Director: Christopher Nolan
Writers: Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan, David S. Goyer, Bob Kane
Photography: Wally Pfister
Music: James Newton Howard, Hans Zimmer
Editor: Lee Smith
Cast: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Ritchie Coster, Chin Han, Nestor Carbonell, Eric Roberts, Anthony Michael Hall, Patrick Leahy
I have no problem calling The Dark Knight the best Batman movie ever made—by miles, even. I just think we might need to call on Scott McCloud for some analysis of why no Batman movie has ever worked as well as most Batman comics—is it the space between the panels? (If McCloud has done so already, someone please point me there.) In command of a princely budget, shot on location in Chicago, Hong Kong, and London, The Dark Knight is committed to being a high-tech thriller like director Michael Mann makes. Lots of gadgets, stunts, special effects, chase scenes (involving a Lamborghini, fat-wheeled motorcycles, and semitrucks marked “SLaughter Is the Best Medicine”), fistfights, gunplay, and tedious orchestral music from Hans Zimmer, with a giant swirling story about Gotham City and the chaos the Joker (Heath Ledger) unleashes there with bank robberies, hospital demolitions, assassinations, so on so forth. The Dark Knight is also rich with movie stars: Christian Bale, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and the Democratic senator from Vermont, Patrick Leahy
I’m also happy to call Heath Ledger the best Joker of all and even to consider this performance possibly his greatest. But that’s more because his career was cut short in 2008, when he died at the age of 28. It’s hard to say where he would be now, still in his 40s. He rewrote the whole approach to the Joker but I’m pretty sure, given his willingness to take on a risky role and make it great like he did in Brokeback Mountain, that The Dark Knight and his Joker would be in competition with other performances by now. The big boffo attack of The Dark Knight continues to impress, but Ledger’s performance, embedded in it as the unsettling center of gravity, is one of a kind. The rest of the movie seemed kind of boring to me on my third time through. I’m still happy to call it one of the greatest superhero movies, but this might be a good place to wonder about the general utility of superhero movies.
I have no problem calling The Dark Knight the best Batman movie ever made—by miles, even. I just think we might need to call on Scott McCloud for some analysis of why no Batman movie has ever worked as well as most Batman comics—is it the space between the panels? (If McCloud has done so already, someone please point me there.) In command of a princely budget, shot on location in Chicago, Hong Kong, and London, The Dark Knight is committed to being a high-tech thriller like director Michael Mann makes. Lots of gadgets, stunts, special effects, chase scenes (involving a Lamborghini, fat-wheeled motorcycles, and semitrucks marked “SLaughter Is the Best Medicine”), fistfights, gunplay, and tedious orchestral music from Hans Zimmer, with a giant swirling story about Gotham City and the chaos the Joker (Heath Ledger) unleashes there with bank robberies, hospital demolitions, assassinations, so on so forth. The Dark Knight is also rich with movie stars: Christian Bale, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and the Democratic senator from Vermont, Patrick Leahy
I’m also happy to call Heath Ledger the best Joker of all and even to consider this performance possibly his greatest. But that’s more because his career was cut short in 2008, when he died at the age of 28. It’s hard to say where he would be now, still in his 40s. He rewrote the whole approach to the Joker but I’m pretty sure, given his willingness to take on a risky role and make it great like he did in Brokeback Mountain, that The Dark Knight and his Joker would be in competition with other performances by now. The big boffo attack of The Dark Knight continues to impress, but Ledger’s performance, embedded in it as the unsettling center of gravity, is one of a kind. The rest of the movie seemed kind of boring to me on my third time through. I’m still happy to call it one of the greatest superhero movies, but this might be a good place to wonder about the general utility of superhero movies.
Or nah. Why alienate anyone? Taking superhero movies seriously tends to make me feel like a chump in the first place, which is why my favorites are more on the order of Deadpool, Venom, or indeed the original ‘60s TV Batman with Adam West, which looks better all the time. These pictures seem to understand the genre at bottom is a joke or a little bit of one, at least in the context of movies. Again, it is somehow not such a problem in the comics, where the suspension of disbelief is easier to maintain, or exists at some level movies can’t access. I mean, I used to find entertainment in Metal Men.
