I went and saw The Dark Knight today. I'm still trying to decide what I think about it. It is a well made movie. The acting is strong across the board I would say. The action does not let up. There is hardly any swearing, nothing that couldn't be in a PG movie, and zero sex. There is gun-play, martial arts, and some animal violence. I don't recall there being any free flowing blood, if there was blood it was dry. It had very few of the earmarks we usually look for when trying to tell if a kid should not go. But the movie was INTENSE! It tread in very dark waters. It questions the balance of security and freedom, ends and means.
The Joker is a psychopath, he is a criminal mastermind, but not for gain. There is a scene where he burns all the money he has stolen. He is out to spread fear, not to put himself in power, not in a traditional sense, more to just see what would happen, to know that he CAN cause fear. Really, he is an anarchist. A divisive element, with no permanent allegiances. He wants to show the world that society is a pretense, that when push comes to shove, people are selfish, willing to kill to save their own neck.
A lot of people die in the movie, cops, mobsters, minor characters and important ones. And they die in pretty gruesome ways. At least you know it is gruesome, because it is setup to be gruesome. Like I said, there is no free flowing blood. The actual moment of death is always left to the imagination. I kept expecting to have to shield my eyes, I never did, but it is hard to shut out the images that my mind has created to fill in what the movie left out.
Not many movies do that anymore, leave things to the imagination. And really, I think it is more powerful then seeing exactly what happened.
When I walked out of Batman Begins three years ago, I left feeling that it was totally awesome. This time, it was just as well made, as well acted, but it feels different. A critic I read called it The Empire Strikes Back to Batman Begins' Star Wars. There is still some optimism at the end, but not nearly as much as the first one. This one is good, just keep the darker thematic elements in mind when you see it.
1 comment:
As usual, I feel like I need to reserve my final judgment on The Dark Knight until I see it a second time. It definitely is a powerful film, well-crafted on many levels. Together with Batman Begins, it really seems to capture what I consider to be the essential Batman mythology, exploring themes of chaos and control, fear and justice. And finally (finally!) we have a Joker I can believe in.
My one criticism at this point would be that, like Spider-man 3, the scope of the film is rather large, which makes it awkward to keep the narrative focused. Even here, though, you have to admit they've done a masterful job managing the story they wanted to tell.
The ending made me think of The Empire Strikes Back, too. Things are resolved just enough to end the movie on, but it leaves you hoping for a more complete and satisfying victory sometime in the future.
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