The Dark Knight - Review

Review
Much will be made of the late Heath Ledgers performance; “a towering performance”, “an icon”, “Oscar worthy” are some of the phrases being thrown about. So let’s get some things straight from the off...

Ledger’s performance is phenomenal, it is iconic, and it is – in my itsy-bitsy opinion – Oscar worthy. In many respects this is the Jokers movie; he steals every scene he’s in. He’s illogical, psychotic, brutal, ruthlessness but ultimately a genius, an anarchistic, charismatic and manipulative. In the words of Alfred, although some men will kill and steal for money or riches, “some men just want to watch the world burn.” Joker wants to watch, and he doesn’t care how close to the fire he stands.

Now that’s out of the way we can focus on the rest of the movie, although one could be forgiven for being mesmerised by the Joker, the Dark Knight as a whole doesn’t fail to live up to its villain, or the hype. When we meet our vigilante we realise that he thinks of Batman as a ‘man without limits’ but as Bruce’s scars warn him, he is no super-man.

When you come up against a man who doesn’t actually want anything, how do you beat him?

As the Dark Knight and the Joker exchange blows, the former asks in his husky voice what the Joker wants, the latter cackles – that infectious, crazy laugh – and replies with a simple “your identity”. But it’s not that simple, the Joker doesn’t really care who the Batman is, no, he just wants chaos. And the Joker knows that - with the citizens of Gotham City blaming our winged vigilante for the Jokers continued threats – “when the chips are down, these uh... civilized people, they'll eat each other.”

It could be argued that, actually, the Joker is more interested in Gotham’s White Knight – District Attorney Harvey Dent. Equally excellently conceived by Aaron Eckhart who’s character arc is – somehow – both brilliantly squeaky clean yet, ultimately, surprisingly sinister. The Joker wants to break down the walls and shed some darkness on Gotham’s chizzled-faced shining light.

The Batman isn’t as clean-cut good as Harvey; he’s sitting back as the Joker runs crazy, knowing that to stop it all he has to do is remove his mask – step into the light. But he’s not as insane as the Joker (but still a Freea-ak!), but Batman does share similarities; he’s hated by the city he protects because of the aforementioned failure to step forward, but he also has to let people die – for the greater good. This is what Batman is, who he is.

In between the billionaire-bat and the ethical lawyer (no, that’s not a paradox) is Rachael Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who is probably the poorest of our aforementioned quartet (Bruce, Dent and the Joker – the other three), fleeting between Bruce and Harvey with equal amounts of understanding. Although she claims to be a moral centre for our two Knights, her actions don’t really portray that. She walks into a fundraiser on Dents arm only to canoodle (no, you're not in a 1930s romantic movie) on the balcony with the billionaire mere minutes later. It was hard to like, and eventually sympathize with her eventual damsel in distress routine.

Ultimately this movie is about heroes and villains, and how – if you have a villain like the Joker, one without rules or a true motivation – the only way to defeat him is to fall down to his knees and fight in his world without rules. This opens you up to corruption, the question is: can Batman take it?

“You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain” - Dent

Batman was never the most powerful, or the fastest, or even the most stylish – but he was always the one who could make the tough decisions, the choices between a rock and a hard place, the decisions that are closer to morally-dark than white, or even grey.
This is the crux of the movie, along with Dents storyline, the driving force behind everything.

It’s also why Batman is not a hero; he’s a silent guardian, a watchful protector, a Dark Knight.

Verdict
It'll be hard to tear your eyes away from the movie, especially when Heath enters the scene; whether cackling with laughter or performing tricks with pencils. Hopefully, people will be able to see past the Joker and into the eyes of this film for what it truly is; an action thriller that swaps its heroes and villains around as smoothly as Michael Flatley switches feet. Its only downfall is the questionable morality of Rachael and the films epic (2hrs 40mins) sit-in, but stick with it and you will reap the rewards.

5/5