And Here...We...Go!

Rating: 7/10 (19 July 2008)

Three years after virtuoso thriller director Christopher Nolan resurrected one of cinema's great conflicted heroes, he returns with a dark and brooding vision of corruption more cynical than anything in Wilder or Welles. In a genre-transcending meditation on the nature of evil and it's prevalence in society, Nolan, and his terrific cast led by Christian Bale and the late Heath Ledger, has crafted something more than a comic book film, more than a crime chronicle; he has produced for our viewing pleasure a great modern tragedy.
Reprising his role as the Caped Crusader is the irreplaceable Bale, estranged from his namesake corporation and famed mansion, still stalking the night. The rising prominence of lion-hearted district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) has eased his load as Gotham's silent guardian, promising a blindingly bright future as the city's infamous crime organizations are ravaged by a seemingly harmless radar-blip villain known only as the 'Joker.' This infectiously charismatic, godless menace is portrayed by Heath Ledger, and it is the most viscous, hauntingly villainous performance I have yet seen on screen. Unmotivated by money, sex or power, the Joker simply wants to "watch the world burn." He is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a green vest, a wholly original caricature of evil more fully realized than any so-called 'bad guy' to grace the screen in years.
The air-tight tension and frenzied, yet occasionally contemplative pacing of Nolan"s 152- minute opus allows for little time to think. Nolan ensures that his audience reacts instinctually to the drama without allowing time for analysis. It is a whirlwind of a cinematic experience that intends for the audience to appreciate every moment of the film; in other words, watch now, digest later. The film traverses nimbly from disaster to death, not bothering to wait for us to catch up.
Unlike lauded crime films such as "Heat," "The Departed," and "The Untouchables," which it has on many occasions been compared to, "The Dark Knight" has ideals, revolutionary, even controversial ideals that separate it from even the most ambitious comic book fare. Nolan, the film's composer, imagines an irreparably corrupt society without hope; absence of innocence and honesty as elements of the human condition; and the banishment of heroes as the only means judicial satisfaction in world too afraid to face itself. And in these criminal parables lies a message that is unavoidably political. Can one help but compare Harvey Dent, the 'white knight' with the potential to rid a crime-ridden city of violence once and for all, to Barack Obama, the youthful, saving grace of American politics primed to cleanse the White House of a most unforgettable reign? It is in these ideals that "The Dark Knight" transcends it's genre, evolving from a slab top-notch entertainment to an indisputable masterpiece.
Bale is great as ever, as are Gary Oldman in a significantly beefier role as Lieutenant James Gordon and Michael Caine as the wise old fountain of wisdom. Eckhart is sensational as Harvey Dent in a multi-faceted performance that leaves Tommy Lee Jones' incarnation of Two-Face in the dust. And then there's Heath Ledger, in perhaps the greatest swan song in the lore of cinema. Indeed, his Joker will undoubtedly come to be known as one of the greatest villains in film history. That disorienting, surreal powdery-rouge makeup blended with Ledger's inimitable affect paint a portrait of a villain unlike anything that I myself have ever seen, a hollow soul that we try desperately to identify with until the film's final frame. Ledger virtually owns the film from it's commencement to it's credits; by film's end he is a larger-than-life persona amplified one thousand times by the tragedy millions have yet to recover from. Watching Ledger, one can't help but wonder what could have been, yet we can take comfort in the fact that his last performance was the role of a lifetime.
Arguably Nolan's greatest achievement to date, "The Dark Knight" will not merely settle for being the glory of being one of the greatest comic book adaptations. It's an overwhelming work of art with the gravitas of a Greek tragedy and the technical prowess of one of the medium's great modern works. Quite simply, it's one of the greatest movies of our time.