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Batman For Adults?
This is not your Dad�s Batman. Not in the least bit. If Batman Begins relaunched the franchise in a more mature and dark direction distancing it from the camp of days past, The Dark Knight took the franchise straight through the stratosphere. Whereby summer blockbusters (or blockbusters in general for that matter) always seem to be light on any sort of gravity or character, The Dark Knight was darker than anything you will see on screen whether it be indie or studio and had characters that were surprisingly rich for a movie about a grown man that dresses up like a bat.
The Dark Knight shouldn�t be thought of as a comic book movie. It really should be looked at as if it were a crime epic. There have been comparisons to The Godfather that I find to be rather absurd. As wonderful as The Dark Knight is, The Godfather it is not. That isn�t a bad thing. There really can be only one Godfather (oh wait there actually were two when we forget that the third one ever existed). As of now though, The Dark Knight is the new standard for what to strive for when making a summer blockbuster. This is the film that happens when a studio hires a visionary director and lets him make his vision without compromise. It is a film that gives us hope that in the future we will see properties treated with respect and studios backing away from projects with a sizeable budget and a vision that may be dark and �uncommercial�. I think what The Dark Knight has shown us is that if you make a quality project people will come out and see it in droves. It doesn�t matter how dark it is or how disturbing. Good films find audiences eventually. Great films seem to break box office records every day (basically, The Dark Knight has broken a box office record every single day in release).
The best way to look at this film is to compare it to a Film Noir, the mostly post war American genre that showed a darkness in the minds of a country that just watched a world lose millions of its citizens and countries crumble. The most prominent character in The Dark Knight is the city of Gotham. A city on the verge of collapse from corruption and paranoia, decadence and fear. Gotham is a broken city that looks upon 2 men for hope, the titular Batman as well as up and coming seemingly incorruptible District Attorney, Harvey Dent (played spectacularly by Aaron Eckhart). It is this seeming incorruptibility of Harvey Dent that makes him the central character (in a human sense that is). Gotham needs their white knight. They need someone they can look up to as an example that crime can be stopped and there are heroes among them� heroes that don�t dress up like a bat.
The Joker (Heath Ledger) is the exact foil to that. It seems as though he exists instill the corruption and anarchy of his mind upon Gotham. To the Joker, no one can ever be a white knight. Eventually, everyone / thing will fall. The Joker wants to prove that the world is as twisted as he is. Therefore, by attempting to spoil Gotham�s white knight he can spoil Gotham. The Joker proves the point that a film is only as good as its villain. Based on that statement, The Dark Knight is truly a marvel. The Joker is a rich character with a backstory wisely left to our imaginations. It is truly amazing that Nolan and Ledger could create this interesting and twisted of a character from source material that is downright silly. Beyond that, ample has been written about Heath Ledger�s performance so I will just leave it with one adjective� FIERCE!!!
As far as the other characters go, Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman again shows us why he is one of the few interesting actors working today. The change to Commissioner Gordon�s (Gary Oldman) character from a bumbling chubby cop in the comics to the one straight cop in the force was a wise one. Michael Caine again proves to be the perfect Alfred and Morgan Freeman does his job well.
The one thing that keeps this from being a true Film Noir is the lack of a Femme Fatale. Maggie Gyllenhaal takes over for current prisoner of Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, in the role of Rachel Dawes. Rachel is Bruce Wayne�s heart. His passion. His soul. She isn�t Batman�s though. Batman will do what is important for the good of Gotham, not of his alter ego Bruce Wayne. Maggie does a commendable job with a role that is really underwritten. It merely exists as I mentioned above, to show how Bruce and Batman differ. What drives him and what is ultimately most important.
The Dark Knight is the rare blockbuster. It is almost perfect as a film and is risky in execution. Nolan and company deserve all the rewards this movie shall reap them.
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