Dark Knight - Dark Movie

Rating: 8/10 (24 July 2008)

"Dark Knight" is an apt description of the movie. As in "Batman Begins," throughout the film the bad people seem thoroughly evil and the good people seem either barely able to do anything to fight evil or are on the verge of turning to the dark side. Only a few are thoroughly good - and hold to their morals (whatever they are) regardless of the circumstances. Batman himself decides to infringe upon freedoms a bit - justified by the good intentions, of course - and seems to think it is perfectly justifiable. Even Batman's rescues, saving the day and power-plays are filled with misunderstanding (i.e., many observing think he's one of the bad guys). The message: being good looks bad. Sorry - I don't like that message, nor do I buy it. But that is not the worst message of all (more later).
The movie is action-packed from beginning to end. It is clever and twisty; tons of sight-gags, insider stuff, entertaining (or at least interesting) quirkiness displayed by several of the characters, and contains an amazing array of perfect moments underscored by, well, an excellent musical score. I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through. Plenty to applaud. The bad guys betrayed each other, easily fell apart when truly challenged (for the most part), and created such sinister situations that the good guys were constantly forced to choose between two evils rather than simply prevail. The message: doing the best thing isn't always the same as doing the good thing. I don't like that message, either. Not to wax too political here, but even though I prefer one presidential candidate over the other, if the other guy wins I certainly won't think that the bad guys won, and if my guy wins I certainly won't think that he is simply the lesser of two evils. Maybe - just maybe - there is some good in the world; maybe there is LOTS of good in the world.
Back to Dark Knight: some of the actor choices were amazing, and some were less than wonderful. Maggie Gyllenhaal - I like her a lot! - was simply too old-looking for the part (she's only a year older than Katie Holmes, but she came across as ten years older). She would've been fine for the part had Katie Holmes not created certain expectations. Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent/Two Face was brilliant - he seemed thoroughly good, and yet there was always an air of mystery about him that hinted at his maniacal leanings that were manifest in the end of the film. Christian Bale was, once again, perfect for his role - mysterious, human, torn by mental and moral dilemmas, fragile, strong, and, perhaps best of all, clear about his motives, even if imperfect in his methods. Delicious.
But the best actor choice of all, as I'm sure many have already pointed out: Heath Ledger as Joker. At so many levels he was more than perfect. Taking a step back, it seems almost out-of-place to think of a less-than-thirty-year-old in a role where his counterparts are older - typically grandparent age. His character fit in beautifully - there was no apparent generation gap between him and the other hoodlums. However, seemingly single-handedly (which is impossible for what he pulled off, but his fellow colluders remained hidden) he was a diabolical genius. Not sure how much was Heath and how much was Joker - it was an AMAZING act. The Joker was both extremely intelligent and yet humorous. The message: doing really horrible things, even killing people, can be laughed at if the killer is entertaining. OK, maybe that's a method rather than a message; I have to admit, the combination of evil mixed with humor (or at least apparent mental illness) was highly entertaining. To me Heath Ledger's Joker is one of the archetypal actor/role combinations of all time, in the same vein as Johnny Dep/Jack Sparrow, Anthony Hopkins/Hannibal Lecter and Oprah Winfrey/Sofia - to name a few (sorry Jack Nicholson - you were replaced for this one).
The message I liked the least: You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become a villain. NO! I don 't like that one! And I don't believe it to be true (even if in the movie it was a self-fulfilling prophesy).
Yeah, it's a great flick - but it's dark.