'The Dark Knight' lives up to the hype

Eric Walker ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 07/26/2008 11:25 AM  |  Entertainment

If you haven't heard about The Dark Knight, the latest cinematic installation of the Batman series, it's fair to say you've been living under a rock for the past few months.

Riding a wave of critical acclaim, The Dark Knight recently set the record for best opening weekend ever in the United States, pulling in US$155.34 million. Unlike the film that previously held the record (Spiderman 3), this film does not disappoint in any way, shape, or form.

If there could be one word to describe this film, it would be "haunting". The film's vision, laid out by director Christopher Nolan, who also directed Batman Begins, a biographical movie explaining Batman's roots, represents a shift away from the more cartoon-ish batman films of the 1990s, directed by Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher.

The Dark Knight is considerably darker and more psychologically complicated than any of its predecessors, allowing it to exit the realm of fun, action-packed, comic-book movies, and enter the realm of true art, where filmmakers are able to explore the darker, more complex side of their favorite superheroes.

The thing that sets The Dark Knight apart is its moral ambiguity. The lines between good and evil are blurred; the more appropriate conflict is idealism versus realism.

Bruce Wayne and his alter-ego Batman, played by Christian Bale, is typecast as the obvious hero. Yet over the course of the film, he violates international extradition law, illegally spies on American citizens, and conducts himself in a way that leads to the deaths of police officers and civilians.

The main villain, a maniacal killer named the Joker (played by the late Heath Ledger), places Batman in moral conundrums that force him to choose either to reveal his identity, thereby destroying his capacity to fight crime, or to sit idly by and watch as prominent citizens of Gotham are systematically executed.

Throughout the film, Batman is not cheered as a hero, but is rather decried as an egomaniac, a vigilante, and a criminal, giving district attorney Harvey Dent (played by Aaron Eckhart) the opportunity to become Gotham's new hero by pursuing justice through legal means.

However, Dent is not without his moral dilemmas. Once hailed "Gotham's white knight", Dent's twisted mind is unleashed after one of the Joker's attacks turns the former hero into Two-Face, a bitter villain hell-bent on revenge.

Unfortunately, the most influential factor driving the movie's hype has been the premature death of actor Heath Ledger, who plays the Joker. Ledger died in mid-January of an accidental prescription drug overdose after filming was completed, coming as a shock to all who knew and worked with the young, talented actor.

You would be making a mistake if you tried to compare Ledger's performance with Jack Nicholson's portrayal of the villain in 1989's Batman. Ledger truly owned the role, and tailored his performance to a darker, anarchical, malevolent interpretation than Nicholson's. Ledger described the Joker as a "psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy", a feeling reflected in the performance.

By opting for grungy makeup, unkempt and greasy hair, and a sleazy secondhand suit, Ledger sets the character's tone as a villain without class, without convictions and without remorse. Ledger's Joker is not motivated by money or power, but by chaos. His plots are random, almost spastic, making the character's unpredictability his most terrifying asset.

By the same token, the Joker is also the funniest character in the film. Responsible for some of the best dialogue in action-movie history, Ledger's Joker enters an elite class of villain; someone who can make you laugh in the theater, and then give you nightmares for a week after seeing the film. I must say, with no pun intended, that Heath Ledger gave the performance of a lifetime.

The supporting cast is ripe with stars as well, including Gary Oldman as Police Commissioner James Gordon, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, CEO of Wayne Enterprises, Michael Caine as Alfred, Wayne's butler, and Maggie Gyllenhall as Rachel Dawes, the love interest of both Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent.

The film's only weak point is one that plagues most action movies: That too much plot is sacrificed for the gain of car chases and explosions, and this makes some of the links in the film difficult to understand.

Harvey Dent's transformation into Two-Face seems a bit forced, as are the motivations for targeting Commissioner Gordon's family.

But these shortcomings should not detract from what is a fantastic triumph by Nolan and Company: To single-handedly catapult an entire genre from mindless summer entertainment into legitimate artistic achievement worthy of academy award consideration.

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