Another weekend, and Batman is still completely unstoppable at the box office. It’s been a long time since this type of craziness has been so unified for one film, and its awesome to be able to get behind a movie as good as this one. I was listening to a Kevin Smith interview recently and he was talking about The Dark Knight and he said that there’s this type of contact buzz you get when a movie you love is doing really well at the box office, as if you were really part of something and it came to fruition.
I can tell you, when Spider-Man 3 and the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels were recently tearing up box office records I felt a little left out, because while I like watching Johnny Depp acting a fool as much as the next guy, none of those films had any substance to them what so ever. On the polar opposite, The Dark Knight is a movie that dares to be about something and not just pump you full of action scenes for two and a half hours. This is real moviemaking that just so happens to have one of the great pop culture heroes of the last century at its center.
I like to finish up these columns with some more random thoughts on why I really, really love this film. I’ve covered a lot of my initial thoughts the last couple of weeks, but there’s still some ground to get through. This last column may be a little haphazard in comparison as a result. Again, I’m giving a spoiler warning up front, but seriously, who hasn’t seen this movie yet?
The Dark Knight Starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Morgan Freeman. Directed by Christopher Nolan.
One of the biggest criticisms I’ve heard so far about The Dark Knight is the treatment of Harvey Dent/Two-Face, who pound for pound might be my favorite Batman villain of all time. There’s a heartfelt tragedy with Harvey Dent that’s not as present with the rest of the Caped Crusader’s rogues gallery, except for perhaps, the Joker. In DC’s continuity Harvey is such a good person, so obsessed with justice and making Gotham a better place, that when his tragedy befalls him his rage makes him a villain, but he’s still obsessed with balance, hence the coin marked on one side.
Thing is, the best comic books to cover Harvey (I’d recommend Jeph Loeb’s The Long Halloween/Dark Victory 1-2 punch) make you care about him deeply so that when he falls it’s a huge deal to you, and that’s why I prefer him to almost every other Bat-villain, other than maybe the Joker himself. The trick is to take a character with that much pathos and make you care about him just as much onscreen. Thankfully, that is exactly what Christopher Nolan’s film does extremely well.
Perhaps Aaron Eckhart’s biggest strength as an actor is that he’s so flawlessly likable. It’s paid dividends for him in movies such as In the Company of Men and Thank You for Smoking, and I think he takes his charisma even one step further in The Dark Knight. Eckhart is the ideal version of Gotham’s potential savior, putting himself on the line again and again in order to try and clean up his city’s streets. From his first scene, in which we actually get a shout out to Two-Face’s origin from the Comic Book continuity, the actor is simply breathtaking to watch.
Eckhart’s Dent is completely engaging and we completely buy him as this obsessed man of the law and as a devoted boyfriend to Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Rachel Dawes. There’s nothing more vital to a love story than one that just seems to have real stakes and touch you on a human level, and its much rarer to get that in a Summer blockbuster, but here it is in many scenes. The love triangle between these two and Bruce Wayne is handled with subtlety and grace, and in a story like this that’s all you can ask for. You can feel the desperation on the part of both men trying to win and then eventually save Dawes, with the horrifying results driving both men to their fates by picture’s end.
In the hands of Eckhart, Dent stands in for the soul of Gotham, representing the city that Batman and the Joker are fighting for. This theme creeps up again with the two ferry boats as each decides whether to condemn the other or not, only the struggle for Harvey puts the battle on a much more personal level, both when it comes to Batman and Joker and also with Commissioner Gordon toward the climax of the picture. It’s the fact that the Joker wins this battle to a large degree that gives this movie much of its power.
Now back to the original argument, whether Two-Face is shoehorned into this movie, much like Venom is in Spider-Man 3. Well, while I’ll admit that it would be easy to look at it that way, I see something else going on here. Firstly, the way I’m looking at the picture, I’m not seeing Harvey Dent and Two-Face as the two different people. Perhaps more than any other single character, I see The Dark Knight as Harvey Dent’s movie. It’s his arc from hero to villain that drives much of the dramatic impact on this film, and when he finally turns we all feel it as an audience, as if his fall will tip Gotham City all the way into darkness.
And yet Nolan and company are smart enough to never make you hate Harvey, which is what DC has always been able to achieve in their best Two-Face stories. In fact, as he’s on his quest for vengeance, you’re right there with Two-Face, even as he takes the law into his own hands, because you know he’s putting down the scum that is rotting out his city. It’s this full fall into darkness that puts Batman’s quest and his code into perspective, which is a major reason why I love the Two-Face character in the first place.
So yes, I feel like they could have made an entire Two-Face-centric Batman sequel, but I think this movie earns every turn that it takes and also by setting it up for another movie, I think The Dark Knight loses a lot of its dramatic power. This movie doesn’t work without Harvey’s fall, and if they just left it to another film, then I feel like the triumph of Gotham’s citizens on the ferry and Batman’s sacrifice at film’s end is kind of hollow. Right now, The Dark Knight is very much stand-alone, and I’d hate to just throw that away to sell more tickets the next movie out. Besides, looking at the box office returns so far, it doesn’t look like they’re going to have a problem selling another Batman movie.
It’s amazing to me that I’ve gone three columns now and haven’t mentioned Gary Oldman’s Commissioner Gordon. Honestly, I think that one of the major reasons that I can’t really love the Burton Batman-verse as much as I used to is that these new movies really bring to light how weak the portrayal of Gordon has been outside of the Comic Books and ‘90s Animated Series. He was always just a buffoon in a suit before, but now Gordon is the blue collar cop we’ve always wanted to see.
I love that I just let myself believe he was dead half way through this movie. I put it in my mind, doubted for a moment, and then just let the movie take me. I honestly had no idea it was Gordon driving that truck, believing at first that it was Batman or possibly a Joker henchmen. The good Commissioner’s resurrection in the film was an absolute highlight, and Oldman deserve all the praise in the world for bringing his warmest character ever to the screen. Just as it is the moment that Rachel Dawes kisses Harvey before his prison transfer, I felt the same surge of emotion when Gordon tells his son that he’s just saved Batman. Just awesome stuff.
Also, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman do their usual exceptional work. Just as they did in the last picture, each gets their own little story arc which fits this picture perfectly, each driving home the movie’s dramatic punch. Just as you would expect from Academy Award winning actors, both put in 110%, never phoning a single moment.
Again, I just can’t praise this movie enough. Even my biggest complaint from the previous film, the movie’s fight scenes, didn’t give me an ounce of trouble this time. As Batman pummels his opponents Nolan’s camera is pulled back, letting us watch the Caped Crusader’s technique as he completely outclasses every scumbag that comes near him. Then of course, there is the truck chase/Batpod standoff. Wow. This is epic, crime drama/action fireworks that would make Michael Mann or William Friedkin proud. The whole thing is carried off brilliantly and might just be the single best Action sequence I’ve seen all year.
The Hong Kong sequence was nearly just as impressive, but I tell you what I love about it more. More than anything else, I love that it was able to solidify for me that The Dark Knight was taking place in a real world. Gotham isn’t just some distant city with gothic architecture that sure looks like it was created in a computer or a studio lot. By juxtaposing real cities with Gotham, it makes it seem to be more of a legit place on the map, than ever.
Alright, I think I’ve finally exhausted nearly all my major thoughts on this masterpiece. I can only hope that somehow Nolan has another one in him that’s just as good as this one. I think if any franchise can break the third movie curse it is this one, and hopefully this film will inspire the studios to start kicking it up a notch when it comes to these properties. Until then, I’m just going to go see The Dark Knight another 27 times or so.
