I’ve been writing movie reviews for coming up on 10 years now, and never before has one been as tough to actually talk about as this review for The Dark Knight. It’s a rare case where everyone who has seen it agrees that it’s amazing, and in one small sentence you could sum up the whole movie.
“No one can ever play the Joker again in the history or future of cinema.”
Which is exactly how I can sum up the movie experience, but lets take it back a little bit – let’s forget the initial hype, let’s not concentrate on the tragic ending of Heath Ledger, let’s not remember the poor stuntman who died — just for a moment. Does The Dark Knight work on all the other levels that we judge cinema by?
The screening I went to was a perfect screening to do a review from, it was an empty Drive-In just me and a few friends, and a clear night. While the video and audio quality may not be as maximized as it would in an IMAX theater or through Digital Projection; the drive-in is still one of my favorite places to see films, but that is another story for another day.
I sat back and watched the screen in such an eager anticipation as the Warner Bros. logo stood before me and then began what can only be described an action packed kick to the senses and your emotions! It’s easy to fall back on previous winning patterns; especially with such a success as Batman Begins. They could have easily just sat back and repeated the same formula and it’d be a success and probably entertaining as well, but they took everything we knew and injected it with such a heart that this shouldn’t be seen as just another comic book film, but should be seen as a crime drama, and just a glorious piece of storytelling.
There are moments during this film when you are drawn so deep into the characters and the story they are telling that when something unexpected happens it feels like a kick to the ribs. Yes, a kick to the ribs is a good thing in this context. You get so emotionally attached to all the characters that you lose yourself, something you couldn’t really say during Batman Begins especially with Katie Holmes’ wooden performance as Rachael Dawes.
Luckily that problem has been more than taken care of with the re-casting of Maggie Gyllenhaal in that role, however though the part of Rachael Dawes still seems to be horribly under written. The main reason for her to be around is as a crutch for Bruce to hold onto during his darker times during his eternal inner struggle, something she still could have done with out being involved with Harvey Dent.
In fact the film focuses much more on Harvey Dent, the way it should be, and the addition of the Rachael Dawes character could have been any random female in all of Gotham to be honest, and would have been much better overall if it was his already established Wife (much like in The Long Halloween plot line). But that doesn’t really distract from the movie.
The one thing that does however is Christian Bale’s Bat-Voice. While it was semi-annoying in Batman Begins; now it borders on obnoxious. At times during the film it almost seems as if he is having problems moving his mouth inside the mask where you can physically see him slurring words as if that’s as far as he can move his mouth. It doesn’t ruin the movie but does bring forth the ‘bat voice’ as a common hindrance to full emersion in certain moments.
With all that said we come to the one thing that I dread talking about; Heath Ledger’s performance. What hasn’t already been said about the subtle nature of his performance? Let me get this right out there in the open, I am not a huge Ledger fan – in fact the only things I remember fully enjoying him in were 10 Things I Hate About You and Lords of Dogtown (another FANTASTIC performance). However I am a GIGANTIC Joker fan. Out of all villians of all comic books of all time The Joker has always and will always be my overall favorite. I may have my moments of falling for another character for a week or month but I always come back to The Joker.
From the second Heath appears on the screen all the way until his final scene; Heath Ledger doesn’t PLAY The Joker — He IS The Joker. He’s the embodiment of what I felt the Joker always was. Caesar Romero, Jack Nicholson, and Mark Hamill all had their own visions and interpretations of The Joker; Romero had the campy joking nature. Nicholson… well he had that suit didn’t he. Hamill had the voice and maniacal nature almost perfect. I only say almost because Heath Ledger blew them all away.
People may talk about the creepy overt performance, but they won’t realize it’s all in the subtleties. The way his body moves, almost as if its deliberate chaos. The way he constantly is aware of his appearance and is fixing his hair and licking his scars on his mouth, it all adds up to an amazing and award worthy character. He absolutely IS the Joker and at least in my heart and mind he will be the ONLY Joker worth talking about years to come.
This truly was The Dark Knight.
-Stevo
Coming Soon: Stevo Compares The Joker’s of Cinema!
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