Crime — actual crime — is something most of us don’t see. If you do it right, no one knows. So how can a film ever try to present a realistic account of this criminal underworld we hear about but never see? Quite simply, it can’t. (This, of course, may be a complete lie, but I’ll probably never know.) What it can do is use this line, this thin divide between law and disorder, to create characters so completely in opposition, so utterly crossed, that the world shakes around their conflict. And that’s just what Christopher Nolan does with “The Dark Knight.”
“The Dark Knight” is significant because it uses the larger-than-life comic book roots of the Batman persona to craft a sprawling conflict in the film world while somehow managing to make that world look familiar. This is in large part due to the film’s significant on-location shooting in the fair city of Chicago, which was kind enough to let the filmmakers blow up an out-of-commission candy factory for a scene in which the Joker assaults a Gotham City hospital. But this is a different kind of city — a city two stops under, a much darker place.
The film centers on a face-off between Batman (Christian Bale) and The Joker (Heath Ledger) for the future of Gotham City. Fighting for the city is Gotham’s white knight, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), whose ghastly fall and ultimate transformation into the murderous Two-Face makes him one of the most interesting characters in recent summer movies. Both of these villains bring something new to the table in terms of recent Hollywood output. The Joker, a cold-thinking rationalist with a fondness for pencil jokes, could teach a sociology seminar. Two-Face also gains depth and complexity in his latest manifestation. Unlike earlier installations of the franchise where, say, Mr. Freeze would have a gaggle of ice-skating hooligans act out his ridiculous will, Two-Face loses it all at one time, snapping and going on a murderous rampage in one night. He remains slightly believable, however, instead of absurd. Again, Nolan shows us a world not unlike our own. Sure, it’s exaggerated and stylized, but a careful choice by the filmmakers to employ practical effects instead of much-overused CGI offer an audience member the pleasure of sitting through an entertaining and marginally feasible film.
Of course, the Batman franchise depends upon its namesake and Bale does not fail to deliver. His husky “bat-voice” is always entertaining and the arrogance he infuses into the character of Bruce Wayne is gleaned straight out of his “American Psycho” role. Batman remains a character torn deeply in half by his self-imposed moral code: “Take no life while protecting the innocent.” Like a resonant frequency destroying a 1,000 ton bridge, The Joker supplies just the sort of antagonism Batman is not fit to handle: irrationality. He is the catalyst needed to launch Gotham into fits of crime and unkindness. With the fear of death at Batman’s hand removed, there is nothing to stop him from destroying the entire fabric of the city.
“The Dark Knight” is not a perfect film, but it is perhaps the best summer movie of the last decade. I applaud Hollywood for giving people something darker, something genuinely dangerous. If you’re mildly interested in this movie, you most likely saw it over the summer, but fear not — rumor says it’s playing in the Film Series next calendar. If so, come check it out.
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