Photo by Marcin Lukasik on Unsplash
The Dark Knight - Christopher Nolan
The joker’s entrance shows us what sort of crazy we are in for. This is a new level of madman. And Bale is ready to bring us a hero of equal calibre. Because he is “not wearing hockey pants.”
The plot is a little more complex than you would usually expect from a normal super hero film. But Nolan treats his audience with respect and keeps all the pieces moving well.
There is the plot of the assassinations; the bank heists; batman tracking the mob’s money – this even leads to some scenes overseas as batman tracks down the mobs money man. The Harvey Dent as ‘white knight’ arc is brilliant.
But Heath Ledger takes the limelight with his evocative performance of the Joker.
"I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve."
Heath’s performance is staggering. The bank robbery with which the movie opens gives us a glimpse at the madness, riskiness, and wanton behaviour that with be emblematic of his Joker.
Batman makes a fatal mistake in underestimating the Joker: “He’s one man, he can wait.”
Every scene that Ledger is in is superb. There are many scenes that I keep thinking back on trying to think how much of that was scripted. So much of what Ledger brings to the screen feels real. He feels like he became the Joker.
One of the best scenes for me, that really encapsulates Ledger’s Joker is as he is walking out of the hospital, setting off the bombs with the remote detonator. He obviously expected a bomb to go off and when it doesn’t he mashes the button in Joker esk fashion. The annoyance is pure brilliance and it’s these tiny pieces that make the character real.
"It's simple, we kill the Batman."
Batman has a rough gig this time – he is being pulled in every direction and his goal, bringing down the mob, is quickly undermined. If the old adage that a Hero is defined by their Villain, holds true then Batman has it easy as the Joker is one of the best we have ever seen.
Photo by TETrebbien on Unsplash
This is the most interesting arc we have seen batman go on for a long time. He is as far the Icon hero that we have seen him as in the past. The Icon hero is a hero that has little to no character arc and this is normally where we find batman.
But Nolan milks the possibility of Batman’s redemption for all it is worth. We see this play out throughout this film and it is great. The movie follows two journeys for Batman, an internal journey of redemption and return of self – to become Bruce Wayne again. The second journey is the external one for Gotham’s Hope.
The Death of Self
With the death of Rachel his redemption dies as well. From this point forward Batman falls further and further from the light. Essentially any chance of Batman shedding the cape and becoming Bruce Wayne again is dead.
The sonar phone array, that Lucius Fox, rightly resigns over, is a massive step towards the dark side for Batman.
The Choice - The Joker
The choice is a trope that we have seen used way too much in hero films. But Nolan reinvents it here to great effect. This is one of the best part of the film. Not only is it visually spectacular it does so much for character and story development.
Let’s look at the characters’ motivations. The Joker wants destroy Gotham’s spirit. He wants to do this by destroying Dent and everything that Dent represents for the city. But the Joker is also completely unhinged so perhaps we should equally consider the petty motivation of crushing batman’s soul through Rachael’s death.
Even if this were true, and I don’t think that it is, the best course of action for the Joker is to take down Harvey and Rachel is just the cherry on top. So the setup of the choice is completely loco – in character – but questions what the Joker really wants to achieve.
The Choice - The Batman
Batman is the complex one here. His external goal as protector of the city is to save Harvey. He needs to do this to give Gotham a change to save its soul. He also has his internal, personal, goal as Bruce, to cast off batman and take Rachel as his prize.
So the Joker gives him the wrong address for each person after seeing batman choose Rachel over Dent at the party. Batman chooses Rachel again and sends the cops after Dent.
Batman arrives in time to save Dent and Rachel dies. The Joker wins on all fronts. Keeping Harvey alive for his eventual downfall and bringing Gotham with him – he also gets the cherry on top.
Was there anything bad in the film?
To be honest, not really. The only issue I had was that some of the lines and sequences are a bit meh. Like at Dent’s press conference: “Night is darkest before the dawn.”
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