And, as tiresome as it may be, I am here once again to complain—briefly—about things like the ridiculously modulated quality of Batman’s speaking voice, a rumbling electronically filtered tone that verges on the rasping roar of a monster. Yeah, right. Strike fear into the hearts and all that. For me it torpedoes any notion that Nolan or whoever knows what they’re doing with sound design. Don’t get me started on the impossible costumes. Just imagine trying to strut around in one of those babies, let alone conduct a fistfight.
Another point I don’t like is dragging popular players like Michael Caine (as the suave, pronounced “soo - ahvay,” butler Alfred) and Morgan Freeman (as some tech edge lord). They both play it, they seem to be directed to play it, as high-tech spy thriller with handy gadgets galore. These gadgets usually work without a hitch, unless the story calls for (temporary, always) hitches. I know it’s all part of the way it plays. The Dark Knight was always intended as a big tentpole movie and dragging in all the stars you can is one of the main ways you do that.
The Dark Knight is also overpacked with Batman lore origin tales: how Commissioner Gordon became commissioner, how Harvey “Two-Face” Dent went from crusading Gotham City DA to a major nemesis of Batman (or “the” Batman, as he is usually called here, going for that Golden Age / Frank Miller sizzle) along with his trick of flipping coins to decide the fates of the hapless. All things considered, Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh does it much better in No Country for Old Men, but, in fairness, Two-Face has been doing it since approximately August 1942.
And it’s too long! At two and a half big bloated hours. Look, I say again, I know how these things work. You go for the biggest screen you can see it on, you settle into your comfiest seat possible with the saltiest butteriest bucket of popcorn you can get your hands on, and you play it loud. No doubt still effective at family gatherings for hypnotizing folks into a peaceful place. I have been wowed before by The Dark Knight too. I’m just a little surprised it seems to be wearing off for me with only the third look. Or maybe the spectacle of Heath Ledger just makes me sad now.
And, as tiresome as it may be, I am here once again to complain—briefly—about things like the ridiculously modulated quality of Batman’s speaking voice, a rumbling electronically filtered tone that verges on the rasping roar of a monster. Yeah, right. Strike fear into the hearts and all that. For me it torpedoes any notion that Nolan or whoever knows what they’re doing with sound design. Don’t get me started on the impossible costumes. Just imagine trying to strut around in one of those babies, let alone conduct a fistfight.
Another point I don’t like is dragging popular players like Michael Caine (as the suave, pronounced “soo - ahvay,” butler Alfred) and Morgan Freeman (as some tech edge lord). They both play it, they seem to be directed to play it, as high-tech spy thriller with handy gadgets galore. These gadgets usually work without a hitch, unless the story calls for (temporary, always) hitches. I know it’s all part of the way it plays. The Dark Knight was always intended as a big tentpole movie and dragging in all the stars you can is one of the main ways you do that.
The Dark Knight is also overpacked with Batman lore origin tales: how Commissioner Gordon became commissioner, how Harvey “Two-Face” Dent went from crusading Gotham City DA to a major nemesis of Batman (or “the” Batman, as he is usually called here, going for that Golden Age / Frank Miller sizzle) along with his trick of flipping coins to decide the fates of the hapless. All things considered, Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh does it much better in No Country for Old Men, but, in fairness, Two-Face has been doing it since approximately August 1942.
And it’s too long! At two and a half big bloated hours. Look, I say again, I know how these things work. You go for the biggest screen you can see it on, you settle into your comfiest seat possible with the saltiest butteriest bucket of popcorn you can get your hands on, and you play it loud. No doubt still effective at family gatherings for hypnotizing folks into a peaceful place. I have been wowed before by The Dark Knight too. I’m just a little surprised it seems to be wearing off for me with only the third look. Or maybe the spectacle of Heath Ledger just makes me sad now.
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