The Dark Knight Review

The genres of movies are usually well established. In general, a movie can fit nicely into a certain category for reference and documenting purposes. Once or twice a year (or decade, or quarter century depending on one's level of cynicism) a movie comes along that can't be stereotyped and breaks through simple generalizations. With a brief reflection on movies I've seen in my life, I would on place a handful a movies at the genre-defying level (I guess I'm at the decade amount of cynicism) . Those being; The Godfather for being both a crime/mob drama and a story about family above all else; Blade Runner, perhaps the quintessential example with it's extraordinary science fiction ideas but in the end, being more about an inspection of what really makes a human... well, human; Forrest Gump with it's great ability to tell the story of an amazing life and the psyche of a country during one of it's most troubled times; and most recently, Million Dollar Baby telling such a fantastic triumph in the world of sports followed by the most crushing defeat of that same fighting spirit. Well, consider this my placing of The Dark Knight on this list.

First, lets get the simple truths out of the way. The Dark Knight is the greatest superhero movie ever made. I thought the original Christopher Nolan film, Batman Begins, was on par with the original Superman movies (well 1 and 2), the second iteration of X-Men movies, and the recent Iron Man as the best of the best depending on taste. Well, aside from those few who simply despise all comic book movies, I don't know what type of taste one would need to not put this movie on the top of that list, way way way on top. The Dark Knight goes beyond the superhero genre and treads on the territory of some of the greatest crime dramas in movie history. Perhaps the most amazing part of this movie (besides Ledger, more on that later) is how believable it is. Superhero movies are supposed to be mind blowing, leave your logic at the door fun. When you walk into a movie about men in capes or iron suits or mutants, you expect to suspend belief for the next two hours or so, in fact, that's part of why we love them. Yet, upon reflection, I can't think of one part of this movie which couldn't be explain in a rational and believable way, and I'm not talking about some pseudo science type of explanation that gets used in most superhero movies. Everything that happened in this movie had some sort of basis in reality. Even when the opportunity arose for a typical awe inspiring but ultimately unbelievable action sequence which no doubt would've thrilled the audience, the director decided against it. One scene in particular, when Batman needs to board a moving airplane, the way he goes about doing so actually comes from real life ideas created by the CIA. The level of believability is just staggering and definitely lends itself to the genius of the movie.

The second obvious truth, is the historic performance of Heath Ledger as the Joker. He is the psychotic Hannibal Lecter and the pure evil of Anton Chigurh in one. In all honesty, the worst part of this movie was watching the genius of Ledger and knowing we would never see it again. The way he portrays the desire for unrelenting chaos by a madman is absolutely astonishing. Ironically, about halfway through the movie I was starting to prepare myself for a letdown because, in my opinion, Ledger wasn't doing much for me. Looking back, this can simply be correlated to the lack of real screen time the Joker gets in the first half of the movie. Obviously, he is there, but there is no long dialogue and up until that point, no award winning performance that I could see. However, the second half, Ledger steals the show and what ensues is the type of acting in which no amount of hype can justly reflect. It is also because of his performance, that I find a small part of me sincerely hoping there will never be another Batman movie. Simply because I do not see how the next villain will come close to matching the complexity and brilliance of Ledger as the Joker.

Now, for the few weak points. Aaron Eckhart does a great job as Harvey Dent, but comes up short as two face. I just wasn't convinced that he transformed from ultimate good guy to revenge filled bad guy in a matter of minutes because of one tragedy.

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I do believe the reason for this comes back to the lack of chemistry I felt between him and Rachel Dawes, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal. So when Rachel does die in a saw-it-coming-a-mile-away explosion and enrages Harvey so much so he becomes hell bent on revenge, I just didn't believe it. In my opinion, in order for someone to transform so completely like Harvey Dent does (or is supposed to), they have to lose something so dear to them, they couldn't live without it. Obviously, I didn't see the kind of on screen love between Mr. Eckhart and Ms. Gyllenhaal that would justify such a violent and incredible reversal of beliefs and morals.
---END SPOILER----

In Eckharts defense, it would've taken someone on the level of Ledger as the Joker to pull off a believable switch. He is a very good actor, but not quite good enough to pull it off. And as much as I like Gyllenhaal as an actress, she simply is not stunning enough to play Rachel Dawes. Don't get me wrong, I think Maggie is twenty times the actress that Katie Holmes is, but I think this role required someone of Katie's beauty to make the desire that Harvey Dent and Bruce Wayne have towards her to be justified. Another example of what I'm trying to say was Julia Roberts in Ocean's 11. When Matt Damon is talking to Brad Pitt about the daily routines of Andy Garcia and he says "this is the best part of my day" in reference to seeing Julia walk down the stairs every night, I literally rolled my eyes. Julia may be cute, gorgeous, and beautiful, but one thing she is not, is stunning.

Side note: I believe Catherine Zita Jones would've been much more fitting in that role. True, she's not the actress that Ms. Roberts is, but that part didn't exactly require Katharine Hepburn. Quick realization: Nobody would've been better suited for that role than Audrey Hepburn. Take Audrey from Breakfast at Tiffany's and have her be the one coming down those stairs....wow, now that would be the best part of any man's day.

My only other little criticism is the way Bale actually speaks when he is Batman. I know he's doing it to hide his true voice in order to prevent someone from discovering his identity, but I think Bale goes a little overboard with it sometimes. He did this in the first Batman so I wasn't terribly let down and it is such a minor point that it doesn't even take away from the movie.

As tempted as I am, I'm not prepared to start whispering "greatest movie ever" or anything close to that. Mostly because I believe a movies true greatness can only be tested with time and how well it stays with you. What I am prepared to do is hand Heath Ledger an Oscar (assuming another supporting actor doesn't completely reinvent a role in the next half year) and deem this the best movie I've seen this year so far, and by far the greatest superhero movie put to film. I will say though, there is one thing that makes me believe this might belong on my greatest movies list in the future, and that is the fact that for the first time in my life, I am oddly apprehensive about the next movie I see. Perhaps it is because I know it will not contain one of the greatest acting performances of my lifetime or that it probably won't exceed the hype like The Dark Knight did. Whatever the reason may be, I found myself flipping through upcoming movies in my head, hoping to pinpoint the moment in the foreseeable future when, at least the opportunity would arise and I would be as blown away by a movie as I was by the The Dark Knight.

Harper...