The TV Addict 

Everything you have heard about THE DARK KNIGHT is true. It’s not just an amazing superhero movie, it’s an amazing movie. Period. It proves what many avid comic book readers have known for a long time. Comics are not just silly adventures involving uninteresting do-gooders in tights, but have the potential to achieve dramatic depth and insight on the level of all fine art.

That being said, THE DARK KNIGHT is most certainly an exciting superhero adventure (albeit, far from a silly one). Batman’s battle with The Joker features no end of finely shot, deliriously orchestrated, expertly choreographed and highly destructive action sequences ranging from Batman’s brutal fist fights to intense car chases. They’re also intoxicatingly exciting, of course. Throw in great characters immersed in a thrilling, twisty plot that increasingly escalates the tension, and fantastic performances from Christian Bale and especially Aaron Eckhart, and you’re in for one hell of a ride.

It’s the nuances and thematic aspirations though that raise the film to an entirely different level, one that is stimulating and smart. So much so that I saw it a second time not only because it was awesome, but because I felt I needed another shot to appreciate the movie’s complexity and nuances. My brain is still running through them, which should - if anything - mean it passes that age-old “A good film has you still thinking about it a week later” test. It proves that THE DARK KNIGHT isn’t so much a superhero film as it is an intelligent crime drama that happens to feature a guy who dresses like a bat, and another who wears clown makeup.

It’s not just the depth of the film though that surprised me, but it was also the tone. Though it might not be some people tastes, THE DARK KNIGHT is an oddly refreshing bleak, depressing hopeless affair at times. How could it not be when the very thing at stake is something so precious as hope? It’s darkness is such an impressive accomplishment because it’s rare in a mainstream Hollywood film to find stakes that are this high, let alone so palpable to an audience member. It’s a daring risk, and one that pays off, even if it makes you squirm. A lot. I can’t think of many times I’ve been this hopeless, uncertain and invested as to what was going to happen next in a film. This film doesn’t give us hokey over-the-top end of the world scenarios, it gives us a threat and crumbling city that is frighteningly real and possible.

The film and the unstable, frightening world in it is centered by The Joker (an Oscar nomination worthy performance from Heath Ledger that I could write an entire article about) who may be one of cinema’s greatest villains, not only because of his truly uncaring anarchic motivations to completely subvert any form of social order, but because we can get such perverse pleasure from seeing him do it. He is truly, as he himself says, “an agent of chaos,” hell-bent on probing society’s cracks, weaknesses, and hypocrisies, blowing them open and then violently nudging its crippled shell on a path to destroy itself. Anarchy is a term loosely used and rarely properly and yet The Joker is the very definition of anarchy at its most frightening, intelligent, and - even in some ways - most appealing.

There’s a seemingly throw away moment in the film where The Joker off-screen has set a fire truck ablaze. To me that perfectly captured what The Joker is trying to accomplish. Just as he set fire to the very thing that’s supposed to keep it in check, so too does he instill anarchy and chaos in the very institutional symbols (the police, the law, Batman) that are meant to protect us from those things.

It’s also exactly what he does both to the film itself and its characters. He propels the film along with the sheer force of his nature, while causing a domino effect that makes every character, every institution, and every symbol in the film question themselves. His demented and calculated subversion is used by Christopher and Johnathan Nolan to help catalyze THE DARK KNIGHT to become something that doesn’t exploit The Joker as kitchy high-spectacle, but rather uses the complexity inherent in the character to spill out into every other aspect of the film and cast a probing light on all its wrestling with.

At one point Harvey Dent informs Gotham that Batman is a product of the city and its citizens’ apathy towards stopping crime and corruption. The Joker then is perhaps a product of a society that takes too much for granted. It’s why in THE DARK KNIGHT nothing is and everything is questioned and explored. And that’s why it’s - among many other reasons - such a phenomenal film.

Overall rating: A+