The Dark Knight

When: 2008, Bale's 35th film

Genre: Superhero, Dark Fantasy/Sci-Fi, Nolan

Mike and Kate reviewed the first movie of Nolan’s series, Batman Begins as part of List 9, Superhero Movies.

Mike says watching The Dark Knight again in the aftermath of the giddy adventure that was Avengers is like getting a cute new puppy...and then finding out that your crazy neighbor ate it. While one is a fun and memorable experience, the other, while more emotionally potent, kinda takes the fun out of it.

Just to be clear, I love The Dark Knight. A universally accepted and loved (not to mention dramatically relevant) version of Batman was previously the high point of the past superhero-filled decade.  After the two Shumacher movies, it was pretty gratifying to have such a serious take on Batman.

The trouble is, Avengers reminded us of just how much of a party superhero movies can be, revealing The Dark Knight as the guy brooding in the corner...which is pretty appropriate, now I think of it.

Despite its heavy tone, the film is still one of the most epic movies of the genre; while length certainly helps this, the journey of each character, and the scope of the film and setting, hearkens back to the epic films of the classic movie era. Sad to say, but The Dark Knight may be our generation's equivalent to The Ten Commandments.

My favorite thing is just how much film noir flavors the movie.  Replace high-tech props with prohibition-era gadgets, and you'd have a 30's Gangster film with a much cooler detective. As Batman was created at the end of the 1930's, this is actually pretty appropriate.

Bale's performance is pretty impressive. While Batman's arc doesn't seem as large as that of the other characters, he still undergoes a journey from cautious hope to desperate sacrifice. While he definitely sports a different look in this film (the most telling sign is just how big the original Bat-suit is on him), he still pulls off a great Bruce Wayne/Batman: definitely the first actor to do so (meaning, previous actors usually are only good as Bruce OR Batman).

I love the look of the film as well;  the updated Bat-suit is the first film version that I actually like. Batman's comic look features far more cloth, and I was never sold on the whole rubber look.  The new, streamlined, agile suite really suits him better and requires far less of a jump in belief.

I enjoy the Joker, the retelling of Two-Face (Harvey Two-Face is SUCH a gangster name!), Michael Caine . . . everything but Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes. While Katie Holmes didn't exactly make the role endearing, I could at least endure her.  Gyllenhaal is downright annoying; her self-righteous and close-minded choice to cut ties with Bruce just makes the character's death that much more of a relief.

My only real regret in transitioning from this film to The Dark Knight Rises next week is the knowledge that the upcoming sequel was not what Nolan originally foresaw.  The Joker was important and had definitely not made his last appearance.  He will be missed in the coming film.  Despite some Batman & Robin inspired fears, I AM getting excited for next week.  I have some definite thoughts on what might happen, and they tend to go against the rampant rumors online.

My official call, which is COMPLETELY unsupported by anything floating around right now, is that Batman lives, Gordon-Levitt is just a cop, and the general public is going to be a tad disappointed because of that . . . at least at first. 

But hey, at least we're finally free of Bat-nipples, right?

Kate says I’ve always found the Joker completely disturbing, so I wasn’t completely committed to seeing The Dark Knight when it came out; this review represents only my second viewing. (I am far more willing to see The Dark Knight Rises.)

The Joker does come with an intrinsic problem—why would so many hoodlums help him? Terrorists follow an ideology. The Joker has nothing to offer his followers in terms of belief or loyalty, and psychopathy isn’t THAT common (which is kind of Nolan’s point).

However, the Joker as chaos/anarchy/badness-for-the-sake-of-badness does help Nolan sell his theme: Batman as anti-hero is a symbol, the dark side of heroism where difficult choices have to be made, not everyone comes out alive, and some things just have to be endured. (Plus Heath Ledger as the Joker is far more impressive than Nicholson; anyone can act nuts; it takes real skill to be a nutty criminal who acts marginally sane while saying nutty things.)

I get back to Nolan's theme below, but first, the negative:

The movie is too long. I’ve begun to notice that Nolan’s way of storytelling is to start with a premise, then let it unwind. The result, on the one hand, is stories with a natural, real-world feel despite the sometimes fantastic backgrounds. On the other hand, Nolan’s movies kind of go on and on and on without any obvious goal. By the time I reached 1:20 minutes of The Dark Knight, I had to keep reminding myself, “This is the MID-way point. The movie has eighty minutes to go.”

In a way, this unending-saga-with-seemingly-no-structure feel is due to the Spiderman 3 problem: too many villains. The Dark Knight has Harvey Dent (Two-Face), the Mob, Joker. In order to make it unwind in a natural way, the movie HAS to be over 2 hours long.

This is unfortunate because while the first 1/2 of the movie is kind of random and slow, the last 1/2 of the movie is magnificent—suspenseful, unexpected, strongly underscored by good performances and Nolan’s theme. The final exchange between Batman and Gordon delivers a sense of true sacrifice. The scene where Lucius types in his name and sees that Wayne kept his promise brought tears to my eyes (I also love the part where Reese realizes that his employer saved him despite what he planned to do).

Unfortunately, the second part of the movie wouldn’t have worked without the groundwork of the first part—it’s a pity movies can’t be like operas used to be where the audience would get a program with background/bring-you-up-to-date notes, so movies could start in the middle.

I doubt I’ll watch The Dark Knight again, but there are a few other things I like about it: the move to Wayne Towers, which I think matches not only Nolan’s vision but Bale’s look much better than Wayne Manor.

And the cast. This isn’t just a fun, neat cast like in The Prestige; this is an unbelievably high quality cast all the way from the top stars down to the mobsters, including people like Ritchie Costner (as Chechen).

And Bale, of course, does a great job. He has acquired a spare, almost gaunt lankiness that makes him far more attractive than during his heart-throb days. He has also acquired a Gary Oldman quality.

Gary Oldman can morph into any role. He isn’t Gary Oldman; he is...whoever. I think Bale has reached that point. During The Dark Knight, while I never forgot that I was watching Bale (after all, I was reviewing the movie for this list!), I never felt that Bale was anything other than Batman/Bruce Wayne. This, frankly, is seldom true of other movie superheroes (though with Stark/Downey, Jr., the blend of actor with superhero is kind of the point). Bale has gained that Gary Oldman quality where the actor dissolves into the character—which is fairly impressive.

NEXT WEEK: Dark Knight Rises--our second theater review!!