Movie Review: The Dark Knight

When I left the theater to write this review, I knew this was going to be a hard job. With Titanic-level hype, The Dark Knight screams for a critic to poke holes in it. Unlike Iron Man, the summer’s other big comic-book movie, it rises above my expectations. Heath Ledger gives his best and final performance in the sequel to Batman Begins. The Dark Knight is an action movie that philosophizes without slowing itself down.

The Dark Knight, Batman (Christian Bale), has put a damper on crime. Most hoodlums are afraid to go out at night. Gotham City crime looks under control. However, a bank robber nicknamed The Joker (Heath Ledger) is gaining a reputation for daring heists. Batman doesn’t see him as a threat. That is until The Joker starts killing government officials and calls on Batman to reveal his identity. Bombs explode, people panic and blame their heroes who include Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and D.A Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). The Joker symbolizes a new type of villain who enjoys pushing the limits the heroes will go to catch him.

I hate to say it, but Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker is the best part of the movie. Thank the makeup artists for The Joker’s hideous clown makeup and facial scars. He elevates his character beyond a good comic book villain to a great movie villain. Ledger’s acting invokes deep pain even if the stories he tells of his past keep changing. The Joker ceases to be a grinning cartoon and returns to his noir roots as a serial killer who questions whether ideas like morality and order really exist.

The Dark Knight challenges the typical comic book plot. Seriously, how many comic book villains threaten to kill people for power or money? Almost all of them have a goal. The Joker’s simply wants to turn society insane and have loads of fun doing it. At one point he tells a hero, “I’ll show you that when the chips are down, these uh... civilized people, they'll eat each other.”

For that reason, The Joker’s a more dangerous arch villain than we’ve seen in comic-book movies because he attacks the heroes’ principles. He finds a tempting target in Harvey Dent, Gotham City’s “White Knight.” Even Batman believes in him. Without hiding behind a mask, He clears the police of bad cops and puts away hundreds of mobsters. A prideful lawman, Dent claims he makes his own luck. But his fear of failure grows more apparent with The Joker’s cruel games. Some of the heroes you care about are going to crack. Even Batman briefly considers hanging up his cowl.

Article Author: Kevin Gustafson

Kevin Gustafson earned his B.A in Film and Digital Media from the University of California Santa Cruz. Not surrendering his t-shirt and jeans just yet, he looks forward to hunting down bad movies and music and accidentally cutting down a few wrongly …

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