bit of villain inside of us? “I’m not a monster,” the Joker slithers. “I’m just ahead of the curve.” The same must be said of Ledger’s brazen, glamorous-by-way-of-being-glamour-free performance.

Here is the point in the review where, as a writer, I shine a light on the true hero of this movie: the script. Bump Christian Bale. Later for you, Christopher Nolan. Well, almost: he and his brother Jonathan are the credited screenwriters for this masterpiece of social psychology. Yeah, I said it: MASTERPIECE. I may be understating this but “The Dark Knight” is probably the singular script in the last five years where I truly did not know where it was going at any particular time. Flat-out amazing, full of unexpected surprises and dramatic twists even the most jaded critic and cinephile would love, the Nolanses’ script is more than an examination of the thin line between courage and villainy. It’s more than about the internal and external politics of identity. It’s just incredibly MORE: a breathless, shocking, terrifying, terrific cracked mirror up to our own morally compromised society, one where a President and his henchmen regularly flout laws, manipulate our fears, and invade our privacy to further their own agendas but under the aegis of security and patriotism.

“The Dark Knight” begs the question: who determines between right and wrong? It’s not so much a philosophical or religious question as it is an existential one. How do we co-exist without destroying each other in pursuit of our own selfish ends? RULES - those borne out of justice, even if we don’t always agree with them - are there for a reason. What happens if our only rule is no rules? What do we become then? Such a heavily layered script invokes shades of the abuse of the Patriot Act and civil liberties, the legislation of morality (”The only morality in a cruel world is chance”), the cost of human life (whose is worth more? Can that even be decided??), and the fairness of unadulterated truth (”Sometimes truth isn’t good enough…Sometimes people deserve more…They deserve to have their faith rewarded.”).

I’m mentally out of breath just thinking about how stunningly, if not flawlessly, scripted and complex “The Dark Knight” is. Who is the TRUE villainous mastermind of this movie? The Joker? The mob? Dent’s glory-chasing self-righteousness? Anarchy? Hell, even rules themselves? Us in our own all-consuming self-interest? Like a Pixar film, “The Dark Knight” is layered with action, character development, and social commentary: a little something for everyone.

To paraphrase the immortal football player Keyshawn Johnson, if you’ve got a problem with “The Dark Knight,” then you’ve got a problem with yourself. I’ve run out of superlatives for this movie. Just. Go. See it. Yup - in short, “The Dark Knight” is all that. And much, much more. So much more, you can’t possibly digest it all in one sitting (even on a ginormous IMAX screen). The bar has been moved for filmmakers and film lovers alike. Keep up.

@@@@ REELS
(FOUR REELS)
An urban legend/instant classic.

UTC’s resident film critic Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for The 213 Magazine, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com where his new novel I DO? is available NOW.