The Dark Knight lives up to the hype

In theaters Friday: Step Brothers, The X-Files: I Want to Believe

New on DVD: 21

By the time you read this The Dark Knight will be well on its way to becoming one of the biggest earning movies of all time, and I’ll tell you why. Ten minutes into the film The Joker announces his “magic trick,” making a pencil disappear, and then pulls it off in a stunning fashion. The people at my sold-out midnight showing gasped then cheered. This is when The Dark Knight grabbed me by the throat and never let go. Like some people, I read tons of reviews and movie blogs, so I’m usually neck-deep in hype if there is hype to be had. Because of the stellar reviews of 2005’s Batman Begins, because of the trailers that introduced an inexplicably brilliant, feral take on The Joker, and because of the tragic death of a promising young actor in his prime, The Dark Knight was the most hyped film of the year without question. And I can honestly say it is the first film I’ve ever seen that was overhyped, yet managed to live up to it in every single sense: phenomenal character development, thought-provoking dialogue, a brave visual range, pulse-pounding action, a gripping musical score and still plenty of surprises. The Dark Knight didn’t leave me hanging. At 2-and-a-half hours, it didn’t even leave me wanting more. It just left me satisfied and blissful in its wake. That’s saying a lot for a film this tragic and morose. And so is this: Days later, I still can’t get it out of my mind.

The opening sequence introduces the genius of The Joker with a perfectly timed heist, where he makes off with millions of the mob’s money. This sequence also introduces a new Christopher Nolan. The director’s wide-set, roving IMAX cameras sweep over the city and offer gorgeous floor-to-ceiling views of the bank. It’s an action sequence that visually tops anything in Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight has just begun.

After the bank heist, we are reintroduced to Batman, who has a scuffle with Scarecrow and a couple of Batman-wannabes, homemade vigilantes dressed in cobbled-together costumes who try to thwart crimes on their own. “What makes us so different from you?” one asks Batman. It’s a fair question. Based on Batman Begins, one could wisely answer: Bruce Wayne is a billionaire and knows jujitsu — that’s the difference. “I’m not wearing hockey pads” is his pithy response, but it rings hollow because Bruce knows that Batman is a temporary solution for himself and for Gotham City. He can’t go on a vigilante forever, nor should he.

This sets up the philosophical chasm between Batman and his archenemy, The Joker, who tells him face-to-face, “To them, you’re just a freak like me.” See, Bruce is an idealist and thinks Batman can strike fear in enough criminals and inspire hope in enough citizens to transform his city into a sanctuary of human flourishing. The Joker is an anarchist and believes that “when the chips are down,” as he says, everyone is selfish and corruptible, that at the heart of everyone is a heart wounded like his own, a heart of darkness. And The Joker does get the people’s chips down, triggering a reign of terror on the entire city one murder at a time. It’s up to Batman and Lt. Jim Gordon to stop him.

Thankfully, those two are joined by a new district attorney named Harvey Dent. He is a charismatic cowboy of a lawman, and the first person Bruce Wayne meets who is as pissed off about the crime rate as he is. Dent is referred to a few times as the city’s “White Knight,” and Bruce buys into it, too. He sees Dent as the legitimate face of justice, the successor of Batman and his out-clause to hang up the cape. See, at the beginning of The Dark Knight Bruce no longer wants to be Batman. He wants to be Bruce so he can have a real relationship with Rachel, who just happens to be dating Dent (apparently there are no rules against co-worker relations at the Gotham D.A. Office). But by the end of the film he is not only accepting the mantle willingly, he is doing it against great odds and at great personal sacrifice. There’s never been a more fulfilling story arc for the title character in any Batman movie, ever.

I don’t want to spoil you with plot details for those who haven’t seen it yet, so, let’s move on to the cast.

