Crime epic

Rating: 10/10 (20 July 2008)

The Dark Knight Even Martin Scorsese would be graced if he could include The Dark Knight into his long and glorious resume. The Dark Knight obviously turns out to be the only comic hero movie that pictured the sense of "epic" in my recent memory. As the premise for such a summer tent pole pic, the special effects are basically beyond great, with all the explosions, gunfights, carchasing and all other over-the-edge-of-the-chair scenes that will sincerely leave the audience completely stunned, giving out voices like "Wow"s and "Woo"s. But clearly, The Dark Knight is much more than that. Again, Christopher Nolan still didn't set a low bar for his story even after immersing into the mainstream movie production. From some indie-ish movies like following, Momento, Insomnia, to big names like Batman Begins and The Prestige, he always maintains a bar-setting level of the stories presented. Riveting as the story is, Chris unspooled all the correlations, webs, camouflages, undercurrents, feud, jealousy and other factors involved on the canvas. Seasoned movie audience like me still can't help but being awed time by time. Probably not as intricate as The Prestige, the story of The Dark Knight still embodies every criterion listed in testbook for a crime pic to sublimate to a crime epic. That being said, watching this movie, you feel like you are experiencing a comic version of The Godfather. Pity that I missed the golden age for H-wood classical film noir, but I feel lucky to have Chris Nolan to live in our era.
Good story needs good delivery, good delivery relies upon good performances. The performances in the movies are so intense, delicate, natural and fluent that you can not even find a single weak point in the chain. Undoubtfully, Heath Ledger is the cynosure that attracts most eyeballs and he did a perfect job, reincarnating the role of Joker seamlessly. The criminal mind can never be so vividly depicted on big screen. I don't mean to depreciate the performance of Jack Nicholson but Ledger's rendering of Batman's nemesis is simply captivating just like he has relived the Satan. While watching I can just feel the perception of cruelty, darkness, brutality and evil like kind of tangible semi-liquid oozing from his language, body movements or even just an appearance. The weird tone, whimsical complexion, devilish laughter profiled only one single word - evil. He has no sympathy towards anybody and what he wants is nothing but to reveal the darkest inmost of everyman. After watching this, Heath Ledger's tragical death is understandable because anybody who gets clung with such an evil spirit is facing unprecedentedly fierce internal fight with his normal self. I think he has probably secured a spot in best supporting actor nominations in the 81th Academy Award. Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent demonstrated perfectly the other acme of the triangle. The tragical and doomed transformation of him into the dark side actually pretty much sidenoted the revelation of inner darkness Joker predicted, boasted and anticipated. His deformed face is scary as hell. Chris Bale launches his career as a child star in SS's Empire of the Sun but his commercial value was first proved in Batman Begins. Now with series large titles of Terminators and Batman, Chris has been on board the express of career firing that includes RDJ, Ed Norton, Jake Gyllenhaal, James McAvoy and Clive Owen, originally Heath Ledger as well... The three excellent actors construct the force trident that couldn't be more polarized in a sort of delicate and dangerous balance. The star-studded cast of Maggie Gyllenhaal's Rachel, Gary Oldman's Gordon, Michael Caine's Alfred and Morgan Freeman's Mr. Fox make out an impeccable ensemble performance that we can do nothing about but admire.
Generally the movie of The Dark Knight transcended the boundary of common superhero flicks, but endowed the crime film thickness of epic. I'll be definitely watch anything Christopher Nolan makes in the future, even if only blue screen.
A+