Chris Nolan and company taught us a lesson about how the foundation of the world we live in is constructed. And they did it with a Batman movie.

Rating: 10/10 (20 July 2008)

I'm just going to get this out of the way right off the bat (no pun intended), The Dark Knight is one of the best movies I have ever seen. It is on the level of The Lord of The Rings. It surpasses The Godfather Part II. It isn't just a great superhero movie, it's more than that. It's a great comedy, drama, action, horror, and a monster summer blockbuster. Just for a moment, let's look over the past 29 years that superhero films have been made and compare the better ones with The Dark Knight.
Superman The Movie? Garbage. Superman II? Garbage. Batman? Garbage. Batman Returns? Garbage. Spider-man? Garbage. Spider-man 2? Garbage. X-men 2? Garbage. Iron Man? Garbage.
Absolute and utter trash in comparison. And I love those movies.
Please understand, this movie cannot be oversold. And furthermore, it must be viewed multiple times to get the full impact of what is coming at you. The first time I saw it, it was overwhelming with everything that happens, it is simply a sensory overload, but having seen it again, and being able to concentrate better on what is going on with regards to the plot, I can without the slightest shadow of a doubt tell you that this is one of the few films that can be considered great art.
The Dark Knight makes a statement on the psyche of Western culture, and I am not talking about the "Post 9/11" comments some critics have been throwing out there. I am talking about the very fabric of what makes the Western mind and therefore, civilization, function. It is commentary on the dynamics of the human condition. This is the subject matter that philosophers spend their lives exploring and scholars spend their careers defining.
Director Chris Nolan doesn't care about making movies that are instantly forgettable. He wants to make movies that stick with you and this is what he has done with The Dark Knight. Clearly Batman Begins was just the setting to hold this crown jewel of a sequel. More to the point, this film barely resembles its predecessor. You know, George Washington had an older brother. The reason no one knows who he was is because his little brother was George Washington. That's the level of difference we have here.
You may want to know about the performances of the cast and to tell you the truth, when you have actors like Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, and Maggie Gylenhaal, it's kind of a stupid question. Of course they all play their roles to the best of the possibilities.
And then there is Ledger. Like I said earlier about the other superhero movies in comparison to The Dark Knight, so is the comparison between Ledger and his fellow actors. Ledger disappears into the Joker. There is no Ledger here, just pure unadulterated evil with a wicked sense of humor. From his various affectations in voice and movement to his use of misguided mentally ill individuals as his henchmen, there is no comparison. I'm not going to say that he should be in the running for an award, that should already be self-evident to anyone with a shred of intelligence.
The basic plot is that Batman (Bale), Gordon (Oldman), and Harvey Dent (Eckhart) are on a mission to get rid of organized crime and go to great, even illegal lengths to accomplish their goal. With the pressure really on, the mob turns to the Joker to kill Batman so they can be free to run their criminal enterprises. This sets up the confrontation between Batman and the Joker that eventually leads to Dent's downfall and transformation into Two-Face. This is all set against the backdrop of Gotham being terrorized by various attacks propagated by the Joker in an attempt to bring chaos to the city. The set pieces are fantastic. There is not a weak point in this film from start to finish. It is technically brilliant. But be aware that this is not a light-hearted movie. It is brutal, horrific and tragic. It does not have a happy ending, it simply has the ending that needs to happen. And that is where it takes its leave of typical superhero films.
The Dark Knight presents the reality of difficult choices that have to be made in order to preserve society and protect the innocent and even the not so-innocent. It strikes at the notions that separate good from evil in human nature and how we as people attempt to struggle with and compartmentalize them. We think there has to be a reason for evil, and there has to be a resolution with evil. The problem is that this is not always clear cut because even though there are the darkest and brightest times, there are also shades in between which will drive us in one direction or the other as we reason our way through catastrophe and crisis. In this film, Chris Nolan and company taught us a lesson about how the foundation of the world we live in is constructed.
And they did it with a Batman movie. Amazing.
5 stars