The Dark Knight
Review by Todd Hertz | posted 7/18/2008
 1 of 3
The sequel to 2005's Batman Begins is the ideal summer blockbuster. It's got the hype, the explosions, and the mass pop-culture allure.
At the same time, The Dark Knight isn't a summer popcorn blockbuster. At least not entirely. Yes, it's loud, explosive, exciting, and fun. And yes, it possesses the kind of action set pieces that cause us to exclaim with that half-exhale, half-laugh that marks shock and awe. Under all that, though, lives an unnerving, serious, and ambitious crime drama about three good men with the courage to stand against evil—and how evil responds.
Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne and Batman
Once again, director Christopher Nolan takes the typical summer blockbuster and infuses it with complex storytelling, artful moviemaking, and thought-provoking depth.
The movie opens about a year after Batman's arrival in Gotham. It's a different city: crime is no longer dominant and fearless. Petty criminals rethink crimes when they spot the Bat-signal. Copycat (or copybat?) vigilantes fight crime with homemade costumes and guns. And law enforcement has grown bolder, especially the newly elected District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), a daring do-gooder whom the city calls the "white knight," and whom Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) thinks is the face of hope he's been waiting for to take over his war on crime. Together, with Lt. James Gordon (Gary Oldman), Batman and Dent create a triumvirate of justice to crush the criminal underworld.
And then the Joker (Heath Ledger) shows up. A terrorist of chaos, this loose cannon is bent on proving that everyone—especially Batman—is as deranged, primal, and ugly as he is. They just need a push. So, he starts pushing.
The late Heath Ledger as The Joker
There is hefty story material here. Can decent people walk in a land of indecency without being crushed, tainted, or turned? At what cost should good men fight evil? How do you stop a terrorist with no limits, no real motive, and no rules? If Batman Begins shows why a grown man would dress up like a bat, its sequel shows why that figure can't really be a white-hat hero—but something far darker.
This plotline makes for moodier, grittier fare than Batman Begins. It's as if Batman swooped into The Departed to clean up the riff-raff. The Dark Knight could also be compared to The Empire Strikes Back, a finely crafted sequel in which established characters are placed in ever-worsening circumstances to test their mettle—and not always with happy results. The film feels dangerous, risky, terrifying. Anything can happen. One marvelous scene of the Joker holding a knife inside a man's mouth is so nerve-wracking that some viewers may cringe or look away (I did). Nothing gory is shown, but the tension that this man could do anything creates more raw emotion than perhaps graphic violence ever could.
Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes
The success of that scene is evidence of the power of Ledger's performance. Since seeing the movie, I've been asked if it was strange seeing the deceased Ledger. But I didn't see Ledger here. He looks different. He moves different. He sounds different. The actor completely disappears into this bizarre, maniacal, and brilliant mastermind. He brings a devastating calm, a perverse self-delight, and an unhinged disconnect to this iconic character. Many of the Joker's scenes, especially one with Bale, have "new classic film moment" written all over them. And future lists of great movie villains will now have Ledger's name on them.
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