The Dark Knight

I had been thinking on and off about starting a blog for a couple months, but I never thought about it for more than a couple minutes. But watching The Dark Knight during my vacation back to Chicago put me over the top. When I like something I like to profess my love for it, and this movie is definitely worth a profession of love. I didn’t post on it right away because I wanted to get my blog feet underneath me so to speak. I didn’t want it to be mediocre. Not that this post will be amazing, but I have more of a feel for it.

The Dark Knight really transcends the comic book action genre in every single way. It’s not about over the top stunts, explosions (although there are plenty of those), or one-liners (once again, plenty). It’s really about choices, chance, and humanity.

As a set-up for all of the themes of the movie it uses terrorism as its main vehicle, and the way people respond to it in stressful blink of the eye situations. The pressure is always on. There is always a crisis to respond to, a decision to make that not only alters the situation, but alters one’s life. All of the tension makes this the shortest 2 ½ hour movie I’ve ever seen. It did leave me a bit drained at the end though.

When I heard how Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker was pretty amazing, I immediately thought that he would receive an Academy Award because of the sentimentality of the situation involving his abrupt death. But after seeing the movie, I’ve decided he totally deserves it. He delivered one of the most sinister and engrossing villainous performances in movie history. He is as charming as a terrorist can be. Money meaning absolutely nothing to him. He simply wants to wreak havoc on Gotham and to toy Batman around like few are capable of. The Joker is a user. He plays with people's emotions to accomplish what he never could on his own. He is evil, but he’s smart. Everything is calculated. He knows (until the very end) what the result of all of his actions are. He allows himself to be captured by Batman to set up one of the most climactic scenes in the movie.

I’m the type that doesn’t like to give away too much in light that the surprise or shock of a scene is the best pay off. But Batman is basically given the decision to save the life of his love, Rachel Dawes, or the District Attorney, Harvey Dent, who has the power to clean up the city and end The Joker’s reign. The result provided the biggest gut wrenching moment I’ve ever had watching a movie. That’s saying something.

The Joker manipulates many noble people, using them for his advantage as I’ve said before. So you never know who’s up to what, or how a situation is going to unfold. Almost nothing is predictable.

Will Harvey Dent clean up the city? Will Batman and Rachel live happily ever after? Will Batman continue on as the protector of the city? All of these questions are answered in a way where the movie gives you many fulfilling conclusions. And it leaves just enough of an opening for the next movie to come.

This blog isn’t my longest because it would be completely unfair to spoil any of it. Some reviewers didn’t give Batman high marks because it didn’t follow the theme of a normal comic movie. "Too dark" some would say. Not all movies have happy endings. But that’s what makes the movie great. It’s not typical. It makes you think. But if you like explosions and quirky one-liners, focus on those and you should be happy as well.