Ledger owns The Bat

Rating: 10/10 (4 August 2008)

In the world of Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight," Batman is to the Joker what Dirty Harry was to Scorpio. Like Eastwood's Harry Callahan, Bale's Batman isn't above smashing heads, cars, and civil rights, in his brute-force quest to bring justice to a lawless city; like Andy Robinson's psychopath, Ledger's gleefully nihilist Joker seems to enjoy having the stuffings beaten out of him almost as much as he delights in highjacking schoolbuses and committing murder, up close and personal.
I've never been a huge fan of comic book superheroes. The Green Lantern was pretty cool, however I generally prefer guns to super powers, and have always thought there was something a little ridiculous about a man in tights and a cape who flaps around the city, fighting crime. Which is why I was not a fan of the previous Batman movies. However, with "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight," director Christopher Nolan has attempted to free the character from the albatross of campy convention, reinventing Batman as a kind of urban ninja. The previous films were all about style over substance, whereas Nolan has re-imagined everything from the batsuit to the batmobile in a way that makes them seem more practical, functional, and--most important--more believable. There's a gritty reality about this Batman. He gets hurt and has to stitch himself up, Rambo-like. He gets bitten by dogs, fer Chrissakes! Moreover, his gadgets don't spring magically from thin air, but are the result of meticulous engineering on the part of Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), who is Batman's answer to Bond's "Q". In fact, the Nolan/Bale Batman has more in common with James Bond than he does with his own prior incarnations in film and print. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the dazzling "Operation Skyhook" scene.
With "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight," Nolan and his team have worked the minor miracle of making an utterly fantastic character seem plausible, which is no small accomplishment. In so doing, he has also brought a great deal more respectability to the genre. Truth be told, though, "The Dark Knight" isn't really a "genre" picture at all. Nolan goes about the film as if he's never seen a comic book before, the result of which is a breathtaking departure from every other superhero movie ever made. This isn't a superhero movie so much as it's a hyperkinetic crime thriller mixed with a psychological horror film: "Heat" meets "Silence of the Lambs," with a delicious dose of sly theatricality.
Everything about this film is exceptional, from the cinematography and visual effects to the fine acting and the snappy, intelligent script. But as anybody knows who has already seen it, Heath Ledger owns this movie the way Al Pacino owned "Scarface." Ledger's Joker is a self-described "agent of chaos," out to prove that people aren't worth saving in his own giddily vicious way. During one of several mesmerizing exchanges with Batman, the Joker explains that he's not a monster, he's just "ahead of the curve." Ledger's performance is an elliptical masterpiece of existential rage and sardonic wit, alternately ferocious and funny. The brief but brilliant scene of the Joker, dressed in an ill-fitting nurse's outfit, fiddling with a malfunctioning detonator, was clearly an audience favorite if the applause and laughter were any indication.
Can't say too much more about the film without spoiling it for those who haven't seen it. Suffice it to say, even if you're not a fan of superhero movies, "The Dark Knight" is what great movie-making is all about.
So, why so serious? Get out and see it! Let's put a *smile* on that face...