I love, love, love that Gary Oldman has a larger role this time out as Lt. Gordon. Opposite of some of the manic and bizarre characters Oldman has made infamous, he plays Gordon straight, and I dig it. He’s like Roy Scheider’s Chief Brody in Jaws, a normal guy in a town gone mad. If Batman didn’t exist I would still see a movie about Gordon fighting crime and enjoy every minute. Similarly, Michael Caine as Bruce’s sage butler, Alfred, and Morgan Freeman as Bruce’s gadget guru, Lucius Fox, are better than ever in their roles as the guys behind the guy, the unsung heroes of “Team Batman” who make Bruce Wayne a better man and a better hero. Anytime you can have Caine, Freeman and Oldman as your supporting cast, you are setting the curve.

Subbing for Katie Holmes is Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes. She’s a major upgrade, playing the assistant D.A. with more sass, range and believability than Holmes brought to the table three years ago with an often cold and wooden performance. Her chemistry with Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent is evident with every line and look. Eckhart was a B-list actor for years before breaking out in the lead role for Thank You For Smoking. Going from a crusading idealist as Dent to someone who loses all hope as Two-Face, his arc is a tragic one and becomes the emotional backbone of this epic narrative.

What’s frustrating is that Dent, Gordon and Batman make a remarkable team. If only it lasted. Christian Bale returns as Batman, playing him as a disillusioned hero constantly tempted to go too far in his war on crime. How much power should Batman have? How much can individual liberties (and bodies) be sacrificed in the name of the “greater good?” Bale wrestles with these questions throughout. He is a fallible Batman. We see his cuts and bruises. We see him wince. We see him fall asleep in the middle of a Wayne Enterprises board meeting. He would probably make some poor decisions without timely advice from Alfred.

Now, what you’ve all been waiting for, how was Heath Ledger as The Joker? Let me put it this way: If Javier Bardem can win an Oscar for playing a largely silent, one-note Terminator in No Country for Old Men, surely Ledger can at least be nominated for this magnetic performance. I challenge you to name one weak scene in which Ledger appears. Seriously. If he’s on screen, it is absolutely riveting. His voice changes octaves like his altering mood, and every slinky, canine movement, every slow blink and lick of his scarred lips is intentional and effective. His character shows no seams at all. So good is this performance it invades scenes Ledger’s not even in. His psychotic ticks and head-thumping dialogue seep into every subplot of the film until they are all drowned with anxiety and tension.

And don’t worry about watching it and feeling awkward or down because Ledger is dead — just feel awkward about how much a psychopath makes you laugh. See, that’s not Ledger up on the screen. His performance is all Joker, any vestige of the late actor having been wiped away by the consummate portrayal of the Bat-villain as the consummate anarchist. “It’s not about money,” he tells gangsters while setting fire to a mountain of cash. “It’s about sending a message: Everything burns.”

Ledger’s Joker not only challenges authority, he challenges our reaction and our submission to it. He is against any system or human construction that blinds us to what, in his view, we really are. And no offense, Jack, but compared to this performance, your Joker just seems silly.

So, is The Dark Knight a perfect film? Well, no. The Hong Kong sequence is too lengthy, and I would have liked Nolan’s camera to linger just a few seconds longer on some shots. As it is, he may have sensed pressure to cut down on the run time so the film cuts at a rapid pace from scene to scene. Hitched to a bone-rattling score by James Howard and Hans Zimmer, The Dark Knight is startlingly breathless, a great thrill ride for sure, but a few more moments of quiet pause could have been useful, especially given Wally Pfister’s skilled cinematography.

The bottom line is this is a crime drama of the highest order, and one that leaves some icons of the comic books and Batman Begins — things like Arkham Asylum, The Narrows, and even Wayne Manor—by the wayside. Bruce has temporarily relocated to a posh downtown penthouse. Instead, Nolan has further thrust this Batman into our world. He, and his co-writer brother, Jonathan, not only offer us a darker, more thrilling superhero movie here, they ask questions and plunge the philosophical depths far better than their more pretentious contemporaries.

The Dark Knight is about consequences, and by the end of the film, every major character is either dead or perpetuating a lie that will most likely come back to haunt them. And that’s just the good guys. Heroism versus terrorism, the nature of sacrifice, prejudice, power and fear, and the responsibilities of government and law enforcement — it’s all there. And it’s all wrapped in a conversely touching, maddening and action-packed film that contains the final complete performance of a gifted actor who has created one of the greatest screen villains of all time.